#and one of the others he’s recommended is chainsaw man which I was thinking about watching anyway

[sluttyten]

one of my coworkers is single-handedly dragging me into watching anime 😂

[sugar-grigri]

Fujimoto answers you directly in this chapter (yes)

How about reading CSM differently? Or at least cut it up differently? Because the more the chapters progress, the more a certain pattern seems to repeat itself: Part 1 sounds as if Fujimoto is unveiling CSM in its purest form, then Part 2 sounds as if CSM is responding to its own reception by its fans. 

I've already said many times that Fujimoto likes contrast in form and in writing, and this chapter, though brain-numbing, simply follows Fujimoto's own rules, only in an even more accentuated way. 

To prove my point, I recommend you reread chapter 133 "Protest", which for me speaks directly to the divisive image represented by Fujimoto and his work Chainsaw Man. 

I've already done an exhaustive analysis of it, but let's get one thing out of the way: Fujimoto answers his fans in part 2. 

Whether it's by posing a heroine who seems incompatible with Denji, hating the figure of CSM which is nonetheless the work in which she's included, whether it's through the themes addressed by part 2, the question of dual identity, creating antagonists like Fake!CSM, setting up a church (us) around CSM 

We're in a work that speaks for itself, as chapter 137 confirms, and for this very rule, we refer to the previous chapters (an eternal restart).

Chapter 136, entitled "Normal Life", refers to a more-than-CENTRAL theme in Chainsaw Man, the nerve that irrigated the whole of Part 1 Denji's disillusionment, a bargaining chip for the former antagonist, Fujimoto takes his fans by the hand and puts them back into the game they know. 

We see what we'd all expected to see, a Denji who doesn't know how to fit into normal life, who's not cut out for 

In my previous analysis, I explained how not only is Denji incapable of having a normal life, not only because of himself but also because of Yoshida, who offers him this life, and above all because of Fujimoto, who abruptly breaks the rhythm of his own chapter with this aggression, frustrating (I'm sure on purpose) his own fans. 

What Fujimoto does is make you think you were reading in the right direction, showing you a Denji depressed by his normal life, and like a child amused by not wanting to be predictable, he breaks what would otherwise have been a logical thing to see. I mean… Who could have foreseen such a title?

Chapter 137 simply follows the same logic: Fujimoto has foreseen your frustrated reactions and knows full well that you've become attached to Denji, hoping that he'll break out of the cycle of manipulation. 

He plays you in this chapter by setting up a confident, emotionally well-adjusted Denji who pushes this stranger away, reminding her of the rules of respect and consent. 

It's not just Denji's thoughts, the way he would have liked to act, it's also the way YOU would have liked him to act. 

Now I can explain why these chapters, which break with the previous ones in their absurdity, are surely the most important in CSM. 

Many had pointed to the famous cinema reference in chapter 136, others had even noted that chapter 136 constituted chapter 39 of part 2, responding to Makima's date with Denji in part 1 in the same chapter. 

But chapter 39 of part 1 wasn't just interesting for the cinema scene, it was the one that set the rules for understanding CSM. 

In fact, it was this chapter to which chapter 93 responded, with Denji's ideology (in favor of bad movies) confronting Makima (against bad movies).

In the same way, the second chapter 39 (the 136th) also seeks to lay down rules

Chapters 136 and 137 have never been more responsive to CSM fans, stubbornly denying them what they want. 

What Fujimoto does is to return to cinema in its purest form in the second half, using the codes of the middle-aged male slasher. 

That's why the two high-school students go to Fujimoto's karaoke bar, because you're going to find yourself in its purest essence: having fun with the utmost absurdity. 

It's no longer a question of representing cinema, as in the two chapters 39, but of making cinema.

But why a slasher? Think of the mythical slashers that traumatized a generation… Yes… The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a work that has achieved cult status for having opened the door to a new trend in American horror cinema: the slasher movie. Nothing represents a slasher movie more than a chainsaw-headed hero?

Inspired by the Italian "giallos", slasher movies feature a masked killer, a gang of youngsters and the killings of the serial killer in question. Fujimoto takes up this theme in his own way: Denji doesn't kill with his iconic chainsaw, he's not masked, and it's the young couple who hold the beats and the shady men who get killed.

If we go back to the depression we all expected to see, it's actually more complicated to understand: Denji's depression at being trapped in a type of writing that's too serious for him. 

Here Denji follows the rules of the game, enjoying himself by killing all those old people, saying ironically: "not bad this normal life". 

Because this scene is perfectly normal in Fujimoto's karaoke.  

In itself, Yoshida was right. Indeed, no, Denji is not the hero of the normal film that was unfolding before them. Because they're not in normal life, it's projected onto the screen. CSM's reality is an absurd slasher. It is in this slasher, in this false normal life, that the protagonist, Denji, is.

Denji is the protagonist of another film. And maybe in this one, the world needs Chaisaw Man.

[wyllaztopia]

You mentioned that if we know Denji’s characterization of Killer and Killer’s original backstory that we should understand why he’s so touch starved and has such a messed up definition of love. Is there any way you could tell me who Denji is?? I’m very curious now lol

Denji is a character from Chainsaw Man. I recommend you read the manga or watch the anime - though just the anime alone won't grasp the inspiration I derived from the character into Killer.

I also took inspiration from Gojo Satoru (Jujutsu Kaisen) but more so from his younger self more than the present Gojo.

(These are just drawn for the sake of meme-ing, not actually AG Killer's design)

Further down is explanation and slight spoilers. I don't talk much about it since I want most information to be a slow burn reveal for the characters, as if the audience is getting to know the AGDT cast in real time. (I am a sucker for narratives where it keeps you wanting to psycho-analyze a character rather than revealing everything upfront.)

Starting off with Denji, he's a teen boy who suffered through poverty and taken advantage of for labor just because he's willing to do anything just to get by in life. He's a boy who will do anything to live a normal teen life without having to worry about if he'll die from starvation. Along the story of CSM, he's been treated poorly due to how easily he can be manipulated - he literally has no idea of his own rights as a person. He's also very emotionally unaware because he's lived all alone his life except for a friendly devil named Pochita, who gave his heart to Denji so he can live and become chainsaw man to protect himself. Again, this is just a rough summary I made of Denji's character and I can't exactly explain it here! I recommend watching character analysis video that can further explain him or- you can also check at the original source (manga or anime) yourself which I believe will be worth it since CSM is such a good story.

In AGDT, I suppose you can consider Chara as Killer's Pochita, but in a more unhealthy / partners in crime way. I'll leave that up for the future to explore since at the moment, that's not what I want AGDT to focus on.

As for young Gojo, he's also complicated. He believes himself to be invincible and he can rub off as cocky most of the time. In the story, he holds no compassion or positive feelings for people who are weak - which is essentially everyone for him since he views himself as the strongest. This changed for a while when he was tasked to protect someone - he grew fond of them. However, later on this care disappeared when he perfected a technique - his feeling of pride for himself was stronger than his care for the person he was meant to protect. Gojo is usually nonchalant and playful, also emotionally unaware most of the time as he only thinks about himself (and a fellow 'strongest one' ahem, Geto but that's something I'll ramble for another day). However, he does go absolutely crazy when he's in intense fights since he's absolutely determined to win out of pride.

I would love to talk about what else Killer takes from Gojo but I'd feel like I'd be spoiling everything so I'll leave it for another time to talk about or explore.

There's other medias I took inspiration from for other parts of AG Killer but again, it's a subject to navigate around another time.

I hope this gave some insight on how this variant of Killer is and I hope you enjoyed reading through it!

[arkus-rhapsode]

Manga Recommendation: Tower Dungeon

So looks like Arkus Rhapsode is here to recommend another fantasy manga after the last one. So this time we're going for a bit of a different flavor with the series Tower Dungeon by by Tsutomu Nihei who you may know as the creator of Blame! and Knights of Sidonia.

Now I've known about this series for a bit even though it is relatively new. Having only started last year in Monthly Shonen Sirius. But I remember its announcement from people like Manga Mogul and hearing Makoto Yukimura (Author of the incredible Vinland Saga) recommending it. Now I always loved Sword and sorcery so I was gonna read it eventually, but it just wasn't translated. However, now being able to read the available chapters, I can say this is a very different type of fantasy series.

