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theomnicode · 3 years ago

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Saitama versus Garou, the breakdown and the misdirections

Warning, this'll be a long breakdown where I get into the real meat of it.

Tl;dr: We've actually all been misled because they didn't show us some crucial details. ONE is doing some real meta level writing.

So I'm rereading the Saitama vs Garou fight from 161 onward and the way Saitama deals with Garou seems justified within his capabilities, if you think in a way that Saitama for the entire time is

a) not trying to kill Garou b) trying to gauge his powers and intent

I hypothesise that Saitama is using actual power of intuition that he relies on a lot, so nothing really bad happens even when he gets pushed into the volcano, instead bunch of people get saved. He displays that high battlefield awareness when he can see that far, into the stratosphere when Garou kills Sage centipede and immediately going after extremely dangerous Evil Ocean Water with an OHKO. Even Garou is surprised that Saitama can deduce his attempt at world peace somehow, even when he did not articulate that part specifically.

He also slaps Garou away from Tareo so there's more room for them to fight. He has a bout of amusement because Garou's actions bely his hypocricy and he shoos away the civilians because there's still a lot of large scale damage being dished out and he does not want them to get caught in the crossfire. But Saitama has always been a bit of a troll.

His intuition gets proven correct time and time again when Garou ends up saving people with his attacks, more often than not.

Only whenever he gets surprised by Garou's transformations and power increase because he can't anticipate that happening does something like Garou shifting tectonic plates on other side of the Earth occur. And even then Saitama's intuition is not incorrect, it ends up saving the plane on other side of the planet and Saitama puts a stop to that potential disaster near immediately.

Then after, he punches Garou with just enough strenght to destroy his monster form and that should've been it. The end of the fight normally. Mostly large scale but superficial and unavoidable damage because Garou does not fold that easily because he's extremely willfull, even when Saitama focuses on that part and intentionally goads him and then seemingly handles him with ease in an attempt to make Garou quit the act on his own.

"Just give up already. That's enough, right?"

Sure, he could have intuited that he could have just stopped Garou dead on his tracks by grabbing his fist and initiated table talk, but that's another timeline lol.

(maybe the redraw was actually legit meta idk, more on that later)

One thing about Saitama is that he's always taking hits and gauging his opponents because he needs some time to visualize his plan of action based on his intuition, if what Genos being the objective narrator being in the right is correct in an OVA about Genos trying to find the key to his strenght. When he actually focuses to the point of hyperfocus (Serious mode) and gets into the zone, he visualizes more efficently, intently and faster about what he actually wants to do, so he can actually use techniques he has seen done and learned before to great effect when in this state.

Rather than being a punching bag to Garou's martial arts, he becomes the martial artist.

If he didn't do his hero work and even day to day life carefully, he would end up hurting a lot of people unintentionally. Even the slightest bit of miscalculation in power could kill people. Genos got temporary amnesia because Saitama accidentally opened a bag of chips a fraction too hard. Genos is more durable than most. Saitama's reflexive reactions like sneeze in normal conditions is enough to burst a room apart.

Chances are hitting Garou to strip monsterisation was enough too and it should have ended the fight then and there. The way Saitama responds in both drawn versions of the fight is directly influenced by Garou's thought processes. When Garou feels like quitting the fight, Saitama stops him and talks with him. When Garou wants to keep going with the fight and shows no signs of quitting, Saitama hits him down. This is Saitama's intuition, the embodiment of Justice enforcement, Seigi Shikkou.

But we keep forgetting that God is watching this entire time.

And God has a way of directly influencing people's egoes to inflate them. Even if he does not make direct contact. He does this to Tatsumaki and gives her delusions of grandeur and inflated sense of ego to push the drill inside the earth, so Orochi can sacrifice itself on the altar to give God more power.

The more Garou's ego flares, the more God can have influence over it. So he keeps transforming as he refuses to give in. Garou keeps attacking to the point of causing damage to the planet too. More about God's influence over people here.

God's influence is something that is impossible to intuit or anticipate and the very moment God joins the fight, Saitama is at a loss in how to deal with Garou. In one hand, Garou is still Garou but he started acting strange and opposed to what his gut is telling him. And a whooole lot stronger too, because he actually gives Saitama a nosebleed when he turns into Mode: Saitama to match his power equally. You read that right, he hurt Saitama. The intentional paneling gives it away (not to mention the power graph in 168).

Once again the sudden transformation and exponential power increase keeps surprising Saitama and God's influence over his ego makes Garou's actions very hard to intuit, but Saitama tries his best. But again, Garou became so strong so suddenly even Saitama's hero suit got shredded by nuclear fist that came out of the blue, something that Saitama's willpower, his mental energy cathexis, protects and that fact does flabbergast him as well.

"Aaah! What the hell man, you messed up my outfit!"

But still he keeps on gauging the situation to the best of his ability, but the situation is now getting worrisome, especially after Mode: Saitama got pulled out. Garou still does not make sense to him, because God's subconscious effect and subliminal messages to Garou confuse him. He can hear God's echo chamber. Garou acts very weird and not all akin to the Garou just moments before.

He does not get much time to ponder though when Garou suddenly unleases Gamma Ray Burst, something that would destroy earth and Saitama has to make a very swift plan of action because he can't redirect it without killing Garou like he did to Boros and has to angle it away from earth. Nor did have time to prep himself into emotional state to hit him with a Serious Punch. Or he did not have time to gauge if it would have also just wiped out Garou if he used the required amount of power anyway.

Yap there's a drawback. Because he needs an emotional state to do a really strong punch as it's a discharge of said emotional energy. No time for any accurate punching meter unlike with Boros and Elder Centipede or Orochi Or Evil Ocean Water, Gamma ray burst is gonna hit right now. And it hits Saitama and sends him into tons of rubble and he digs himself out in a timeline according to where Bang confronts Garou.

Saitama thus far, has tried to do everything in his power to not only spare Garou, but to end the fight against a planetary+ level threat with no casualties and no irreparable damage to the planet he's living on.

It's no small feat at all. In every sense he's being very heroic here.

But God has far too much influence over this fight, a being that does not reside in the same dimension, thus something that cannot be handled with intuition.

This is where things get messy when Saitama digs himself out of the rubble. He did not apparently fly that far from where the heroes were, he would have heard and seen Blast and nuclear fists going off in the sky and hurried towards the battle.

Garou just unleased a devastating attack that could have destroyed the planet if he did not aim it away from the surface, he would have done his best to hurry back immediately and fight with more force.

The fact that he did not speaks of inconsistency in how he dealt with Garou before and caring about people (like CE) and how the situation got a lot more urgent faster. But he was not stuck, he climbed out in time just after Garou made his speech and future Saitama appeared to punch Garou in fixed timeline.

So... what gives? He got out of the rubble in time, but he just was not there in time anyway and lot of stuff happened in between...?

And it suddenly hit me.

Time dilation.

Two possibilities:

He had touched God's cube before which Blast says had slown down time in God's chamber.

Or Gamma ray burst effect because of gravitational time dilation.

Godrou mocks Saitama for being late. Very intentionally. To shift blame to Saitama.

He knew what happened and he knows about time travel. God knows the flow of all energies in the universe and Godrou by proxy, duh.

Gamma ray burst possibly caused gravitational time dilation effect. Gamma ray Burst displays gravitational pull effects when it pulls heroes towards it.

In physics and relativity, time dilation is the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks. It is either due to a relative velocity between them (special relativistic "kinetic" time dilation) or to a difference in gravitational potential between their locations (general relativistic gravitational time dilation). When unspecified, "time dilation" usually refers to the effect due to velocity. After compensating for varying signal delays due to the changing distance between an observer and a moving clock (i.e. Doppler effect), the observer will measure the moving clock as ticking slower than a clock that is at rest in the observer's own reference frame. In addition, a clock that is close to a massive body (and which therefore is at lower gravitational potential) will record less elapsed time than a clock situated further from the said massive body (and which is at a higher gravitational potential).

God interfered on the fight yet again and caused time to work against Saitama, in ways that what was only mere seconds for Saitama was minutes for Garou. The closer one would be to Garou's body with lower gravitational potential, the less time would elapse than Saitama who was knocked further away.

That or the effects of the time paradox itself slowed down time when future Saitama came back from time at this point. Timey wimey stuff happened. In order for the future to happen, the past had to be rewritten somehow to close the time loop.

Either way, God is the reason this happened. Not because Saitama dilly dallied and was too blase to care.

(redraw was maybe actually meta lmaooo)

And so, Saitama got stuck in a time dilation and could not actually make it back in time to stop Garou any more because time elapsed faster for him than others. On that point onward, what had happened in the erased future had to start in the past. Poignant that he came back in time to fix everything.

We're just not shown that he's stuck in time dilation, because to Saitama, it also did not happen, he did not feel like anything was wrong before he confronted Garou again and saw everyone dead. He felt like he just failed, his hero intuition led him completely wrong, that he made a huge error in judgement and he took his sweet time and was too indifferent to care to get there quick enough. Everything he believed in came crashing down when his sense of heroism failed him and everyone he knew died on him. He thought he did everything correctly but still his best friend and his anchor to humanity died. Nothing could be more shocking and his world got turned upside down. His self-esteem crashed down to the bottom of the pit. Everything is his fault and he did everything wrong.