The premise is very basic: An evil sorcerer has killed a nation's king and kidnapped a Princess and now the royal knights need to ascend the "Dragon Tower" to save her. One battalion has conscripted a young man named Yuva for assisting troops medically has found he has impressive strength. Now Yuva must strengthen himself for the journey ahead as they explore the deadly tower.

Now like all simple premise stories, the real strength is in execution. And unlike the other fantasy series I've talked about before which have bucked the trend of "RPG fantasy" be leaning more into a traditionalist fantasy stories a la Tolkien, this goes for the more realist fantasy of something like Berserk or Dark Souls.

The world of Tower Dungeon may have things like magic and dragons, but it is a dingy, dirty, and lacks any frills. Knights wear heavy armor and people are covered in blood and scars from their adventures.

The mighty Dragon Tower itself? The most iconic thing about this series and the basis of the adventure? Looks like this. This isn't an opulent tower, this is a massive imposing structure where monsters dwell.

However, unlike some grim dark or edgy fantasies, this world isn't indulgent in its darkness. The violence and death are never cool or cheap. They are simply the way the world is. Even when magic exists, the world is still like Medieval Europe and all the "joys" that come from it.

The people as well are similar. These aren't romanticized or polished fantasy archetypes that often come with the idea of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure, these feel like average joes plucked off the streets having to do a job. If you are say a fan of something like Chainsaw Man, this sort of post modern emphasis on people acting like regular weirdos and not some "anime characters." And I think that is something quite nice that even in a fantastical world, we can see our regular selves in them.

But that's just the story, what about the art? Well if you've noticed this series does have a very minimalist style. Something similar to that of Land of the Lustrous or Chainsaw Man. These almost scratchy and not the most detailed designs that make use of their simplicity to create this very unique atmosphere.

Creature designs themselves are less fantastical and more grody. Feeling as if they come from an off shoot of man rather than some majestic beast. Right down to the cat people.

This series is still new and sadly hasn't been officially translated yet. I've had to use mangadex to read this, so my heart goes out to the translator team. I can understand that this may be a niche that's not for everyone, but its something that feels like such a good sign for fantasy as a genre. A genre that I think has somewhat been stagnated in popular belief with the greater emphasis on Urban Action manga and the reliance on escapist fantasy anime like isekai. To see a more dirty but down to earth take on the premise, I highly recommend it.

[bibibbon]

Do you think bnha treats the male victims of abuse narritavely worse than the female victims? (sorry if this sounds like I'm pitting them against each other or invalidating the female abuse victims in the story)

I've been reading your metas on how Horikoshi mistreats Deku in the narrative by sweeping Bakugo's bullying under the rug and meta posts by other fans dissatisfied with the way Dabi and the Todofam abuse as a whole was handled and I started recalling discussions on twitter how Denji from Chainsaw Man is a male victim of abuse, whose abuse is taken seriously by the manga and the mangaka, but not by most fans.

No absolutely not. I think MHA treats both of it's male and female abuse victims horribly. I have never viewed it to be something about gender it's just that horikoshi doesn't know how to handle abuse victims character whether thd abuser be a character he likes or hates.

Now I guess I can kind of see where this idea is coming from because the series itself shows us more abused male victims than female ones so there's definitely something there but even the female victims like toga, Rei himura or Eri aren't treated any better.

I remember getting ask that literally made me have a morbid realisation and it stated that Dabi ended up just like how Rei was in the beginning of the series. Also Rei never actually gets to escape her abuser either. She is still stuck as enjis caretaker and that's honestly tragic.

Toga's abuse is actually given the attention it deserves so she is probably the only character whose done a bit of justice in that area.

Eri still ends up getting hurt and used whether she is with the heroes or overhaul. The girl literally mutilated herself to make herself useful for her quirk to be used and you get the jist of it. This isn't a good look at all especially if you look at her history.

Now there are a lot male victims who have been abused like izuku, Dabi, shoto, hawks etc. Now these characters have much more screentime than the female characters but never actually get that part of their character focus on or they don't even bring it up so this just ends up making their characters feel so one dimensional and makes them badly written.

I honestly recommend you read @sapphic-agent post on bakugo and izukus relationship or her other posts about bakugo in general which are great in my opinion.

When it comes to chainsaw man fujimoto consistently recognises the abuse that denji goes through and (even though I haven't read csm) makes it clear that this isn't normal. It's usually the male audience that end up brushing denjis abuse or trauma to the side for example I have seen multiple posts talking about how what himeno did to denji wasnt a big deal or how makima never groomed denji.

Denji's character somewhat reminds me of hector from castlevania and how some fans would say that Lenore and Camilla did nothing wrong or that they never exploited/abused him.

[duhragonball]

Chainsaw Man ch.1-4

Put the kids to bed, lock your doors, and grease your sprocket bearings, because July 31 was yesterday and that means it's

That's right, it's finally time to liveblog that popular manga series by Tatsuki Fujimoto, His and Her Circumstances. No, wait! I keep forgetting the name of this thing. Sorry. No, we're actually going to spend this month covering Chainsaw Man.

To be honest, I don't actually know a whole lot about this thing, except that it stars a man with chainsaws for his hands and face. And there's this spooky hot lady in it. That's... yeah, that's about it. Does his dick turn into a chainsaw too? Is the spooky hot lady underage? Well, I learned a long time ago that I'll never get a straight answer unless I read the thing for myself.

This was actually a recommendation from @rakruined way back in 2021. It's taken me this long to get to it, but suffice to say the internet buzz for this thing got my attention. I've seen cosplayers, discourse, reblogs of popular scenes, but none of it really makes much sense beyond "These are characters from a popular manga". So let's dive in and see if I can't form my own opinions.

I'm only planning to cover the first 97 chapters, because my understanding is that this was the first part of CSM and the second part is still ongoing. Also, I only set aside a month for this, and I doubt I can cover much more than a hundred manga chapters in that time. If this goes well, we might look into the rest of CSM in the future.

Now, before we get too deep in the weeds, I think we need to establish one thing up front. This is a completely new series for me, and I know nothing about this Tatsuki Fujimoto. It's all well and good to write a manga about chainsaws, but is he just doing this for a quick paycheck? Is he riding the wave of chainsaw hype? I guess what I'm asking is: Does he even like chainsaws? Or is he some phony?

Okay then. I think we can do business here.

So this story is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Denji, who is deep in debt. To pay it down, he sold one of his eyes, a testicle, and some other organs. He cuts trees for a living. Also he hunts devils, since there seems to be a lot of money to be made in that line of work. Unfortunately, it might still take a livetime to pay back what he owes, and he's stuck living in abject poverty until he does.

In one scene, Denji eats a cigarette for some spare cash, which he uses to buy enough bread to eat one slice a day. He's heard people put jam on their bread, but he can't even afford this.

Denji's only friend is a devil named Pochita. Shortly after Denji's father died and the Yakuza threatened to kill Denji unless he repaid a bunch of his dad's debt, Pochita wandered up to the gravesite. Denji resigned himself to debt, but noticed Pochita was injured, so he allowed Pochita to bite him, since human blood is supposed to help devil's regenerate their bodies. Denji called this a contract, where they would help each other survive. And with Pochita's help, Denji hired himself out to the Yakuza as a Devil Hunter to pay his debts.

But this not-so-cozy arrangement doesn't last. One night the gang takes Denji to some spooky lair to take down a devil, but they reveal it was a trap. The gang tried to make a deal with this devil for greater power, except this devil's power turns humans into zombie slaves, so it's not much of a bargain. Anyway, this devil sics his army on Denji and they chop him and Pochita to bits.

Huh. Well, it was pretty short, but the art was nice. I wonder if that lady was from some other series... Oh wait, we're not done.

At some point during their friendship, Denji told Pochita that if he ever died while Devil hunting, then he wanted Pochita to merge with his body. Or something like that. Denji only knows that devils can do that sort of thing, and Denji's proposing this because he thinks Pochita would be able to survive on his own more easily this way. So when the bad guys dump their remains in a dumpster, Pochita begins putting all their pieces together.

Denji wakes up to discover his wounds are healed. He even has his right eye back, and presumably that one testicle he sold. Also he's got pull cord sticking out of his chest, similar to the one Pochita had for a tail. In some sort of dream or hallucination, Pochita tells him that this is another contract between them. He'll be Denji's heart, and in return Denji will go on sharing his dreams with Pochita, because Pochita always enjoyed listening to Denji's dreams of a better life.