Exactly what God wants him to feel, doubt himself. That in order to be more efficient, he should not rely on his intuition and ability to gauge the situation accurately; that he should just bulldoze with less care for humanity because monsters are monsters right? They are not human. And to be more efficient, it would be better to just dehumanize them and be more apathetic. In order to not make mistakes like these any longer, one should have to be perfect because if Saitama makes even a tiny error, people suffer and he has far too much room for error.

Because Saitama has so much power to end the fight instantly, he should just go for it right? Just become omnipotent. To feel like the end justifies the means. To overcompensate to achieve that perfection because he does not want to make mistakes anymore, made to feel like he lacks in heroic qualities, even when he has heroism in spades, especially when his power grows to levels where a reflexive sneeze can destroy Jupiter. But now he was made to doubt what makes him a good person and heroic.

More in depth here.

What God wants is to groom Saitama to become like him. A being with a God complex who had discarded his humanity and emotions in favour of attaining perfection and perfect judgement and morality. Because Saitama is still susceptible to God's power like everyone else is and the superiority complex rears it's head when he beats down Garou efficently like a toy, in his anger and grief that he dissociates from so it does not overwhelm him. But god was also influencing that fight and made it into ego versus ego battle.

Saitama did not let go of his humanity in this fight, but the seed is already planted. It's up to Saitama and the people he knows whether he allows that seed to grow and fester and turn him into a monster. Into a being like God.

But one thing is clear here: Saitama did not actually make a mistake in this fight.

He was not blase, he had learned better and he tried his best.

God made him feel like the worst possible person and failure on the planet so he could use him.

This is the insidious nature of God, turning humans against themselves.

Saitama is still a hero through and through.

He may overrely on his powers, that's true and it was used against him here, but if he does not trust in himself, then who can he trust? Not trusting in himself would make him lose his self and his capacity in being a hero, because he needs to trust in himself to do the right thing and to never be defeated. If he can be defeated, then he loses the fight and the world may end then.

(Hell, ONE made US READERS doubt Saitama and his true heroism. Because of tiny details that were not shown. Actually magnificent storytelling.)

#opm #one punch man #opm spoilers #saitama #garou #saitama versus garou #deconstruction #opm manga panels #long #blast #opm meta #fight breakdown #opm god

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cosmicjoke · 4 years ago

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Alright, just a few things to say about chapter 4 of “No Regrets”.

One thing that I love that was in the manga that, once again, wasn’t in the visual novel, was Levi’s reaction as they ride out from Shinganshina, as well as Furlan’s and Isabel’s. This kind of internal exploration of these characters who had never been to the surface, who had spent their whole lives in darkness, getting to see the sky for the first time, was something that was entirely absent from the visual novel, and it’s one of its biggest weaknesses. But here, we see Levi looking up at the stone structure of the wall gate, and for a moment, he imagines the ceiling of the Underground, before they emerge out into the open and the full view of the sky appears for the first time. Levi squints up at the glaring sun, and we see an expression of genuine awe and amazement on his face, as well as Furlan and Isabel. This is the first time any of them have experienced anything like this, and the overwhelming beauty of it for them is wonderfully visualized here. The way Levi goes from seeing the claustrophobia and imprisonment of the Underground, and how that opens up into a clear, blue, ending sky, really symbolizes him experiencing for the first time in his life a kind of freedom he’s never before had. And there’s something incredibly moving, but also incredibly tragic about that.

Now another point I want to address, where the manga and anime both differ from the visual novel, in a really vital way, is how here, we see Furlan lamenting that they’ve left the walls, saying “This is terrible. I never meant to leave the walls. If we’d followed the plan, we would have grabbed them and snuck away by now!”. This shows that they’ve been looking for the documents in vain for several months now, and still have yet to find them. Furlan’s plan had obviously originally been to find them and then get out of dodge, but because they weren’t able, they ended up having to wait around longer, until the time came for the expedition. Now how this is presented in the visual novel really struck me as horrifically out of character for Levi. In the novel, it’s explained that the reason they haven’t left is because Levi kept insisting that he had to kill Erwin, refusing to leave until he could do so, and if not for that, Furlan would have forgotten about the documents and simply had them all desert the SC, back to the Underground. Levi intentionally ignoring the safety of his friends for revenge on Erwin really goes against everything we know about him from canon, and was a pretty glaring detail, so I’m glad they nixed that here. There’s no mention of Levi forcing them to stay because of his need for revenge, but rather an implication that none of them were willing to leave until they got the documents. They took this a step further in the OVA even, with that one scene in which Levi argues with Furlan and Isabel, insisting that if it comes to them having to leave the walls, he’s going to go alone, and he wants them to stay behind. This really is an important distinction to make in Levi’s characterization. We know he always places the safety of his comrades above all else, if he can, and tries his best to keep them alive. And the whole reason he agreed to Furlan’s plan in the first place was because he wanted to help Furlan’s and Isabel’s dream of living up above come true. He would never purposefully endanger their lives, or so thoughtlessly dismiss their safety. This is something which gets further corrected later in the story, too, when Levi makes his fateful choice, and I’ll get more into it there as well. One detail though is how Levi tells Furlan not to worry, that he’ll “do something about the Titans.”. Levi clearly believes in his own strength, and believes it will be enough to protect his friends at this point, which goes back to the theme of him struggling to know which is better to rely on, oneself, or ones comrades. Here, he’s relying on himself to protect them. He asks Furlan “Don’t you trust me?”. He’s reminding Furlan that he’s never let him down before, and he promises he won’t now either.

We see Furlan later finding that full trust again, when Levi engages with the abnormal titan, and sees his fearlessness, giving him his own strength to fight. It speaks volumes about the kind of camaraderie shared between all three of them, that they’re able to work so smoothly and effectively together the first time any of them have ever fought a Titan, and how deeply Furlan and Isabel trust Levi to get them through any dangerous situation, as they willingly follow him into battle.

Alright, I’ll be getting to chapter 5 next.

Also, if anyone wants to ever add anything to any of my posts, feel free! I love to talk with people.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #No Regrets #Levi Ackerman #Furlan Church #isabel magnolia #Erwin Smith #snk analysis

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duhragonball · 4 years ago

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Hellsing Liveblog Ch. 77-81

This is the Seras vs. Captain fight, which is for some reason broken up over a one-shot “Operation Wolf”, and two 2-part arcs “Warcraft” and “Wolffang”.

Seriously, why not just call it “Wolf Stuff” parts 1 through 5 and be done with it?

Okay, so The Captain has been hanging around Millennium since they debuted in Brazil, but he hasn’t done jack shit so far. He intercepted Walter and Integra when they were trying to drive home to Hellsing HQ, and Walter sent Integra away, claiming that he doubted that he could defeat the Captain at his advanced age. After Integra left, he remarked that the Captain was just as strong as he had been when Walter last met him, presumably in 1944.

Then it turned out that Walter was secretly in league with Millennium, and as the invasion of London started to turn against the Nazis, you had the Captain and Vampire Walter both sort of hanging back and protecting the Major. Then Alucard showed up and the Captain got right in his face, along with Alexander Anderson, as if to suggest that the three of them were the “big guns” of their respective camps. But he still didn’t do a whole lot. I mean, he attacked Alucard while he unlocked Level 0, but so did everyone else and it didn’t do any good. When Anderson tried to fight Alucard one-on-one, the Captain and Walter held back and watched.

Finally, when Walter made his big play against Alucard, the Captain only stepped into keep anyone else from stepping in. He shot Heinkel in the face, but not fatally, and even gave her a medical kit before he headed back to the Major’s blimp.

So this part where he confronts Integra and Seras as they fight their way to the Major is supposed to be a big deal, like when Darth Maul appears on Naboo and the Jedi have to fight him while Queen Amidala takes her soldiers on a detour. Except it works in Star Wars because we had seen Darth Maul fight earlier in the movie, and we knew what he was capable of. With the Captain, I guess the main appeal is that the story treats him like a big deal, as if hyping up the eventual moment when he finally shows us what he can do. Well this is it.

Leading into this fight, the Major was explaining to Hellsing that he and his Last Battalion crave death, but not just any old death. They want to go out in a glorious struggle, which is why they spent 55 years preparing to pick a fight with the Hellsing Organization. At this point, just about everyone in Millennium is dead, so now it comes down to the last few guys to choose their partners for their own final dance. The Major wants a showdown with Integra, so the Captain points out the way for her so she can leave Seras and the Captain to have their showdown.

At this point, it’s really just process of elimination. I think by now, Millennium’s down to just five guys: The Major, the Captain, the Doctor, Walter, and Warrant Officer Schrodinger. Dok and Schrodinger don’t seem like fighters, and apparently Walter vs. Alucard suits the Major’s plans, so either the Captain can fight Seras or he can stand around and watch everyone else fight. That seemed obvious to me when I watched the OVA in 2016, but now I’m thinking about it a little more.

I mean, for me, this is great, because Seras is my favorite character, and this means we get another Seras fight out of this story before it wraps up. And the general idea here is that this is Seras’ first real battle after she leveled-up and turned the tables on Zorin Blitz. This is a chance for her to face a much stronger enemy and show off what she can really do as a “true” vampire. One advantage of late-game Seras is that Kouta Hirano draws her a lot more seriously. Her stockings aren’t as baggy and her boobs aren’t flopping around like two walnuts in a condom. I’ve always felt like a lot of early Seras art was intentionally silly just to emphasize her as a rookie-sidekick-comic relief. That never completely goes away with Seras, but in the later volumes she gets to at least approach the dignity of her masters.

So for my money, this whole fight justifies the Captain’s existence in the story. He was waiting in the wings to fight Seras once she had grown powerful enough to rise to the challenge. And they did a good job building the guy up for this. He never fought anyone up to now, but Walter acted like he was a big deal, and we’ve seen Walter wipe out a lot of bad guys over this story. And his three-way showdown with Anderson and Alucard suggests that he could fight Alucard and not look too stupid.

Also, I finally found a scanlation of Hellsing: The Dawn, and confirmed that yes, Kid Walter and Girlycard faced the Captain in 1944, and Girlycard cut and run. The Dawn ended right after that moment, so we still don’t know exactly why Alucard abandoned that fight. Was he actually afraid he might lose? I suspect there was more to it than that. The point is that if you know about that moment, you realize that Seras is in deep water here. She’s throwing down with a guy who stood up to Walter and Alucard and survived.

So this fight is a big deal for Seras’ character arc, but I sort of wonder if this was what the Captain wanted. Everyone else in Millennium was looking forward to this big epic battle in London, just killing and eating civilians left and right, and then dying in some climactic battle with Hellsing and/or the 9th Crusade and/or a nuclear bomb dropped by the Queen. I can imagine Zorin Blitz anxiously awaiting any of those outcomes.

But the Captain’s almost too powerful for his own good, and I suspect he’s the one guy who understood what the Major had in mind for Alucard. So he knew he wouldn’t get to fight Alucard or Walter or Anderson, because they’d be too busy fighting each other. Anyone else is a mismatch for him. He beat Heinkel Wolfe like she was nothing. None of the 9th Crusaders would have stood a chance against him. Seras is giving him a decent workout, but Seras wasn’t even on the board until a few months ago, and she didn’t start drinking blood until last night.

So was the Captain just sort of going along with the Major’s plan, hoping against hope that there’d be sport for him in London? Maybe he was the backup plan in case something fell through with Walter or Anderson. Maybe he was thrilled when they learned that Alucard had turned Seras. “Maybe she can give me the fight I want,” he might have thought to himself.

You know, I’m just thinking out loud here, but I think I’m starting to get into this guy. I never cared much for The Captain’s strong silent act before, but he makes a nice blank slate that you can project things onto. Maybe he’s been observing Seras this whole time, trying not to get his hopes up, but also knowing that she was his only chance to get anything out of this battle. He’d watch the Dandyman fight and hope that Dandyman didn’t kill her. He’d watch the crisis with the H.M.S. Eagle and be relieved that Alucard was sent to stop Rip van Winkle and not Seras, who might not have survived the attempt. He’d watch Zorin Blitz’s unauthorized assault on the Hellsing Mansion and wonder if Zorin blew his chance or saved it. There’s a fanfic in this. I gotta write this down. Wait, I am writing it down. Sorry.

Let me get back to the fight itself. After we get past the “shooting big guns at each other” stage, the fundamental problem becomes apparent. The Captain can become intangible, allowing him to hit Seras without getting hit back. This is something I had trouble following the first time I watched this fight, because early on, the Captain seemed to fake out Seras by slipping out of his coat and using it as a decoy. Like, that’s a trick a mortal fighter could pull, but the point is that The Captain keeps doing that same gag without the coat. But I didn’t pick up on it because he transforms into a wolf-like creature, so it didn’t register that he’s a giant werewolf and he can turn intangible. But yeah, he can do both, and that’s why he gave Walter and Al such a hard time before. You can’t hit the guy, and even if you could, he’s not a vampire, so the usual anti-vampire tactics we’ve seen so far aren’t going to be enough.

Meanwhile, Alucard is fed up with this fight against Walter. Walter’s body is powerful but unstable, so it’s really just a matter of time before Alucard wins by default. But he’s not willing to wait that long, because Walter’s a shithead turncoat who doesn’t deserve the honor of a glorious last stand. Anderson got that honor, but Walter? Get outta town. So instead, Alucard decides to drink a bunch of blood to power up and crush Walter in one fell swoop.

“But where’s he gonna get blood at this hour?” you might ask. “The Blood Store” doesn’t open until 9:30am!”

Oh, that’s no trouble at all. After all, there was an enormous battle in London last night, so Alucard can just summon all of the blood from everyone who was killed. London civilians, Ninth Crusaders, Millennium troops, all of them. I don’t know what the range is on this ability, but if you’re dead and you have blood, he’s taking it.

This development pleases the Major, who reflects on the nature of vampires, and why he would never want to be one. He flashes back to what I assume was the Battle of Berlin? There were Russian soldiers beating the shit out of him and then they shot him and left him for dead. I guess that could be any German town invaded by Soviet troops in the final months of the war. Anyway, that moment bears a striking resemblence to Vlad Tepes’ final human moments in Chapter 68. The blood even seems to seep towards the Major, as though inviting him to drink before he dies, so that he can become a vampire himself. But the Major refuses.

Then the Doctor and the Captain happened along and saved him, I guess. This marks the first confirmation that the Major is not a vampire like his Last Battallion troops. Somehow he looks exactly the same in 1999 as he did in 1944, but it’s not because of vampire powers. Well, the Doctor might have turned him into a vampire after 1944, right? Wrong, the Major despises the very concept of becoming a vampire, because he understands the whole deal with absorbing the souls of others when you drink their blood. As he sees it, doing this represents a dilution of the self. Alucard has been drinking the blood of thousands of people over the centuries, which has made him powerful and nigh immortal, but you can make the argument that he’s lost his own identity in the process. The Major respects his power but he considers the price too high. “I am me,” he declares, in defiance of all the glorious, beautiful power that Alucard has. That’s what makes them enemies, in his mind.

So the Major resolved to defeat Alucard without becoming a vampire himself. For him, this “war” he keeps talking about has been like a mountain climber looking for the ultimate mountain to climb. How could he achieve this lofty goal? Everything he’s done has been to set up this singular moment. That’s why he treated his own goons as expendable, and why he never cared much when one of them failed a mission or defied him. The Doctor thought Dandyman might beat Alucard, but the Major knew it would never be that easy. It was just a test run to guage Alucard’s abilities. Rip van Winkle and Zorin Blitz were never supposed to succeed in their missions, they were just pawns sacrificed to get the opposing pieces into position. The Catholic forces were there to force Alucard to unleash Level 0 and then lose all of his stored-up souls. And then Walter would attack Alucard, goading him into drinking all this new blood to finish the battle.

But what good would that do the Major? Well, he seems to think he can “poison” this “wine”. But we’ll get into that later. For now, the point is that the Major has good reason to be smiling, even though he seems to be on the verge of defeat.

But let’s get back to this shindig. You know, the Captain looks kind of cute this way, like he’s just sniffing Seras to get to know her.

Just as Seras begins to despair, she suddenly hears a guy with a French accent speaking in her mind. It’s Pip! He’s alive! Bullllllshit he is, he took a scythe in the back and Seras drank all his blood. He’s as dead as it gets, but she can hear him anyway.

The OVA explained this better. There, when Zorin tried to read Seras’ mind that last time, she saw Pip’s memories intermingled with hers, and when Shrodinger appeared to relay the Major’s message, he also mentioned that when a human gives up his blood to a vampire willingly, it has a more profound effect on the vampire who consumes it. And this always struck me as a good explanation for why Seras overwhelmed Zorin so completely, and why Pip could still retain his consciousness inside Seras. We already saw Alucard’s host of absorbed souls, but they were little more than mindless drones. I always found Dandyman and Rip to be especially frigthening, because we know they were bitter enemies of Alucard, but they seem completely oblivious to this as they fight in his service as familiars. But Pip is his own man. Maybe it helps that he’s the only one in Seras’ “castle”, but it’s probably got more to do with the fact that they were friends before and he wanted it to be this way.

Anyway, Pip starts giving Seras advice during the fight. He convinces her not to give up, and then he gives pointers on how to use her powers in more tactical ways. For example, instead of using her left arm to throw her shadow tendril at the Captain like a spear, he tells her to cast it along the ground. This way, she can attack him along a plane, instead of a single point, making it harder for him to avoid it.

But it still doesn’t solve the problem of the Captain’s intangibility. I guess he can turn into something like mist? I’m not sure what it is exactly, except that he can’t be touched unless he wants to be.

The Captain knocks Seras down into the cargo hold of the airship, where Seras discovers a gold tooth, and Pip observes that this must be a horde of treasure that the Nazis stole from all of their victims in World War II. It’s easy to lose sight of the Nazi angle with this story, because it’s introduced like this shocking development, and then it becomes to commonplace in the story that it’s almost like background noise. But this moment offers a helpful way to bring that back into focus. There was never any cause behind Nazi Germany. It was always about killing and brutalizing other people and taking all their stuff. Likewise, Millennium’s been doing all this horrible shit for no other reason than the sick fun of it. I think Kouta Hirano chose the Nazi imagery because he’s a World War II buff, but I’m glad he threw in scenes like these to remind everyone that this isn’t just some aesthetic choice. He’s using the Nazis’ real world atrocities to bolster this dark narrative where the good guy is fucking Dracula of all people.