But the devil who killed Denji is still there, and he's pissed that Denji somehow survived. It occurs to him that the mobsters were just like him, even though they had a lot more money and power. They had aspirations for more, which led them to dealing with the devil who made them zombies.

But they clearly followed their ambitions to a bad end. Denji pulls the cord on his chest and turns into some sort of man-like creature with chainsaws coming out of him. A "chainsaw man", if you will. At first the devil thinks that means Denji is on his side, but Denji still considers himself a Devil Hunter, and killing all of these guys will wipe out his debt. I don't know if he means the payout for this caper will clear the debt, or if he thinks killing all these Yazuka-zombies will wipe the slate clean. Maybe both.

When the slaughter is finished, he changes back to normal, and is discovered by a different group of Devil Hunters. Led by Makima, these guys are with "Public Safety", so I assume they're a government agency, as opposed to civilian devil hunters like Denji.

Makima senses that Denji is somehow both human and devil, so she gives him a choice: Either she kills him as a devil, he can serve her organization as a human. She refers to him like a pet, which Denji seems to accept readily, because all he wants right now is food. She promises him bread with jam, and some other stuff, but honestly, she had him at "bread with jam."

True to her word, Makima takes Denji out for a meal, but before he can eat, a civilian shows up talking about a devil who abducted daughter. Makima doesn't want her noodles to get soggy, so she tells Denji to handle this alone.

Aren't noodles... supposed to be soggy? Like, the idea is to soak them in boiling water to make them soft. How much wetter can they get? I'm thinking of like chicken noodle soup here.

Anyway, Denji tries to object, since he's exhausted and starving, but Mikama insists. He's her dog now, and she has no use for dogs who don't follow orders. So he's got no choice.

It doesn't take long for Denji to find the girl and the devil, but the girl pleads for the devil's life, claiming they're friends, and her dad abuses her. Denji can sympathize, since he was friends with Pochita, after all. So for a little while he's conflicted, but he suggests that the three of them can run away together and escape from her father and Makima. But the whole thing is a setup. The devil was controlling the little girl with his powers and tries to ambus Denji. But he failed to consider one thing...

That thing is chainsaws. I believe it was Sun Tzu who wrote: "When setting a trap for your enemy, first make certain that he cannot turn himself into a monster with chainsaws for hands."

Denji succeeds in his mission, so Makima finally lets him eat. She even feeds him, since he's so worn out from the transformation. The noodles are soggy, but he doesn't care, because he's been living on bread this whole time. Also, he's got the hots for Makima, so working with her is a pretty cool arrangement.

Or it would be, except Makima takes him to their headquarters and assigns him to work with some dickhead named Aki Hayakawa.

It's around here that Makima's whole manipulation bit comes into focus. This isn't some one-sided infatuation here, where the girl has no idea how the boy feels about her. Makima is clearly aware of Denji's feelings and she's perfectly willing to use them to get what she wants out him. And she can get more out of him by constantly keeping herself just out of his reach. Oh, we're going to be working together all the time... well no we won't, you'll be spending most of your time working with my other subordinates.

It's a bait-and-switch that I find... Well, let's just say "surprisingly relatable". Denji's too young to know how this turns out, so he thinks if he goes through all the hoops he'll earn Makima's favor, except she has no interest in favoring him. He's just a curiosity, to be discarded when he's no longer compliant or useful.

When they're alone in an alley, Aki beats Denji up and tells him to quit. He can tell Denji's only in this because he's got the hots for Makima, and Denji admits it. Aki feels that Denji's not cut out for this work because his motives are too shallow. Only those with strong motivations and conviction can hack it in this business. But as Aki turns his back on Denji, he's forgotten one thing.

Knee to the groin.

Aki made a nice speech, but here's Denji's rebuttal: He actually got treated like a person today, which might seem shallow to some, but for Denji, it's a dream come true, and he'd go to any length to keep this new lifestyle going. Aki thought he could scare Denji out of this with a simple beating, but Denji got killed yesterday, so you're not gonna run him off with a few punches. Also, Denji's willing to fight dirty. I'm sure Aki has some kind of badass fighting style, but Denji's fighting style is to focus all attacks on the balls, and it seems to work well.

And this is why I'm not impressed with Aki as a character so far. He doesn't approve of Denji, and he's clearly intended to be a "rival" character, and he's very serious motivations for devil hunting, but so far he hasn't shown us anything that makes him worth having around. We've already seen people treat Denji like shit--hell, that's all anybody ever does in this comic. What makes Aki such hot shit?

Anyway, Makima wants Denji and Aki in the same squad. Aki's the leader of the squad, but Makima wants to pick a roster with a "unique experimental setup."

Their first mission together is to kill a fiend. This is just another devil, but one who has taken possession of a human corpse. Isn't that what Pochita did to Denji? Apparently not, Aki says, although how the hell would he know? I guess the difference is that Denji can switch back and forth between human and devil form, while fiends are stuck in this one form.

Anyway, Aki wants Denji to kill this fiend so he can see his devil powers in action, but Denji decides to decapitate him with an axe instead. Why? Denji says that his chainsaw powers are kind of painful, and he wanted to give this fiend a quick, merciful death.

Aki gets all pissy over this and warns Denji that he shouldn't waste any sympathy on devils. Aki also informs him that a devil killed his entire family in front of him, which is probably what got him so motivated to do this kind of work.

Aki leaves in disgust, and Denji reveals the real reason he held back: He wanted this guy's dirty magazines, and all that chainsaw-slingin' might have gotten blood all over the pages.

Denji reflects on his recent good fortune, and realizes that he still wants more, even though he's already succeeded beyond his wildest ambitions. What is his true goal? The other devil hunters and the police want to protect their families, and Aki wants revenge, and Makima wants... something, probably. What does Denji want?

He concludes the answer is to touch boobs. Now, I saw someone on Twitter the other day trying to paint Denji with the same "anime pervert" brush used for characters like Master Roshi. That misses the point. Denji is a teenage boy, an orphan living in a violent world, forced into indentured servitude to the Yakuza, and now forcibly recruited into Makima's group. Until now, the best he could hope for is some jam for his bread.

The joke with Roshi, tasteless as it may be, is that he's introduced as this "Invincible Old Master" who's advanced so far in the martial arts that he's above all worldly desires and concerns... except he's still a giant horndog like teenage boy. Denji is a teenage boy. It's not the same thing.

I should also point out that Denji, lonely and desperate as he is, recognizes that he can't just go up to Makima and ask to touch her boobs. That would be awkward, even if she likes him. That's something Master Roshi couldn't figure out for literal centuries. It's not the same thing at all.

What we're seeing here is Denji advancing up Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. You know the one.

Usually this gets turned into a meme, where someone will color most of the diagram in and label it with something they like. But for Denji, he literally started at the bottom and he's working his way up. He achieved physiological safety when he met Pochita, who could help him kill devils and help him pay down his debts. He achieved safety when he merged with Pochita and Makima recruited him. Now that he's physically secure and has a meal in him, he's thinking about the next level: belonging and love.

I mean, he calls it "touching boobs", but come on. He's never been to school, his parents died when he was young, and he's been living hand to mouth for years. He doesn't know how to articulate any of this. That doesn't make him a bad person.

Anyway, Makima later introduces Denji to the next member of this squad, Power. She's a fiend, like the one Denji killed earlier, but she's part of this devil hunting group. Makima wants Denji and Power to work together as a team building exercise.

And Denji's fine with that, because Power has boobs, and he might find a way to touch them if he plays his cards right.

Overall, this is a promising start. I feel like I still haven't gotten to the true appeal of the characters yet, but I'm sure we'll get there.

[archivalofsins]

I think if I said who my favorite characters in media were, it wouldn't surprise anyone here. Instead it'd be like that explains so fucking much while saying nothing. So fuck it.

A list of favorite characters from every hyper fixation I've ever had.

YuYu Hakusho (I would recommend both the manga and anime bpth are very good times.)

Yusuke Urameshi Keiko Yukimura Kazuma Kuwabara (I love Kuwabara he's great- He's amazing good guy.).

Since we're on Yoshiro Togashi's work anyway-

Hunter x Hunter

Killua Zoldyck Leorio Paladiknight Knuckle Bine

Detective Conan

Shinichi Kudo (I too am irresponsible and full of hubris I would have followed that criminal too at his age.) Ran Mori Heiji Hattori

Shaman King

Yoh Hao Asakura

It's equal but I lean more favorably towards Yoh. Favorite Yu-gi-oh series and protagonist

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Judai Yuki (I don't think this says anything. I'm just correct, actually.)

Bleach

Orihime Inoue (Always forever sweet lady amazing girl.) Captain Unohana Oldman Yamamoto Toshiro Hitsugaya Kenpachi and Ichigo (I like them both to about the same degree.)

Naruto

Naruto Hinata Neji Shikamaru Sakura Ino Tamari

Oh, wait Akamaru. Yep that's every- oh and Shino! Wait and Choji. Probably Tamari's entire team, too, and can't forget Neji. In fact there we go he's up where he belongs. Naruto has a huge fucking cast. Most of them are interesting chaaracters. Bleach has a fucking huge cast as well.

Code Geass

Lelouch Euphemia Suzaku Akito from Akito the exiled (this is also correct).

Boruto

I'm committed to what I like-

Boruto Shikadai Chocho (this is just correct too actually I don't look in this fandom so fuck it I make this rule now) Himawari Inojin.

One Punch Man

Garo (I said he could beat Saitama in the manga and my nephews made fun of me because he's never won anywhere else. But that shit was a fight in the manga instead of a one hit out.) Metal Bat (I have a character type leave me alone. Yes, I recognize having Kuwabara, Knuckle Brine, and then him here sets a pattern. But I'd argue it's a good one.)

Chainsaw Man

Denji Makima Nayuta Kobeni Asa

Pandora Hearts

Oswald Gilbert Oz Elliot Marie Ada Sharron Lily

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Spiral Suri no Kizuna)(read this in middle school sooo this is going off memory.)

Ayumu Narumi Hizumi Mizushiro

Nabari No Ou (read this in middle school sooo this is going off memory.)

Tobari Kazuhiko Miharu Yoite Kouichi

Kagerou Days

Shintaro Ayano Seto Konoha Hibiya

Kingdom Hearts

Terra Roxas Axel (Lea) Xion Vanitas Ventus Xemnas (Look my first game was days and he was a decent boss). Larxene Sora

Oshi No Ko

Aqua Hoshino Akane Kurokawa Taiki Himekawa Kana Arima Frill Shiranui Shun Yoshizumi

Batman comics and animated series

Harley Quinn (since batman the animated series) Damian Wayne (since Son of Batman movie) Bruce Wayne (Yes, Bruce is below his son. I'm not sorry.) Poison Ivy (since Batman the animated series.).

Spider-man

Peter Parker Mile's Morales (from the films).

Calvin and Hobbes

It was the first thing I enjoyed reading. I don't think I have to explain this but I liked everyone that appeared frequently in this.

Deadpool (mostly due to the Spider-man team up comics and the movies.)

W.I.T.C.H

Irma Hay Lin Will Taranee Cornelia Elyon

Totally Spies

Alex Clover Sam

Martin Mystery (A show nobody knows)

Martin

Invader Zim

Dib Gaz Tak

Gravity Falls

Dipper Pines Pacifica Mabel Stanley

I was typing this up during that whole other thing people may have seen. I don't know what this list can tell anyone about me. It is funny to go over for me personally because a lot of the characterization stuff I like from Milgram can be found in most of these series. Which is proably why I have trouble actually picking favorites in regards to Milgram since all of the characters have traits I enjoy.

But yeah that's a little bit about me I guess. I do enjoy a lot of the characterization I see in Milgram. This is much more casual and generally being written up to give some idea of my likes. Though most of these are good watches, reads, or plays. Most are pretty well known but I would recommend Spiral since it's not that talked about in general.

Well, that's it.

[kurisus]

So you love noragami we all love it any reading recs of things like it? Or that you just like?

YES!!!!!

So I have to preface this by saying there's nothing quite like Noragami. And there is nothing wrong with rereading Noragami over and over. But I still have a lot of recs that give Vibes or in general make me Feel Emotions, so here's a non-exhaustive list.

Anime/Manga:

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. I've been saying for years that Fruits Basket is Noragami if it was a shoujo. It deals with the same cycles of abuse and an outsider who tries to break them with pure compassion that Noragami does, although it's much more of a drama than a fantasy. Just watch it and think of Yato as the Zodiac cat. I rest my case.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Fullmetal Alchemist) by Hiromu Arakawa. Chances are you've read or seen this already but it's objectively a masterpiece by any standard you care to use. Whether you like shounen fights, deeply emotional interpersonal relationships, political dramas about war and revolution, fantasy based on Greek myth, or anything else, FMA balances them all perfectly (another thing it has in common with Noragami). I love it so much.

Code Geass. This may seem like a wildcard pick but I rewatched Code Geass a few years ago and realized there are a lot of shared elements (like, Suzaku and Kazuma are the same guy). I may be delusional but it's hands down one of the most insane anime I've ever seen, in a good way. Like how FMA and Noragami balance a bunch of genres, Code Geass is a mecha action anime, a school slice of life, a political drama, and a Shakespearean tragedy all at the same time.

Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Again this may be one you're familiar with, but after I caught up on Part 1 of the manga I was so deeply wounded I had to start thinking about Noragami again (which is a worse idea). Chainsaw Man is much more of a Shounen™ than Noragami is, and I still maintain that the saddest parts of Chainsaw Man are like happier Noragami chapters, but it's a very good story and one that also has a lonely, cast-out protagonist who craves human affection but has no idea how to get it (and when he does, it's ripped away from him).

Durarara by Ryohgo Narita. In the anime adaptation, pretty much the entire voice cast is shared between it and Noragami (in the Japanese dub). It is a very weird story about a lot of weird people who are competing to be The Most Normal Person In Ikebukuro, a task which they all fail at spectacularly. It doesn't have much in common with Noragami aside from the voice cast but I love it so I recommend giving it a watch (or reading the light novels if you're feeling adventurous).

Link Click. This is a donghua (Chinese anime) about time travel and it steadily drives me more insane the longer I think about it. The three main characters have such lovely relationships with each other and the emotions go OUCH every time. It's a little harder to pinpoint the connection with Noragami here, but it is a story about the things people will do for love. The writing is crazy good especially considering it's not based on a novel or comic; I haven't seen an anime-original with writing this good since Code Geass.

Not a specific anime but the other week I thought about, what if Yuki Kajiura had been the composer for Noragami? Her style suits its aesthetic so well so now whenever I watch something she wrote for, I yearn.

Books:

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir. If you've looked at my blog at all in the last 2 years you'll know I am very sane over this book series. I actually made a Venn diagram comparing it to Noragami a while back, but the gist of it is that they deal with a lot of similar themes such as love, death, and the curse of immortality. It also has soooo many messy and complicated relationships and twists that leave your jaw on the floor. You can also use the worldbuilding to put your blorbos into and it's very fun for giving yourself Thoughts. For example I've done it both ways by putting the Noragami characters into the TLT universe and the TLT characters into the Noragami universe. Both are very painful.

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by Sing-shong. I'm not done reading this yet (about 2/3 through), but the further I get the more I realize it's about all kinds of love, the same way Noragami is. The narrator forms a "party" of people in the apocalypse, and they go through life-or-death scenarios together, and the way they grow to love and care for each other is so natural and feels so earned whenever it pays off. If you want romantic relationships, queerplatonic relationships, parent/child relationships, or any other type of relationship, ORV has it. There is also a webtoon adaptation but I'm reading the novel because it's completed; the webtoon will take many more years to get there.

Miscellaneous:

The Adventure Zone: Balance. This is a DND real-play podcast and it doesn't really have anything in common with Noragami but, like Noragami, it made me feel every possible human emotion, so I recommend it. It has a slow start but it grows into something so beautiful and creative and by the end of it I was sobbing in my car. Listen to it if you can, or at least listen to the music (it gets music later on and all of it is soooo good).

Okami. This is a video game heavily inspired by Legend of Zelda and much like Noragami it's a retelling of Japanese mythology, so the storyline will def have some familiar elements. I recommend playing it for yourself (it's available on Steam for PC and pretty much every other platform you can name), but a playthrough would be good too. It's nearly 20 years old and has withstood the test of time because the creators decided to make it look like a classic Japanese painting come to life, and the gameplay involves drawing, so it's very artsy and fun (although the controls are really weird).