On another note, why did Millennium bring all this shit with them? I guess they knew they wouldn’t be coming back to Brazil, but the Major seems pretty sure they won’t be leaving England alive either. Then again, it seems like a lot of his men didn’t understand this, so maybe he only allowed them to bring their treasure to humor them.

But it works out for the Captain because he brought Seras down here so he could kick a silver tooth at her. Pip realizes that it’s a hint. I don’t know if the Captain is trying to lose this fight, but he at least wants Seras to know how to beat him. Maybe he’s just bored dodging her attacks, and he thinks he needs to give her a handicap to make this more interesting. Or maybe he honestly doesn’t care about this fight, and he’s just trying to find someone to put him out of his misery because he can’t do it himself.

Something I noticed in the manga is that Seras is only briefly surprised to hear Pip speaking from within her. Like, she wasn’t expecting this to happen, but it doesn’t take her very long to get used to it. Maybe this is part of her development. Stuff like this no longer throws her anymore. She just instinctively understands how her vampire body works now. How is Pip smoking right now? How is she aware of him smoking? Why does she care if he does it or not? I dig this sort of thing because we never find out, but even if we had the answers we could never understand what this is like.

My only complaint about the whole “Pip’s inside me” development is that it threatens to undermine Seras’ rise as a hero in her own right. She became what she is now when she made the decision to drink blood and embrace her true nature. But now that she’s here, she’s taking orders from Pip and calling him “Sir”, which sort of implies that she’s only doing this well because she’s merged with Pip and he’s giving her directions.

Like, I know that’s not the real message her. This is just Seras getting deeper into her own powers, one of which is the ability to use familiars like her Master did earlier. It just plays out differently because she only has one and it’s a more personal connection. She’s probably only calling him “sir” because Seras is just respectful of her elders and that’s in-character for her. But I’m still not crazy about some of this.

Anyway, they figure out that the Captain has to turn solid when he attacks, so the key here is to eat a hit from the Captain and then hit him back before he can go intangible again.

So Seras puts it all togehter for one final attack. He picks up a huge bomb and throws it at the Captain...

...then she tries to divekick him through the smoke of the explosion. He spots her anyway, but it doesn’t matter because...

... she needs to hit him while he’s trying to hit her. I think the smoke was just to make him think she was making a mistake when she was actually trying to get him to stand his ground. Note that Seras is punching with her left arm. Usually it’s just a trail of shadowy tendrils, but she’s been coalescing it into a more typical arm shape during this fight, mostly to hold guns and such.

So they punch each other’s hands so hard that their arms explode, but Seras recovers faster, because she’s used to that left arm being all disintegrated, I guess. Then she says “Oo-wa-a-a!” like she’s either singing “Down With The Sickness” or doing the Count von Count laugh. Take your pick, I got no idea what these word balloons are about.

The Captain throws a knee, but this time Seras catches his leg in her teeth, so I guess he can’t just go intangible like he normally does. This sets him up nicely for...

... Pip emerging from her left shoulder with the silver tooth. It’s a cool moment because it confirms that Pip isn’t just a voice in her head speaking from beyond the grave or whatever. He’s in there, inside of her, just like with Alucard and all of his familiars. This is Seras Victoria’s version of “Level 0″, which makes you wonder if she has the same Control Art Restriction thingies that Alucard had. She just seems to have inherited these abilities from Alucard, powers which I’m pretty sure the Hellsing Organization gave Alucard when they enhanced him over the past 100 years. Seras is doing all this naturally, if you can apply a word like “naturally” to alchemically enhanced vampires.

Anyway, Pip coming out to say hello means that Seras has a longer reach on her left side, so he drives the tooth into the Captain’s heart before he can do anything. Then Pip flips him off for good measure.

And that does the trick. The Captain seems surprised to be beaten this way, and then he laughs silently as he bursts into flame. I almost wonder if he was relieved to meet his end. The other Millennium soldiers died smiling, but he seemed more haunted by his time as an immortal monster. Anyway, Seras is fucking sick of these Nazi Vampires and their nihilist bullshit.

So has Sir Integra, who has finally found the Major, only to discoer he’s behind some reinforced glass dome or something. She uses up her ammo trying to shoot it, and then she breaks her sword on it.

And this is standard for the Major, as he seems to relish the chance to explain everything. Now that there’s no one left on his own team to listen, he seems to really want to go over it all with Integra, since he needs her to understand that this was all part of his plan. Alucard’s about to disappear, and I guess he couldn’t stand the thought of Integra thinking it was a coincidence.

So yeah, Alucard is busy gathering up all the blood of all the dead people in London, something like three million people. There’s rivers of blood flowing through town, converging on his location, and Warrant Officer Schrodinger is watching all of this when he suddenly whips out a knife and decapitates himself.

Then his head and body plunge into the river of blood. I guess it was impossible to kill this little turd, so maybe it figures that he had to kill himself.

And Alucard, completely unaware of this, sucks up all the blood without a care in the world. He’s finally ready to end Walter once and for all, but the Major thinks this is the end of Alucard instead. But why? Well...

#2021hellsingliveblog #hellsing #alucard #seras victoria #the captain #sir integra hellsing #the major #warrant officer schrodinger #the doctor #kind of surprised i had this much to say about the captain #but that's why these liveblogs are fun #you make connections you wouldn't otherwise make

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rayadraws · 5 years ago

Note

end of an era

Oh my gosh anon, our waiting is OVER. Patiently, not so patiently yearning… wishing… hoping… dreaming… we have IT.

I gotta talk about it, because of course I do, ahhh! This will be long, sorry…

I got my hands on the OVA this morning, about half an hour before work. I watched it, yelled on Discord and then went to work, practically vibrating the whole day until I could go home and watch it again and write down my thoughts!

Before release I had seen what available video clips and screenshots we had, plus a summary given to me by a Japanese mutual, in somewhat limited English. I was unsure what to expect but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I might! I understand that there’s a lot one can be confused or perhaps even put off by in the OVA but. Well. I enjoy seeing a vulnerable Genos (if like 90 % of the fanfic I’ve written wasn’t an indication lol) so I just ate it all UP. And since I’ve written a fic about him getting amnesia specifically, I was very curious to see how off the mark I was.

I won’t give a proper summary, there’s a good one by Nysh for that. Nor the animation. JC Staff is what JC Staff is. I’m instead going to just… muse and compare and go wild with my own personal headcanons - in that regard, this OVA was excellent, because it does give some hints about what makes Genos tick. Hold on to your butts…

Oh, and need I say that there will be SPOILERS? XD

—

Before I wrote my own amnesia fic, I did some research. So, what is amnesia? Well, the popular TV show version is one thing, of course RL is another. There are several kinds of amnesia, with different causes and different treatments. But the two main categories are longterm memory loss, where you can’t recall past memories (often up to what caused the amnesia) and short term memory loss, where you have difficulty forming new memories. You can get one or both. In my fic, Genos deals with both. In the OVA, he appears to have longterm memory loss only, as he tries to find Fubuki again to help him defeat the monster (if only he knew Saitama would by far have been a better choice!), so he remembers her. Not to mention at the end, when he’s trying desperately to apologize…

There is no instant cure for amnesia. Emotional support is important, medication (if it’s caused by underlying disease, which it can be) and psychological therapy can also be useful. Saitama is doing the right thing in the OVA by remaining calm and trying to avoid agitating Genos or pushing him to remember.

After he first wakes up, Genos is very lost, he only remembers his name and that he’s a cyborg - but not why! It’s really heartbreaking when you think a little more about it - imagine waking up in a cyborg body and not remembering why/how that happened… We actually discussed that on Discord before we had the OVA, what if he wakes up and doesn’t remember… but nahh, that’d be too dark, right? APPARENTLY NOT.

I can’t explain why Genos would be so heavily influenced by media around him as he is. That’s just made up for the humour… but if I were to try to find an actual in-world explanation, hm… Well, we do know he can be a Drama Boy. We also know he tends to be very standoffish and reserved towards most people, which I think is related to his trauma, in a few ways (he doesn’t want to get close to people due to the risk of once again experiencing the pain of losing them - and spending four years more or less on your own during your late teenage years is not an ideal environment for learning how to socialize…). We also know that when Genos finds something or someone he considers important, he latches on. So you could see it as being part of that, perhaps. Lost and confused he looks for anything that would make some kind of sense, trying to find a sense of direction or idea on whom he might be.

What exactly did you forget? Your quest for revenge or the sale you briefly remember later? Knowing Genos, it could be either…

He reacts in confusion to his body telling him that there’s an elevated energy signature nearby - I LOVED this. I wonder if he saw it as a note on his HUD, or if it’s more ingrained, more subtle. The way he got antsy and couldn’t sit still… it’s like his proximity sensors act as an extra sense, like Spiderman’s spider sense…. An extra sense that’s probably saved his life on more than one occasion.

He takes off, feeling like it’s his body moving, not him. I don’t think his body has an separate will of its own, but I have always hc:ed that he probably has systems that can calculate stuff for him mid-fight - how to move, where to release his weapons and at what strength etc. A little helpful internal computer. It’s a LOT for one little monkey brain to keep track of, so it wouldn’t be crazy to think he has some help with that, I think. And here, I don’t think his body is truly moving on his own without him having any control of it… more like muscle memory? Like there are times where I think I’ve forgotten a password to my work computer if I’ve been away for a week but then I sit down and my fingers remember the typing motions on their own. I imagine it’s something like that. He doesn’t know what to do, so he’s going where his instincts tell him.

Fubuki, ah, ever the scheming one. I enjoyed her showing up and being casual at Sai’s place because that’s how I like to write her in my fics. You can see the exact second when she goes into Business Mode, playing hard to get to lure Genos closer. Too bad she didn’t consider just how much his personality changed too, came on way too strong in the end…

And!!! A couple of times Genos puts his hand in defense, without seeminly knowing why, or doing it intentionally really. Hmmmm where…. have I seen this before…

He jumped when a warning flashed at the corner of his vision. It was his proximity sensors going off, his HUD informed him. On instinct, he ducked down behind the nearest tree. He should go back. Kuseno would keep him safe. But if he moved, the stranger might see him too. Don’t turn your back on an enemy.

His sensors told him the direction and the general size of the approaching being, but he couldn’t actually see it between the tall trees. It was moving very fast. He ducked lower, ferns brushing softly against his cheek. On instinct, he held his palm out in front of him, open and pointed at whatever was approaching him.

I am SO glad that I called this in my fic, it’s a small detail but it adds a lot I think! Raising his palm as a threat is second nature to Genos, even when he doesn’t consciously know why he’s doing it…

It’s interesting that throughout, Genos keeps referring to himself as “boku”, which is usually reserved for a male who is younger than 16 (though there are exceptions - Amai Mask also uses it, probably as part of his charming idol persona). Usually Genos refers to himself as “ore”, which is mostly used by adult men, more informal and can be viewed as disrespectful, depending on circumstance (Genos is not typically respectful towards people, if they are not Kuseno or Saitama). Combined with how meek he is, man… Okay, ONE said that before the mad cyborg attack, Genos’ personality was about the same as it is now. So why is he so different? Well… I don’t think that’s too shocking, really. I mean, if you lost all your memories and sense of self, realized you were a cyborg for some reason???, ended up alone in a weird city, not knowing where you were or what to do, and suddenly people pointed at you asking you to fight a terrifying monster even though you have no idea how to fight… you’d probably be terrified too! I think we can assume his personality change is caused by his amnesia. But we can probably also assume that a Genos who never had his village attacked and never got involved with fighting/being a hero would not grow to be exactly the same as canon, anyway. He’d probably be a rude brat… but yeah. At least a few degrees less aggressive/ready to throw down!

Again with the hand!

A thought I had reading the exchange between the monster and Genos… it reads almost like how you might expect Genos’ meeting with the mad cyborg might have looked like, only in a sad, reverse kind of way. These lines - “I’m not ready yet… I’m not ready to die here… not yet!” - like, dude… that sounds exactly what might have gone through his head back then. Maybe the first inkling of his past returning to him at that second…

He feels something, remembers something, is shocked.. and it comes back… “I cannot win like this!”. And then he remembers Kuseno, and Saitama…

Once more, those lines together: “I’m not ready yet… I’m not ready to die here… not yet! I cannot win like this!”

We’ll probably never get it verified, but I find it very, very likely he used more or less these exact words, or something very similar, after meeting the mad cyborg.

Also, as much as I appreciate the closeness between Genos and Saitama, I AM glad that he remembered Kuseno first - he’s known Kuseno for four years, Saitama for less than 2 months, when this takes place. It’s only right and it fits very well with his character introduction too, where he thought he was dying and his last thought was an apology to Kuseno. A nice nod. I enjoyed that animation sequence a lot too!

When he remembers who he is, Genos feels so bad about his actions but he still can’t deny what he said before… Saitama’s face… omg… Bless them both.He brings Saitama wild/game meat - d'ya figure he bought it or, um… got it for free? I mean, that’s… exactly the kind of creature he fought… maybe he’s learnt Sensei’s ways…

And Saitama is happy he’s back. He cares about Genos! He likes him like he is, as intense and blunt and socially awkward as he is! What a sweet note to end the OVA on!

#opm s2 #ova 3 #anime spoilers #ova spoilers #amnesia #ahhhhAAAAAHHH

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lepus-arcticus · 5 years ago

Text

OMENS: CHAPTER FIVE one | two | three | four trigger warnings apply HORIZON MENNONITE COLONY JULY 23 - 12:06 PM

Abel Stoesz was cabled with stringy muscle, a sparse yellow beard struggling to assert itself under phlegmy, peacock-blue eyes. He had the brutish, loose-jawed look of someone who was willfully stupid, and Mulder, still on edge from the dead fox in the boat, was already itching to break his nose.

Salome, his wife, was a waif of a woman; tiny, shorter even than Scully, and so agonizingly underweight that you could see the architecture of her skull beneath her face. Perched beside Abel on the stiff loveseat, she rested her bird-bone hands on the gentle, rounded swell of her belly, and a raisin-coloured bruise, smattered with green, framed one eye. Most of her was buttoned up in one of the ubiquitous puff-sleeved frocks of the religiously sequestered, but Mulder would bet that the bruise had a few cousins underneath the powder-blue polyester. They were a few days fresh, he estimated, probably about as old as the news of Anna’s death.

Mulder longed for the opportunity to set Abel up with a few matching welts of his own, but settled for hating him privately in the interest of avoiding an assault charge and one of Skinner’s arduous ass-chewings. He consoled himself by grinding his molars together.

Outside, white bungalows and red barns squatted in clusters on the flat expanse of land. A black storm battled the sun for dominance, and the glass panes of the windows, loose in their tracks, rattled against the wind. The other members of the colony, bonneted and behatted, milled politely about their business.

He and Marion had been invited to stay for lunch by the community elders the moment they arrived. They’d been ferried along to the dining hall, but then Abel had emerged from the throng and snapped them away from the friendly masses, yelling for Salome, who scurried after them and into the dark of their tiny home.

The air stank of hyssop detergent. No one offered coffee or tea. Marion refused to sit down, and Salome eyed the gun on her hip uneasily.

Abel spoke first, and spoke plainly. “I didn’t murder my sister.”

“It’s interesting you say that, Mr. Stoesz,” Mulder countered, struggling to hide the contempt in his voice. “Why do you assume that Anna was murdered?”

“Why else would you people be here?” Abel glared at Marion, who was standing sentinel near the empty wall, arms crossed. Mulder half expected steam to billow from her nostrils.

“Your sister’s husband mentioned that you’re not too fond of him,” Mulder said. “Would you say that’s accurate?”

“Hugh Daly is a scourge on this earth, and every day I pray for his retribution,” Abel sneered, spittle frothing in the corners of his mouth.

“Wouldn’t it be more Christlike to pray for mercy on his soul, instead of divine punishment?” Marion asked, her face ruddy with indignation. She stared Abel down with fiery determination, and Abel stared right back, the loose skin around his eyes twitching, not deigning to respond. The wind knocked against the windows like it wanted to pick a fight.

“What has he done to warrant retribution?” Mulder asked, and Abel turned back to him.

“Anna always had a… disobedient streak. That’s why she left. But that man… he seduced her, corrupted her. Ruined her. Before he came sniffing around, before he made her his whore, Anna could have still come home. She could have returned to her people, to her rightful place.”

“Her rightful place?” Mulder prodded.

“It was my duty to bring her back. To correct her. She was my sister. My responsibility.”

Mulder leaned back in his seat, hands firmly flattened on his knees so they wouldn’t accidentally crash into Abel’s ugly mug. He let his eyes pass over Salome’s battered, bitter face, and wondered what, exactly, constituted this man’s idea of responsibility.

“You know, Mr. Stoesz,” he began, slowly, easing into a new strategy. “I… do admire your conviction. It takes a strong hand to correct a wayward woman, and so few men these days have the stomach for it.”

Abel was visibly heartened, his mouth twisting into an agreeable, self-righteous frown. This is too easy, Mulder thought to himself. Men like Abel thrived on validation. If he could effectively convince him that he was on his side, he was sure Abel would, intentionally or otherwise, let the cat out of the bag. Or, maybe, in this case, the crow.

Mulder could feel Marion staring at the back of his head, but thankfully, she didn’t say anything. He hoped she could trust that he knew what he was doing.

“I have a sister too,” he half-lied. “I understand. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her. To bring her home if she was… lost.” His mind conjured a few versions of Samantha at various ages, abducted, cloned, ripped to a bloody pulp in the wheat. His chest contracted in a familiar pain, and he directed the images to the raw hollow in the back of his brain where he kept most of his thoughts about her, promising to return to them later for self-flagellation.

Abel nodded fervidly, evidently gathering his thoughts.

“Anna was the devil’s slut⁠—” Salome hissed in a high, thin squall, apparently unable to contain herself any longer. “Witch—”, then Abel violently gripped her arm, and she gasped and shut her mouth, glowering at her belly and skating a claw around it discontentedly.

“She was still my kin,” Abel growled.

Mulder, sensing an opening, leapt in for the kill. “Mr. Stoesz, have you ever experienced anything you couldn’t explain? Or suspected that you have the ability to make things… happen? To affect the world around you without necessarily taking direct action?”