Thanks for the ask! Hopefully you found something new, and I'll be sure to share if I find anything new to add to this list because I am always on the prowl for Noragami-adjacent things ❤

[craetor]

What are your top 10 favorite media ever (can be anime/manga, tv series, books, movies, games, etc)? Why love them? Thanks ⭐

Hehe thanks for the ask! I'd be happy to comply!

I can't pick dude. If you just want me to ramble about media, I'll start by talking about some pieces that have positively surprised me.

• Spaceman

Tuned in for the hot spider from the instagram clips, stayed for the interesting social commentary. I'm sure it would help a fuck ton of cis men if they just watched it. I loved Hanuš even more than I expected. Turns out an emotionally wise & relatable alien is better than one that would gut me after all.

• Pop Team Epic (season 1 especially)

It's one of those out-of-pocket pieces of media that have a ridiculous production value and passion behind it. Like, genuine production value. It's like anything Studio Trigger has made. An old friend and I were obsessed with PTE during the pandemic and pretty much made it half our personality to like it and other media like it (e.g. Way of a House Husband, nyan neko sugar girls, Backstreet Girls (That was a solid 6/10. Good watch dude). I also have Cromartie High School on my watchlist we'll see how that goes)

Now onto some books & poetry

As some may know from reading my fics & following my Lawlight obsession, I'm a big fan of poetry. I enjoy Goete a lot. He's the only name I've consistently been satisfied by. Naturalism is just my tea, as is pretty plain to see in anything I create. I'm bad at reading due to ADHD but I get it done sometimes. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is insane. Paradise Lost is great. Can you tell I get my book recommendations from Wendigoon? Holes by Louis Sachar reminds me of kids at Wammy's House but also I like it because every plot point in it leads to a perfect circle and I never fail to be amazed by good writing like that.

My favorite music genre is anything that counts as goth music. Sometimes emo if MSI is emo (I know and I'm sorry. Guilty pleasure). Darkwave & Post-Punk are my go-to for over half the year, but I listen to anything if it captures a vibe well. Anything from Mitski & Penelope Scott to Depeche Mode, Twin Tribes, Vestron Vulture & Bragolin to Lady Gaga (empress of my childhood) to Odetari. Oddly enough, however, my favorite band is Glass Animals. Zaba is a masterpiece, but I love several songs from their other albums too (Hot Sugar, Pork Soda, Life Itself...)

I'm not a huge fan of irl shows but I have enjoyed all 6 seasons of Peaky Blinders for the second time last month and have seen Interview With The Vampire a couple months back. That one also left me extremely surprised with how good it was. I've been disappointed by 'queer' stories before. They were scrubbed of any realism and dumbed down to make them more palatable, which I just couldn't watch for the life of me. As you may know, IWTV is the complete opposite of that lol. I've also peeked into Hannibal a couple times. It was good but I don't have time like that.

Animated shows & manga that I enjoy are:

• Death Note ofc

• Kakegurui (I rewatch s1 & s2 every year. Last year twice, I think)

• [Naoki Urasawa's] Monster (animated by Madhouse♡ I've been considering rewatching that too...)

• Paradise Kiss (just hits different in summer. The outro is Do You Want To by Franz Ferdinand. Love that song)

• Madoka Magica (the themes are Crazy.)

• Chainsaw Man (as fucked as they are, Mappa's creative team absolutely devoured. The outros are all incredible)

• Buddy Daddies (>>>>Spy X Family)

• Dandadan is looking pretty good

• The Summer Hikaru Died manga (impressive pacing, stunning art work, stellar character writing👌)

• Over The Garden Wall🎃🍂🌲🖤

• Arcane (a masterclass in character writing)

Aaand • Gravity Falls because it's literally so good, not just as nostalgia

My favorite movies:

• ARRIVAL (man I have to rewatch that)

• every single Pirates of the Caribbean movie (how had I never seen them as a child? Kinda happy about it though. Now i got to enjoy it with my adult mind spoiler-free)

• Princess Mononoke (to the surprise of no one)

• Spirited Away

• Ponyo (the implied 'children can consent' part is iffy but it's magical. My first Ghibli movie)

• Shawshank Redemption

• Disney's Atlantis (yup. That's what I was super into as a child. Had those on cassette. Every Sunday... I'm convinced the whole experience of the misty town from the second movie has singlehandedly made me who I am today)

• Dou Kyu Sei

• Godzilla 2 (THE CGI???? Also I'm a monster enthusiast)

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire

• that fucking Czech Cinderella movie that's on TV every December

Thank you again for the ask, OP🙏🏻 I love sharing these things. Now my arm hurts

[facelessoldgargoyle]

Worm has released its stranglehold on me long enough for me to sneak in a cannibal movie, so we are temporarily back to our regular programming, folks!

Bones and All (2022) fucks. Going in, I thought it was going to be something like she was a girl, he was a member of the texas chainsaw massacre clan, can I make it anymore obvious? But it turns out NO! this is a vampire movie!! I mean, they definitely eat people. Chomp right into their flesh. But like, other than that, basically the same as vampires. They can smell each other out and everything.

There’s a lot to love about this movie. Here’s a numbered list. I do recommend watching this movie without being spoiled for it, which the below will do.

1. The movie looks great. The scenery is beautiful, the people are beautiful, and the houses are gorgeously rumpled. The paint is peeling and there are dishes in the sink. The movie feels lived in. Moreover, there’s consistently really interesting, unusual shots being framed. POV’s of a car on the road, wide shots of conversations you cant hear because of the background noise, sudden cuts to the exterior during a fight.

2. The movie shows you, over and over, people biting into people’s bodies. The act is not softened by cooking, like Hannibal, or elided with the metaphor of blood drinking, like Interview with a Vampire. Skin stretches. Blood oozes. It rocks, because a lot of the movie is dedicated to the question, “Am I good?” And you can’t shield your eyes from the horrible thing that they’re doing. You have to evaluate whether they’re good while knowing how gruesome their lives are.

3. The movie spends a lot of time asking “Am I good?” I feel like a lot of the vampire media I’ve read and watched dismisses or avoids that question, by getting blood from animals, or donors, or willing participants, or by saying “yes, because I’m different, superior species than humans.” Bones and All lays out the three options: eat, kill yourself, or commit yourself to an institution that will keep you locked and drugged up. The protagonist’s mom decided on the latter. The protagonist decides on the former.

One answer to “Am I good,” is “no, and you disgust me, because you eat people without having a compulsion to.” Maren is just as much a cannibal as the normal human, but if she tries to resist eating, eventually her hunger takes over and she bites her friend’s fingers off.

Another answer to “Am I good” is “no, and I’m leaving you over it,” when Lee accidentally chooses a man to kill who has a wife and kids. It didn’t matter to Maren when she thought he was single, it only mattered to her when she saw the people who would be impacted. It’s reminiscent of their conversation in the slaughterhouse, about how pigs have parents, children, and friends. Maren was hungry, so Lee found someone for them to eat.

Another answer to “Am I a good person,” is “I would have done what you done, and the only thing I know is I love you.” That’s a goddamn good answer, because like…they are murderers. The question, in this case, is a relative one. Lee isn’t asking whether it’s ok to kill and eat people, he’s asking whether it was ok to kill and eat his dad. Maren feels guiltier about killing and eating people in general, and so she gives him the real answer.

Since Maren has decided to live, she has to make her peace with cannibalism, but she definitely think that there is better and worse cannibalism. Compulsion, mitigating the impact, protecting the people you love. That’s what it all comes down to for her: love.

4. That’s what everyone in this movie is looking for, love. Marten’s dad leaves her, and she goes looking for her mom. Lee’s dad and Maren’s mom try to kill each of them, and they find each other. Sully’s been alone all his life, and goes after Maren. Cannibalism is very real in this movie, but it’s also a metaphor for loneliness. Being a cannibal drives you apart from normal people, and most other cannibals. Either your violence drives them away or your differing views on what the rules are drives them away. Lee’s final wish as he’s dying is to be eaten, bones and all, by Maren. It’s a way for him to be with her forever, as a part of this once-in-a-lifetime euphoric experience. It’s her reentry to loneliness, but it’s also a consummation. Compulsion, impact, love. The perfect meal.

10/10 absolutely delicious, I already want to watch it again.

[libraryfag]

feel free to pick & choose if this is too many, but merrily (as well), trc, and hamlet for the ask game!!

holy trinity of media that makes me insane about tragedy!

Merrily:

Favorite character: a tie between Charly and Mary.... i literally cannot chose between them Second favorite character: Frank, to complete the trio, he's such an asshole but i do love him

Least favorite character: Not a proper answer because I really don't have a least favorite character but gussie was honestly done a little bit dirty by the show.i understand that it's a very easy way of showing how the friendship collapsed overtime but the show makes it seem like it was all gussies fault and i feel so bad for her because it wasn't as if she was deliberately doing it it just sorta happened but whatever.

The character I’m most like: hm. i think maybe Act Two Frank specifically just bc im so so in love with theatre. merrily is so so special to me bc it really captures that magic. not a character but i really really relate to Opening Doors bc thats just what writing a show is like or making any art reallly.

Favorite pairing: Frank/Charly/Mary not just platonic not romantic not sexual but a secret fourth thing (including all the above) they loved each other so much!

Least favorite pairing: theo I totally agree with everything you said about frank and meg. i cant think of anyone else i could say so i might as welll copy your answer

Favorite moment: Opening Doors which has grown on me since i heard that Sondheim said it was his only autobiographic song. as well as the previously discussed reliability of it, it's such an earworm, like ive had it stuck in my head basically alll year its crazy. Also it shows how close they were together which makes it incredibly heartbreaking also

Rating out of 10: 9/10. its one of my favourite musicals ever! obligatory point reduction for whatever was wrong with the original production (Hal Prince wtf were you doing casting children??)

The Raven Cycle

Favorite character: Ronan Lynch <3 Second favorite character: oh god. im just going to say chainsaw bc i love her so much and i don't want to single out any of the other protagonists bc then i feel bad.

Least favorite character: Maggie Steifvater is such a great author I cannot name a single character I'm not 100% invested in, even ones that would be so easy to get bored by, like Mr Gray or Greenmantle I need to learn everything about them ever.

The character I’m most like: gansey tbh. to the point where i try not to think about it

Favorite pairing: all of the guys (aka blue, gansey, adam, ronan, noah and maybe henry, i don't know him so well yet). basically the same as my merrily answer, labels don't really matter: what matters is they all love each other so so much its insaneeeeeee. im also a big sucker for whatever ronan and adam have going on

Least favorite pairing: tbh i wasn't so invested in maura and the gray man at first.

Favorite moment: i love it when ronan is protective of chainsaw.. he loves that bird so much

Rating out of 10: 11/10 aka so good its literally having a detrimental impact on my school results and mental health/sleep :)

Hamlet

Favorite character: Hamlet Thee Dane. truly the character of all time

Second favorite character: i think about ophelia every single day

Least favorite character: depends on the production tbh. like i used to not care about laertes and polonius, but i became obsessed with the former either last year or the year before, and the version i read this year (Nicki Greenberg's graphic novel which i would recommend) had a really engaging interpretation of the latter which was so good i got sad when he died.

The character I’m most like: hamlet is literally me btw.

Favorite pairing: tragic danish boyfriends is a classic and brilliant but hamlet and laertes also upsets me so so much. like they are literally perfect foils

Least favorite pairing: ugh. gertrude and hamlet sexually. freud suck my dick

Favorite moment: yes ive seen/read it 5 times now. no, i've never not been emotionally destroyed by the ending

Rating out of 10: 10/10. one of the best pieces of fiction ever. which is a totally subjective statement but also im right.

[laugtherhyena]

[Csm oc] Cherry

Back at it again with another lore rundown, this time for my boy Cherry! It's shorter than the girl's one but took a while to post because this man was quite challenging to edit in manga style. Before reading i recommend reading through this post, if you haven't already, since there i go into detail on how his powers work

Katana man arc

-Cherry is seen fighting zombies alongside the other fiends and devils of the 4th division. He's telling jokes to the zombies, a hoard of them charges towards him but before he even gets to the punchline their bodies crumble into piles of rotting flesh on the floor. Cherry laughs at his own joke while asking the zombies if they get it, he kicks one of their heads away which lands on Angel's shoe.

Bomb girl arc

-Makima assigns Cherry and Beam as Denji's temporary partners, as Power needs to get her blood drained. while Beam jumps to hug him Cherry stands behind Makima adjusting his tie, he wants to make a good first impression. It's only after Denji knocks Beam on the floor that Cherry approaches him, extending his hand towards his hero.

-When Beam goes to hug Denji again, Cherry does the same, nodding his head at Beam's words that Master chainsaw's orders are absolute.

-As Denji walks on the street the next day followed by the two. When it starts raining Cherry runs around after Denji as he looks for cover before leaning against him and using his arms to try sheltering Denji from the rain, Denji hits his chest with his elbow and yells at Cherry to back off.

-He then calls Cherry and Beam assholes and tells them to stop running around and be quiet otherwise they won't be able to walk around these streets anymore, Cherry nods and proceeds to hide in an alley while Beam goes underground using his powers.

-Later when Reze transforms and launches herself towards Beam and Denji, Cherry intercepts her by charging towards her and punching Reze square in the face while shouting her name, Reze gets knocked back to where she was before. Cherry goes to deal with her while Beam and Denji escape from the area.

-Cherry tries to keep a distance and avoid Reze's attacks while continuing to talk to her. He talks about school and how he doesn't see a point in attending one as a devil, he asks Reze if she likes school, what subjects she thinks are the hardest, what she would like to have for school lunch and how he wouldn't settle for anything less than torikatsu.

-While Reze does get affected by Cherry's power, shown by her weakened powers, reduced speed and skin becoming wrinkled, she simply triggers a full body explosion near him which not only reverts her body to its original state but also launches Cherry all the way down the hill.

-Three private hunters spot Cherry laying on the street, they approach him only for Reze to jump in, landing on Cherry's abdomen making the devil contort in pain.

-The trio reports the situation on a walkie talkie before Reze triggers another explosion which kills all the hunters and leaves Cherry far too injured and exhausted to follow her. He crawls towards the burnt remains of the hunters and feeds off their corpses to slowly regain a bit of strength.

International assassins arc

-Cherry, Beam and Prince were with Makima dealing with some of Santa's dolls in a building, she orders the boys to go help Denji and the two proceed to head to the department store to do so.

-When they arrive at the scene Beam pushes Long away from Denji and Cherry starts attacking her while the two begin making their way out of the building.

-Cherry throws kicks and punches at Long while asking her if she's been enjoying the trip to japan, Pingtsi frees herself from Power's grasp and uses her ability to analyze Cherry, She joins the fight telling Long that they need to cover up their ears as Cherry's powers only work if you can hear him clearly.

-Seeing as the girls have their ears covered, Cherry starts speaking louder while attacking more viciously. He asks them what places have they visited on the trip so far, if they've been to any good restaurants, if the hotel they're staying at is a good one, saying that the best hotels out there are the ones with room service.

-Cherry gets his arms removed by the Darkness devil, unlike the others, He expresses no reaction to that.

-Their fight is interrupted by Santa sending everyone in the building to hell via her contract with the Hell devil. Upon their arrival, Cherry stands up effortlessly and looks towards the horizon, standing completely still as his glowing eyes slowly disappear within the darkness of his skull. The look of someone who knows the end of this cycle draws near.

-Cherry and Beam give Denji their blood, he then positions himself behind Denji and pushes him to be in a sitting position as Beam pulls on his chainsaw cord. The Darkness devil sees this and slices both of them into pieces. Cherry's severed head lands near Beam's, their foreheads gently touching.

Gun devil arc

-Aki says that Cherry is dead as he lists the fates of the people who were involved in the last mission to Denji.

Control devil arc

-Cherry's body is seen in the corridor alongside all the other deceased fiends and devils from public safety, kneeling between Beam and Seraphim.

[robotlesbianjavert]

do you have any horror manga recommendations? I've been reading them a lot lately

ooh that is a very very good question!! and honestly if you've been following me for a while you've probably seen my catalogue of horror manga lmao. as much as manga is my preferred medium compared to anime and ykno i have a casual fondness for horror, it actually takes me a while to work through new manga DX DX i do have a couple of stuff i can probably suggest, though.

(since you're actively seeking horror, i'm gonna take a guess and assume you're not really in need of any major trigger warnings, since a lot of these recs include gore/violence/sexuality/abuse/general skeeziness, or at least can anticipate that you're gonna run into unsavory stuff, but you can follow up and let me know if there is actually something i should take note of.)