Abel looked at Mulder stupidly, his neanderthal mind stonemilling the words, trying to decide if he was accusing him of something or not. But before he could answer, Salome spoke again.

“Hugh Daly is facing retribution for his sins. Whatever misfortunes befall him, whether they are acts of God, man, or Satan himself, he is deserving of.” She trembled with conviction, her bony jaw shaking.

“And Anna, Mrs. Stoesz? What about her?” Marion said tersely, from over at the wall.

“Perhaps she has also received her judgement,” said Salome, and Abel looked at her quickly, working, Mulder noticed, to keep his expression neutral.

Mulder’s cell chirped in his pocket. “Excuse me,” he muttered, and removed himself to the porch, carelessly letting the screen door slam shut behind him. He jabbed the worn rubber of the call button and put the phone to his ear, squinting at the gathering storm. “Mulder.”

“Mulder, it’s me…” Scully sounded breathless, resigned. He didn’t like it one bit. “Hey, you okay? What did the autopsy turn up?” He picked at a shard of peeling paint on the railing, wary of the sadness in her voice.

“Anna Daly was pregnant.”

“... Are you sure? How can you tell?”

“I found… remnants. Of the fetus.”

Mulder flinched. “From what I can gather based on the apparent level of skeletal development, I’d estimate she was eighteen to twenty weeks along.”

He sucked air through his teeth. “Jesus. You think Daly knew?”

“I’m going to call him up to the station here and find out.”

“You okay?” His stomach clenched with the brief flickering memory of her ova in a vial. Not now, he thought. She doesn’t need to know right now. Maybe not ever.

She hesitated momentarily before answering him. “I’m fine, Mulder.”

“You sure?” Scully’s voice took on an exasperated edge. “Yes.”

“Because if you’re not, it’s…” “What do you want me to say? That it was fun?” She said, sharply. “Scully, that’s not⁠—”

“⁠—Listen, I have to get back. We’ll discuss it tonight.”

“...Okay,” he said, doing little to disguise the irritation in his tone.

Held hostage by some unspoken, unacknowledged superstition, neither of them said goodbye. Mulder hung up the phone, took a stabilizing breath, refocused himself, and walked back inside. He settled back into a stiff-cushioned chair across from the Stoeszs. “I just got a call from my partner,” he said. “Mr. Stoesz, are you aware that Anna was pregnant at the time of her death?”

Abel looked like Mulder had punched him in the gut, which was almost as good as actually doing it.

“Are you serious?” Marion whispered behind him, and when he glanced over his shoulder at her, her eyes were saucer-wide.

And then Abel leapt up in a sudden rage, prompting Salome to flee the loveseat like a frightened, emaciated rabbit.

“Get out of my house,” he seethed, taking a few lunging steps towards Marion. She stumbled backwards, palming her gun over the holster.

“Mrs. Stoesz, if you’d like, you’re free to come with us.” Mulder swiftly maneuvered himself so that he was between her and Abel, and reached out an upturned hand, but she gave him such a sharp, hateful look that his balls practically shrivelled, even as his heart went out to her.

“You heard my husband,” she hissed. “Get out.”

Just another person he couldn’t save. Add it to the scoreboard, boys.

He stomped out of the house behind Marion’s flustered stride, the cool wind catching the edge of his trench coat and sending it flapping behind him. A few plaid-clad teenage boys waved excitedly at them from the flat of a wooden cart as they hoofed it back to the truck.

Marion released a creative string of curses and condemnations concerning Abel’s personal attributes, including the diminutive size of his dick. “You drive,” she finished, tossing Mulder the keys in disgust. “I’m gonna end up killing us if I do. Fuck, that man riles me.”

“You’ve got experience with him? Mulder asked, as he hoisted himself into the cracked leather driver’s seat of Marion’s cherry Chevy Scottsdale. A felted green air freshener in the shape of a pine tree swung from the rearview mirror. He started the engine, and Harvest swelled to life from the tape deck.

“Kind of.” Marion said, slumping into the passenger seat. “Met him a few times. Mostly at Rhiannon’s, back when me and Anna lived there. He used to show up a lot. Rhiannon usually wouldn’t let him past the front door, so him ‘n Anna’d be arguing in the driveway… God, was she really pregnant?”

“Yeah. Sc - uh, Dana found, um. She found evidence to that fact.”

“Fuck. Goddamnit.” Marion was pale.

Mulder pulled into the road and eased the needle on the speedometer upwards. The truck gasped and sputtered like it was having an asthma attack. The sky above had turned dark and threatening, but the sun pushed a few tenacious arms through the thunderclouds to illuminate the lonely stretch of highway. It was eerie as hell.

“So… while we’re at it, can you tell me how you came to live at Rhiannon’s?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“C’mon. Just help me out a little here.”

Marion picked at a hangnail, sullen and slouching. “Um... I, um, left the res when I was 16. I wasn’t planning on staying in Horizon or anything, but Theo picked me up and kinda took care of me and set me up at Rhiannon’s. She took Anna in, too, when she ran away from the colony.”

“Did Anna ever say anything about why she ran away?”

“Oh, gee, I dunno, she was probably tired of getting pummeled to shit by her brother,” she said bitterly, as if he was an idiot. She gripped the console and swallowed. “Fox, slow down a little.”

“Oh⁠—” he eased off the gas pedal. “The… colony elders didn’t do anything about it? What about their parents?”

“Her parents have been dead for years. Highway accident. And the elders...it was none of their business, not their concern. You saw how Salome looked. They’re fucking heartless up there.”

Mulder nodded, thinking. “So… do you think that Abel would be capable of all the things that have been happening? Setting the silos on fire? Drowning the horse? …Anna?”

“No,” Marion said flatly. “I don’t.” She took a deep breath and let it stream out of her nose.

“I’d love to know your thoughts on this, Marion.”

“And I’d love to know what the fuck you were going on about in there. Affecting things without trying to. What does that even mean?”

He eased into it as naturally as he could, cautious of her mood. “Well… in my particular line of work, I’ve seen people who… experience such a strong emotion that it can affect the physical world around them. Daly claims he’s been seeing omens, right? And I saw something strange myself this morning. A dead fox in a boat out at the lake.” She turned to him at that, quickly, with a sharp look in her eye. “That seems pretty on the nose, don’t you think?” he continued. “Perhaps Abel’s anger towards Daly is manifesting in these visions, or somehow these events are a result of⁠—”

“⁠—Stop the car. Oh, God, stop the car. Stop the car.” Mulder glanced at her, and upon seeing the look on her face, immediately pulled over to the side of the highway, lurching over the rumble strip. Even before they’d rolled to a stop, Marion was heaving herself out of the passenger seat and vomiting noisily into the ditch, clutching her stomach.

Mulder had to look away to keep from losing the rest of his breakfast. Jesus, first this morning, and now Marion... this was entirely too much upchuck for one day. He hadn’t even been going that fast.

He hunted around the back seat for the bottle of water he’d spotted earlier. He replayed a few fresh, brutal memories of Scully’s poorly-hidden chemo nausea, her deathly pallor, her heart-wrenching heaves behind closed motel bathroom doors. He burned anew with guilt.

Mulder swung himself out of the truck when the retching stopped, toting the bottle. Marion was kneeling on the side of the road, arms wrapped around herself, weeping. He crouched down and placed a palm on her back, trying not to balk at the caustic smell of her.

“Marion, have some water, okay?” He held the bottle out to her, and she looked up at him, teeth bared, her earth-dark eyes bottomless with desperation. “We’ll find out what happened to Anna. I promise. We’ll keep you safe. From Abel, from Hugh⁠—”

“Oh, you stupid, stupid⁠—” she sobbed. “Abel has nothing to do with it. You can’t stop it, Fox. You can’t. You need to leave this place. You need to get out.”

An investigatory thrill chilled the back of his neck, and a distant flash of lightning silently illuminated a fumey cluster of clouds. “What can’t I stop, Marion? Why do we need to leave?”

Marion groaned in tandem with a low roll of thunder, her tears splattering onto the asphalt, a prelude of the coming storm.

“You can’t stop what’s happening.” Her throat was thick with fear. “No one can.”

#omens #txf fic #i fucking MEAN IT about the trigger warnings on this chapter folks I felt sick writing it #also it's a holiday monday so I'm just posting this now instead of later because well. I'm the boss of me!

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softasheijis · 6 years ago

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do you think there is any possibility of a bf ova?

it’s difficult to say. if there was an actual ova in the works, fans would expect garden of light. the problem is that the anime was left open-ended intentionally by mappa because they wanted to give viewers a more hopeful ending and let us decide whether ash lynx survived or not, unlike the manga where gol confirms his death. therefore, i think an ova based on this epilogue is unlikely.

however, i’d like to think that yoshida might still approve of an ova of some sort in the future, if only to please the fans. it’s not as if there isn’t more content available to make. it would be amazing to see the private opinion or angel eyes short stories animated. i’d be over the moon!!!!

and more unrealistically, as in it’s literally never going to happen but i can still dream, i would die for a silly highschool au like in her post-finale manga special where she talks about the series.