One thing I find with horror manga (and horror in general, but manga especially) is a common big genre drift with things action or comedy or adventure or something. A lot of the well-known names on rec lists have horror elements rather than being primarily horror, or the horror influence ends up downplayed as the story goes on. but still excellent. If I have recs in the realm of "horror-lite/influenced", I'd say:

Kemono Jihen by Sho Aimoto, kid joins a detective agency in Tokyo meant to resolve supernatural incidents between "kemono" and humans.

Dandadan by Yukinobu Tatsu, a girl who believes in spirits & ghosts and a boy who believes in aliens become friends! And a lot of things happen because the creator assisted for Fujimoto of Chainsaw Man fame, so it has a lot of the same off-the-wall, irreverent humour. While it's not as tight or classy as CSM, it's still a fuckin fun romp with nice horror moments.

Both of those I actually need to catch up with, haha. I'll actually recommend Can You Just Die, My Darling? as well, although I'm not sure if you're the anon who recced it to me first. Much stronger on the horror & violence elements, but it's another one I still have to catch up on.

I'm trying to avoid the obvious recommendations that you can get off any list, like Junji Ito or idk. Tokyo Ghoul, Dorohedoro or something like that. But special shout out to Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. I'm most familiar with the 2006/07 anime series rather than the games (besides a couple of let's plays) and the manga, but I watched it with my sisters when I was young, LONG before I considered myself a horror fan, and I still consider those question arcs to have some of the best horror sequences ever experienced blind. Hugely influential.

In a similar vein to trying to avoid obvious recs, I know that Shuzo Oshime has gotten more popular as of late, but I've been working through Blood on the Tracks, which is about really insane mommy issues, so if you're cool with that!! You can also check out his other works that I haven't gotten to, but yeah I think he's

For probably my biggest recommendations though - the first one is a short-ish read, I think it was only one volume? The other two were excellent recommendations from my friends!

Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki is about how fucked up the modelling & beauty industry is. There's also a movie adaptation that I haven't watched it.

Hikaru Ga Shinda Natsu (The Summer Hikaru Died) by Mokumokuren, a relatively new BL ongoing series about two friends who live in a rural village - except one of the friends had disappeared months ago in the mountains.

And my actual personal favourite recommendation, Kurosagi: Corpse Delivery Service. It's about a team of students at a Buddhist college who start a company to deliver corpses. They also solve murders along the way! This is a really great series and pretty easy to get into, I think - there's some ongoing plot, but a lot of the arcs are more episodic in nature. A lot of fun discussion on Japanese culture and views on death, it's funny, the gore and horror art are just great, it's just a cool unique series. The only thing is that while I believe it's completed, it's not fully translated in English - I think translations only go up to chapter ~89? So while there's story threads that are unanswered, the translations don't end on a cliffhanger at least.

I do have a "To Read" list compiled after going through some other rec lists / Youtube videos about horror manga. I can't speak to the quality of these yet, but they must have been intriguing enough for me to write them down. Here's a selection of them, not including general creators I wanted to check out:

Dai Dark by Q Hayashida of Dorohedoro fame

Doubt, Judge, and Secret by the guy who did the Higurashi manga.

Another

The Serial Killer is Laughing in the Rain

As the Gods Will

Jagaaan

The Horror Mansion

Fear Infection

Mushihime

Homunculus

Ichi the Killer

Mister Arashi's Amazing Freakshow

PTSD Radio

Dementia 21

Dark Hideout

Halloween Desetsu

The Quiz

Mantis Woman

Presents

If you've read any of those, or get to them before I do, or read any of the prior recs let me know your thoughts!! Always down to chat horror.

Aside from that. Well Digimon: Ghost Game was pretty fun when I was watching it. Had some spooky ooky moments. If you like Digimon o:

actually i'm going to use this opportunity to again reiterate how validated i was when horikoshi had that comment about how he'd like to try doing horror when one of my prominent thoughts when the MVA arc was running was how much potential the guy had as a horror artist and how it could really free him. my goddamn vision.

[stackslip]

10,16,21 for csm

10. worst part of fanon

i think lots of people have fundamentally misunderstood the "hayakawa family" (i've come to hate that term) and why it works so well, especially denji's relationship to aki and power and makima's careful manipulations for denji to feel more and more comfortable with both of them, and if i have to see one more fic or art relegating them to the most boring bland found family tropes with absolutely no complications re denji's own struggle to relate to aki as an adult man, or people arguing that chainsaw man became bad when makima killed aki and power (HER GOAL SINCE THE START WAS TO GET DENJI ATTACHED AND THEN DESTROY HIS LIFE), i'm going to throw it all away and bar anybody from speaking about Found Families TM ever again bc you cannot behave with them. also their deaths doesn't mean they didn't mean anything to denji. he beat makima thanks to aki's lessons and power's sacrifice! he is a good caretaker to nayuta thanks to both of them. his current trauma and melancholy state are directly linked to what happened to them. come on

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

the "yoshida is kishibe's son" hc was fun as a one-off headcanon but people have legitimately made up a whole characterization and history for both that they tear up over and like...... good for you but 1) i find them both uninteresting except in terms of being funny 2) i just know that when it ends up not being canon or not canon in the way they want, they're going to throw a fit and be very mad that the character who has little to no characterization besides being Mysterious And Creepy does not end up being the full fledged charater arc they made the fuck up

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

hayawaka family okay no. rather while i adore chainsaw man people tend to overhype its most basic aspects that many manga and anime also do as something like, exceptional, even while fujimoto wears his inspirations on his sleeves and talks about the stories beats and imagery that he lifted directly to have fun with. he's a great artist yes but i've seen people argue that he's the only manga author to have clear paneling and dialogue reading which makes me go PLEASE READ MORE FUCKING MANGA JESUS CHRIST. the dude is self learned but he learned from SOMEWHERE and the "somewhere" is "lots of other manga he adores and recommends that have given him the very basic techniques he uses today". anyhow i'm saying this bc by overhyping these very basic aspects that actually exist in many manga, most people end up sleeping on the aspects of chainsaw man that are actually underhyped and unique and interesting lol.

[dcwnthercbbithcle]

“plots please” 👀

send me “plots please” and I’ll respond with 3 (or more) interesting plots / relationships / connections I can think of for our muses! | ACCEPTING

HIIIIII BROZI 👀👀👀 Thank you for sending this in! I won't lie to you when I saw this was so hard to narrow down based on the sheer number of compatible interactions we would have for our characters!!

BECAUSE LIKE, the impulse monkey on my shoulder is telling me to throw EVERYTHING down to see which one of our blorbos maul each other like rabid animals and which ones get along nicely! Haha

ALSO SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR THE WALL OF TEXT, I don't know how it got this long and frankly I'm a little terrified!

POTENTIAL INTERACTION COMBINATIONS / INTERESTING DYNAMIC IDEAS

I spent a long time trying to hash out how to rank these, but please bare with me! I think ANY combination of muses could be fascinating to analyze given the sheer personality differences between muses.

In total my muses that have DBD centered AUs are: Sally Smithson / The Nurse (default verse), Evan Macmillan / The Trapper (default verse), Doe (default verse, original character), The Green Maiden (AU verse, original character), Jesse Cromeans / Chromeskull (AU verse)

So any of them would work with most of your muses! Though I will say Doe, my original character, additionally has verses for the TCM franchise, F13 & more general horror which could be fun to play with for your Thomas Hewitt, Bubba and or Jason muses!

It all, ultimately, depends on the sort of thread you're going for/dynamics you want to play with!

Sally is dread, she is sardonic, powerful and hateful. She's EXACTLY who you picture when you think of a 100+ year old ghost sealed away in the tomb of an old asylum that was host to insurmountable pain and exploitation. She's kind of death embodied to an extent, but that's a different conversation! There are moments of intense apathy, cruelty and hatred, it's not sadism but its more a thing she feels is justice. But there are equally moments of intense kindness and compassion as well.

Think of it like this, let's say Bubba got completely overwhelmed after a trial, snowballs thrown at him, stabbed by the survivors, flashbanged, just completely attacked on all angles. Sally would be a killer who would stop in an attempt to help him ground himself and calm down without hurting him any further. BUT at the same time, Sally is the sort of woman who would realize Dwight is hiding in a locker, and strangle one of his teammates outside of the door in his line of sight as a direct 'you deserve to see what your cowardice caused, I gave this one a clean death, I won't give you that,'

As a person, I would recommend Sally in threads with characters like Frank, Dwight, the Chainsaw bros or Mikey. I think she could be kind to Bubba and Tommy, but like, enemy on first sight with Michael and with Dwight and Frank, let's just say her bitterness would shiiiiine baybeee.

Evan, he's a funny guy, kind of an inverse of a character like Jason. He's big, strong, caked up brick wall of a man who is extremely intimidating. Rough, a bit coarse, abrupt and to the point, and aggressive but he's one of my more lighthearted characters. He really doesn't give a single solitary shit about the Entity and playing by her games, he's out here for him, so he's doing what he must to survive and overcome the trauma that's left him a shell of a person. He's good in action and aggression threads, he's not INSANELY powerful, but he's more willing to goof around than Sally with the big caveat that he's unwilling/unable to give those brief moments of intense compassion and care that Sally is.

Evan is a guy I would recommend for a thread with Frank, Mike, maybe Tommy and/or Jason. A thread between them could be a bit chaotic with the differing personalities but that's not a bad thing! It's interesting! Even though I think Evan may end up throwing Frank through a window at some point! Haha

And Doe, well, she's my token survivor character, but don't take that to mean she isn't developed and doesn't have a full personality of her own! Haha. Doe excels in many things, she's resourceful, clever, fox-like, sly & sweet. She wears her heart on her sleeve and feels with every fiber of her person. Really she's a scream queen in every respect. But her big thing is that she is COWARDLY, she is cowardly, shaped by her fear and all of her perks and even her backstory hinged on this.

She was relatively normal growing, born into a small family in Vancouver, but faced terrifying visions of her many, many gruesome deaths from an early age. Traumatized her, anxiety disorder, but as always she ran away from it mentally, repressing it. Grew up, aspirations to be one of the big names on the cusp of the computer age. Extremely into programming and engineering, wanted to be a pioneer and a business woman but you need money to do that. Got a dead end job at a mall and finished one evening, went outside, became involved in a murder. Saw everything, cowardice took over and she left the victim to their fate and fled. Victim went missing, her trying to tell authorities did nothing, guilt and a mental breakdown from the repressed trauma came back. She ran away, terrified she would be killed next. Got killed, lost her name, most of her memories & in a cosmic punishment is now trapped in the hell she witnessed premonitions of throughout her childhood. Now forever running in place, fighting to survive, not knowing she's already dead, nameless and largely forgotten and facing all the deaths that kept her up at night.

Despite this doom and gloom, she's actually one of my lightest, funnest characters! She's a freak (affectionate) and a weirdo (loving), she's eccentric and a little off center but she hates her cowardice. She wants to live not shaped by her terror and to OWN her deaths, y'know? Like, she'll die anyways, she wants to be in control of the show and when she bows out. For this reason I consider her a bit more of a long haul / plot driven character that's great for slow burn character changing plot! But given she's 80s, bubbly, scream queen weirdo, she'd be just as fun in one offs too!

I also have like,,, 500 different verses for her too, so she could easily be slotted in ANYWHERE with any of your characters, but she is, uhhh, she is a lot and a bit more sad than my other characters!

PLOTS

I WON'T LIE TO YOU BROZI, there are so many potential plots it's not even funny. Modern AU for Sally has a bit of a crossover with Frank (albeit centered around Frank when I played him) WHICH I WOULD LOVE TO EXPLORE. Something about Sally and Mikey as they have very similar yet such very very different backgrounds, etc. Evan and Jason forming the 'complex feelings about all feelings of friendship being corrupted by cruelty and weird feelings about not having present familial figures' etc etc.

It might be a bit better to message me directly about certain character combinations for ideas! Haha. I'd feel terrible if I dumped more walls of text on top of you! OH ALSO!! Even though it's unpolished, I'd love to burst out Doe's carrd so you could look over the different verses to see if you'd like to play around with any of them!! Either way, don't hesitate to hit me up and don't be a stranger! I am bursting with ideas!!

RELATIONSHIPS + CONNECTIONS

OOOOOOOH, not to be too presumptuous but I've love to play with some of the canon dynamics, if it'd be alright with you!

For instance, Trapper and the dislike of all Dwights, which was made canon in the Hooked On You game which is allowed... sometimes! It's hit and miss with me and I can't forgive the fact they haven't given us the swimsuit skin for Trapper yet! Haha.

But also some more theoretical ones, things like potential uneasiness on Dwight's account given the fact Doe spent so long as a theoretical person, running from the other survivors as though they were killers. Stuff like that!! You certainly don't have to BUT I LIVE FOR PRIOR CONNECTIONS AND PLOTTED SHIPS, romantic and otherwise!

[overthinkingtaleblr]

I was just thinking about the chainsaw man au earlier today and someone liked the old post so im gonna talk about it a lil bit :] Specifically Fred/Spooker’s whole dealio

So. It starts with Toast temporarily being out of commission and him and Ghost realizing that having a two-person devil-investigation team, while effective, is not the best in cases of emergency. Because of that, Toast recommends that Ghost hire someone new before the next investigation, that way they don’t leave someone stuck with a devil and Ghost doesn’t have to put his life at further risk. Neither of them are too sold on the idea at first, but eventually realize that the number of people who actually know them has dropped dramatically since they started their business.

With the structure of the AU, Ghost and Toast are collectively misanthropic because they’re basically married to their work and don’t seek to meet new people or make friends outside of it. So when most of their friends and connections either died or went cold, they just didn’t think to make new allies in their place, and they’ve just realized that might catch up to them. Plus— Ghost struggles to understand and get along with people, while Toast is working through a lot of trauma and is scared to make new friends. Luckily they put their lives first, and make a little eBay ad to try to get a new member.

In enters Fred! He’s about the same age as Ghost and seems a little skittish as soon as he meets up with Ghost. Initially waving him off as being dead weight, Ghost decides to give him a walkthrough of a job instead of an interview to try to scare him off. However, the job runs slow and the two get to know each other over time. Fred admits that while he’s had a couple encounters with devils before, which is why he said he thought he might be able to work with the team, he actually just really needed the money and was running out of options. He’s obviously anxious Ghost is going to be annoyed at his initial dishonesty, but Ghost concludes that being too invested in wanting to “take down” any specific demon is counterproductive to what they’re trying to do, so it might be better Fred is less personally involved.

Over the course of the job(s?), the new guy shows a lot of intelligence and understanding not of the devil, but the world around them and what seemed to be manipulated. He’s incredibly down-to-earth and is able to use his grasp on reality to stay calm when things start to get a little freaky. Ghost slowly comes to the conclusion that this guy might actually have a fighting chance and future in this career that he thought no one else would be able to survive, not least of all because he’d gone this long without being scared off. While originally Spooker only has one mission with PIE before him being a ghost ever came up, I think in the AU Ghost and Fred went on a few different jobs taking down weaker devils like practice rounds or something. Toast is in jail, probably for arson, through all of this and gets to hear Ghost slowly warm up to this guy he initially thought was hopeless. Toast had mixed feelings about the whole thing, but was mostly just happy Ghost wasn’t throwing himself into danger alone— and to a lesser extent— that Ghost was making friends.

Then, Ghost comes back in kind of mopey and explains that something happened. Ghost got overconfident and the pair ended up biting off more than they could chew, and only Ghost made it out. Toast at first tries consoling him, but Ghost cuts back in to blurt that ‘Fred’ is now a fiend of the devil that killed him (probably something like a devil representing things hiding in the darkness) and is still legally working for the team. Now, actual Spooker is here, and Ghost’s resentment of him isn’t unbiased or because he’s annoying, but because that guy is a devil who killed the first proper friend he made in years. Even as Spooker tries showing that he’s on the team’s side, Toast is the only one who accepts him as a real member of the team (after he is forgiven for the arson). Unfortunately for Ghost, Spooker is actually more helpful to the team, even managing to actively save Ghost’s life in a way non-devils couldn’t. However, Ghost becomes more bitter and irritable after this incident, and concludes that having anyone else work for PIE is stupid dangerous and can’t happen again.

Until Chris comes along a fe years later, of course— and this one doesn’t die! Chris probably isn’t invited into the case, but sneaks along because he recognizes the school they’re investigating as the one he went to as a kid, and became worried for the students and followed Ghost in.