#answered #anonymous

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burnouts3s3 · 6 years ago

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Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 50 USD Digital Copy (MSRP): 17.99 USD How much I paid: 50 USD. Animation Studio: ARMS Licensed and Localized by: Funimation Entertainment Audio: Japanese Audio with Subtitles and English Dub available. English Cast: Kayla Hardwick as Mamori, Morgan Garrett as Mirei, Brittney Karbowski as Meifon, Janelle Lutz as Akira Hiragi, Monica Rial as Charlotte Scharsen, Roseanne Palmer as Kasumi Shigure, Tia Ballard as Rain Hasumi, Jamie Marchi as Lady J and Cynthia Cranz as Torino. Number of Episodes: 12 Episodes Length per Episode: 25 Minutes on average. 21 Without Intro and Ending song. Number of Discs: 4 Discs in Total. 2 DVD Discs and 2 Blu-ray discs. Episodes per Disc: Episodes 1-7 on the 1st DVD disc. Episodees 8-12 on the 2nd DVD disc. Episodes 1-9 on the first Blu-ray disc with Episodes 10-12 on the second Blu-ray disc along with the special features. Does this come a digital voucher to redeem?: No. This only has the Physical DVD and Blu-ray discs. Also on: Amazon Video, Funimation Now, Funimation’s streaming service that requires a subscription. Bonus Features: Textless Openings, Textless Ending and Trailers for other Funimation Licensed Shows. Episode 3 Commentary. Notable Localization Changes: Meifon, the smuggler character who wears a pink cowboy hat, is given a southern accent by her voice performer, Brittney Kowbalski. My Personal Biases: I never really invested in the Valkyrie Drive franchise before and never played any of the games the anime is adapting. Sorry. My Verdict: Trashy, lurid, gaudy and with enough fanservice to make even the most perverted of us blush, Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid is sure to give its intending audience the happy ending they want. It’s too bad that in 12 short episodes, there’s just not enough there, emotionally or lore wise, to get invested in unless you’ve already have backhand knowledge of the games. Wait for a sale. A/N: Okay, since I don’t want the moderators to flag this post, I’m going to have to put an explicit warning here. So while I won’t post any nudity, I will have to Age restrict this post just so I don’t get any flak. Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid. a review

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Girls from all over the world have been infected with a mysterious virus known as the A Virus (Armed Virus). These girls are divided into two classes; Extars, who can transform into weapons when sexually aroused, and Liberators, who have the power to wield an Extar's weapon form, known as Liberator Arms, through a process known as Drive. These girls are brought to separate islands to spend their days completely isolated from the rest of the world until the islands' Observers, authorized by the government Organisation AAA, ostensibly deem them ready to rejoin society again. Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid follows an Extar named Mamori Tokonome who forms a partnership with the Liberator Mirei Shikishima on the island called Mermaid.(For our friends not fluent in Japanese, Tokonome shares a very similar writing as the word ‘Virgin’ in Japanese, which Togonome is.). Mamori and Mirei are caught between a conflict between the Wärter, the island’s government that lives the castle, Veste, and those fleeing it. With Governor Akira (a supposed male Liberator that’s actually female) trying to be fair, Charlotte getting delusions of grandeur and wanting to rule with an iron fist and Kasumi attempting to be fair to the girls, the Wärter is in constant conflict. Those attempting to flee join up with Ms. Torumi, a kind soul who offers shelter for girls looking for freedom. Meanwhile, a sneaky smuggler by the name of Meifon is trying to earn a profit from the war. Along the way, Mamori and Mirei meet other Liberators and Extars, such as the team Lady J and Lady Rain in which one transforms into a ridable motorcycle. Other liberators, such as Charlotte, have their own harem of Extars and arouse multiple ones to form a multi-part weapon. Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, it IS in fact Soul Eater but with Lesbians. And the show isn’t afraid of being explicit about it. We are talking full-on nudity with lots of exposed breasts flopping around, bouncing and lots and lots of shots of nipples erecting… and hardening… Christ, this makes fanservice driven series like Kannazuki no Miko or Strawberry Panic look like the chaste Maria-Sama ga Miteru. On the technical side, everything is very well done. The animation for both the action and fanservice scenes is well animated, the music flows scene to scene (even if I couldn’t really remember any pieces that stood out) and the voice acting for both the Original Japanese and English dub is well-done. So, if you’re looking for lots and lots of scenes of girls kissing each other, breasts flopping around with the viscosity of jello and scenes of action with naked girls, have I got a show for you. Story wise, I found the series rather lacking. Seasonal shows really need to be careful with their pacing. With a limited 12 episode run, VD:M is already bursting at the seams with an overly long 4 episode prologue establishing the characters, the setting, the divide between the girls going along with Charlotte and Akira’s lawful order, Kasumi’s wavering allegiance and Torumi’s group of rebels and Meifon’s smuggling between the 2 sides. There’s a sense of urgency that the peace can’t last and conflict is unavoidable. But, not so urgent that we couldn’t have two light-hearted episodes involving one girl becoming Kaiju sized and another episode with a beauty contest in a cultural festival.

Boy, this season of Attack on Titan got WEIRD. When the main big bad does rear her head near the final 4 episodes, the show does a good ‘enough’ job establishing the backstory between her and Mirei, but you get the sense that maybe, had the show paced itself better, it would mean more. Yes, the final battle with all the girls joining together at the end is impressive to look at, but emotionally, I just wasn’t feeling it. If the show were as committed to giving me emotional turning points as it was fan service, I would’ve been more impressed. The characters are also rather lacking (writing wise). While Mirei is certainly admirable and one of the most likable of the cast, Mamori doesn’t really change much (character wise). Granted, the show pays lipservice (no pun intended) to the idea that the more courageous Mamori is, the more powerful the weapon she becomes, but there’s never that moment where Mamori ‘saves’ Mirei or gives her the comfort Mirei needs like the way Himeko comforted Chikane at the end. They instead fuse to one super being. It feels like at one point Mamori was supposed to have the final turning point and be the one to rescue Mirei, but Mamori just ends up being captured and put into the damsel role again. I also liked Kasumi and her dubious allegiance with the rebels as well as Meifon, getting into all sorts of trouble for some cash. I’m told by fans of the franchise that in peripheral media, some of the other couples get more character development. For example, the team of Lady Rain and Lady J were actually on opposite sides of a war but intentionally got themselves captured just to be together or that Governor Akira actually has a female lover back on the mainland and longs to be with her. Again, I am not here to judge what’s in an appendix. What’s in the show is in the show and it’s clear the TV producers weren’t interested in those stories to begin with, so why should I? Funimation Entertainment did the localization for the show. And for the most part, the dub script stays as close as it does to the original Japanese version. Granted, Funimation has always played it loose with dubbing scripts and this is no exception. The English script contains lots of innuendos and sex jokes to make the English viewers chuckle (i.e. “I caught and she pitched.” “Let’s go digging for treasure” “I’m gonna let it all hang out!”) Karbowski adopts a southern accent for Meifon so thick, I thought I was listening to Nico Robin from the 4Kids dub of One Piece. (I’m aware that localizers tend to translate those with Kansai dialect and give them a Southern accent and Karbowski seems to be doing this accent winking to the audience and having fun with it). Special credit should go to Janelle Lutz as Akira Hiragi, managing to perform dual roles as both masculine and feminine variations of the character. The rest of the cast does a good job voicing their perspective roles. Monica Rial does with she can with Charlotte and Cynthia Cranz as Torumi seems to especially fit the role of a motherly caretaker for lost girls. (Yes, I find the fact that one of the characters is voiced by the same performer as Chi-chi and Botan very disconcerting). THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE AUDIO WITH SUBTITLES IS AVAILABLE FOR THOSE WHO PREFER IT. The package includes the OVAs (Original Video Animation) which are short videos of each of the girls revealing motivation and backstory as well as a lot of nudity with nipples becoming more and more erect. Lots of them. What’s weird is that the OVAs are also dubbed with the cast members. Funimation didn’t even dub the OVA for Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. CAVEAT: It’s very strange that the series suddenly wants to take a more dramatic turn with emphasis on character development and history, but still plays out in a very fanservice driven anime. In some ways, I was enjoying the show more when it wasn’t really about anything and just amped the fanservice up to 11. With the exception of a few characters, I wasn’t invested in the goings on and 12 episodes is too short for me to have nostalgic feelings for Mermaid Island. For 50 USD, Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid is a bit on the steep end. While the animation, music, fight scenes and… PLOT are all well done, emotionally, it doesn’t have much to offer. Then again, I don’t expect emotional substance out of show where half the teenagers become sexually aroused and transform into weapons. Those looking for a happy ending (in both senses of the term) will enjoy this. Verdict: Wait for a sale or rental.

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#valkyrie drive mermaid #valkyrie drive #mamori #mirei #extar #liberator #funimation #morgan garrett #monical rial

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moldy-mold · 5 years ago

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Diary Post: My Thoughts and Processes on Making “Silent Strength” It’s lengthy, taking place over long period of time. Mainly written for my future-self to remember what I went through, but also for anyone who is curious. Now that the project is over, I can post without reservations. There are certain things I need to keep secret though, so if I’m vague I do so intentionally!

Basically, a lot of number-crunching, physical labor, and psychological labor.

It started off as kind of a joke tweet I made. I had enough content to make a Tales Of art book and people were receptive to it. So… I thought maybe I could go somewhere with this. A few weeks later, I suddenly had a lot of Kratos art. Like. 80% of all my Tales art was Kratos. It didn’t make sense to make a broad Tales Of book when really most of it was Kratos.

I hadn’t made a book since I was in college despite it being one of my favorite things to do. They were never art books, just some editorial design projects that totally didn’t count. This book… would be my first-ever art book.

Several times, I came close to having enough art to print a book - the last time was my large collection of Yusuke Kitagawa, but the quality wasn’t where I wanted. At that time, I was still experimenting with my iPad Pro and figuring out Procreate, so that was what I used him for.

NGL, I was pretty afraid of looking like a clown. After doing all this work, what if no one actually buys it? I was talking to some friends and they said they would buy it. It was enough for me. In the end, I’m creating something that I love. - The first thing I really wanted to work on was the cover. It needed to be epic but also mysterious (lol)… It was a good time to practice lighting and backgrounds. The cover had to be freaking Fantastic. I spent 3 days drawing nonstop. I was on vacation so I could spend full days just drawing. It was really intense. I would stop in the evenings to go for a run or else my legs would never get circulation again.

The hardest part was keeping it secret. I wanted to share it with the world right away bc I was so proud of it. Well, all I could do was show it to my parents and some close friends. They didn’t know who Kratos is, but it was obvious I was crazy about him.

Initially, I was doing some hand-lettering for the zine title instead of using a typeface. Tbh, I was so sure I was naming this zine “Blame Your Fate!” bc that is such an iconic line. But it just didn’t work with my cover, which looked… a little too serene for that. So… Silent Strength or Divine Strength? I asked around and got my answer.

But what size? All of my art has been on letter canvases. I wanted it to be large so you could see the details in the art. I’ll just start with that. - Luckily, I had all my Kratos-related art in one place. I started my InDesign file and threw everything in there just to see what it looked like. Man, I draw a lot of boxes… But I didn’t want them all next to each other. I also wanted to kinda organize it by the people Kratos hangs out with. There’s a Yuan section LOL… and a Lloyd section… and an Anna section. Idk, I tried to get some kind of order in there with a sprinkling of full spreads here and there to keep it fresh and interesting for the eyes.

I hadn’t worked with InDesign on such an intense level since college. I forgot all of the tips and tricks we learned in class. Spent some time reading on how to do things again… like adding page numbers. - I started drafting my pre-order form. It’s my first time making a google form like this. It’s kind of fun? I spent a long time on it, despite how simple it was. This was going to be my “Store” so it had to look and sound good. - My friend introduced me to charm-making. It seemed easy enough, and I wanted to give my zine more oomph. Besides, I’ve always wanted to make a charm.

I remember someone saying they’d buy a book of just the 4 Seraphim if it existed. I like them too and they lack art imo. In the end, I decided to do a polaroid charm. It’s not really that unique but I wanted Kratos to have actual friends to hang out with for once LOL.

She was going to do a group order to try to reduce the costs. I thought maybe 4 weeks would give me enough time. In the end she said I only have 2. I work well under pressure, so needless to say, I did make that deadline. I actually sketched the whole thing on the plane headed home. - After playing the game the second time, watching the OVA again, and reading “Offerings to a Star,” I have gained a real soft spot for Yuan. My friend once said, “If you weren’t stolen away by Kratos, you would be in love with Yuan.” Lol. I’ve been in a “Kratos and Yuan hanging out” mood lately, so of course I needed something good for the zine. They’re so cute together! Now… what is the bro-est thing I can draw?

I was currently in Florida for my friend’s wedding. I was friends with the groom and his best man since high school, so that makes it 10 years now. Seeing how they’re still friends after all this time, despite living in opposite sides of the country, was really moving to me. Of course, me being me, I could see Kratos and Yuan’s long friendship being similar to this, if they had gone to school together. I just had to draw it. - When I got back from vacation, I did some research on zine sizes. Mine was HUGE compared to others. I just didn’t quite realize it until I held a magazine in my hands. It really is huge…

I settled for a medium size. 7x9. I really liked how it looked. Petite but not too petite. Unfortunately resizing my book had messed up my artwork placement so I spent hours rearranging all the text and resizing my images. I found out afterwards that there’s a way to retain the format while changing the document size. Gee, that would have been helpful 4 hours ago.

Sadly, choosing a custom size booklet makes printing more expensive. But I wanted it badly enough that I’d be willing to pay for it. Letter size is just too large… - I decided to stop dragging my feet and post a promo. I just really needed a deadline for myself to get this all done before July ended. I’m happy it was well-received. A lot of people like Kratos huh…

Anyway, the pre-order is due in a week and I still don’t know what all the costs are yet. I need a physical proof ASAP to weigh at the post office! - Something possessed me one day to do another drawing. I don’t usually do painterly style (mainly because it’s really difficult and takes 10x longer) but I just REALLY wanted to push myself on this Final Piece to the zine. I wanted it to be… radiant. Almost religious. I worked on it obsessively. From breakfast to sundown. The only time I would stop was at 7pm to go running or else my legs would give out on me.

Call me crazy, but I would save my progress on my phone so I could examine it for errors during my warmup. I also spend an hour examining it for errors before going to bed. It’s a miracle I hadn’t dreamt of the painting. - I sent my files in on Sunday in hopes that they start working on it first thing on Monday…. and it HAPPENED! They finished before I even woke up. I think they start work at like 6am…

Of course, I drove over there as soon as I heard so I can get a look. “Please… please let the colors be okay,” I prayed as I was driving. I barely remember driving there, I was so lost in thought. It would be another long ordeal if I had to fix all the colors.

Thank the stars. The press proof looked BEAUTIFUL!! I was screaming to the client coordinator how much I loved it. I mean, I worried for a looooong time that everything would turn out too dark (it usually does) but it was PERFECT. I was especially worried about the cover, which contained a lot of yellow and I def did not want it to come out mustardy… But it was great in the end!

The press operator is a quiet man. He’s got a scary face and never smiles but I think he’s secretly nice. He has done a lot of favors for me in the past without my asking. He was the one to print, bind, and trim the book for me. Obviously he had to have seen what I was drawing. I wonder what he thought of it…? He walked away before I could express how happy and thankful was. He didn’t need to hear it. It was like he already knew. So cool…

I immediately took it to the post office to weigh it. I needed as much info as I could get and plus, I was dying to know for myself. This is the week I was supposed to open pre-orders and there was still a lot I needed to do. Take pictures, create mockups, pricing, etc.

NGL, all of these costs were building up fast. It was so darn expensive to make a zine while also keeping prices down. But I wanted so much more for my baby. Extra glossy cover, perfect binding!! I knew by the end of this, I probably wouldn’t make much money. It hurt a little, but I tried to think that it was for the greater good. Learning experience and all that. And creating something beautiful. Especially something beautiful of Kratos. - Pricing was really the hardest part. I pretty much threw profit out the window. However, I definitely did not want to be losing money. My dad and I had worked together to create a spreadsheet of expenses to make sure my head was above water. I followed it… loosely.

My friend came to talk to me at the right moment. I was sort of panicking at the prices. She made me realize I was thinking way too hard about it and gave me some tips based on her own experience. It really put my mind at ease talking to someone who understands my woes.

The truth of the matter is, the book is wonderfully made and has a lot of pages - countless hours of drawing. There is only so much I can do about pricing. It is what it is… I just needed to come to terms with my own worth. - Boy, what am I going to do once the zine is done? My friend says that I’ll be so over Kratos that I’ll stop drawing him (but the love remains). It’s like… all of the intense planning, working, struggling nonstop will just suddenly… stop. TBH, I’m running out of ideas. I spent it all on the zine. - Photoshoot today. I had to paint my nails purple for this occasion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the look I wanted in the apartment. It’s just so naked without props. I think I’ll take it to a cafe for some nicer backgrounds. I talked it over with my friend and decided to do a quick flip-through of the zine as a promotional video. I used the most professional video program I had on hand… Snapchat. It actually turned out pretty legit and of course I slapped stickers on there because it’s Snapchat.

I had to tape/hide some of the pages for the video because I wasn’t actually done with the drawings. I had the printers print it anyway so I could examine it for color accuracy.

I’m really stressed about pricing now. It turns out I had a lot more international fans than I anticipated. I wish I took notes on interest earlier in the game to cater to them. I had a list of “possible buyers” and I only just now decided to check where they live? Foolish.

I did another cost analysis on paper to figure out what my goal was to make up for the charms. Right now they’ve cost me a fortune for something that was supposed to be giveaway. Other things that rack up are packaging costs, PayPal fees, and some other supplies I needed for this project.

Maybe I shouldn’t have made it 40 pages. It is an impressive number, but no one is really paying for quantity. I think 25 is a better number lol. If I had done that, I could have had my super-gloss cover like I wanted. :’(

There is hope though. And I’ve placed it in the hands of my followers to come through for me. I think I’ll open pre-orders on Saturday or Sunday, depending on what I finish. - “Losing your cool will only lead to poor decisions.”  Thanks, Kratos twitter bot. You always know what to say.

I read this post today on what makes people buy zines. Very interesting!  https://twitter.com/andythelemon_/status/1141469048653398019 - Photoshoot part 2 today. My friend and I went to a cafe nearby that had some nice atmosphere in hopes of finding the right shots. I brought all of my Kratos merch just in case. I’m glad I did though, since the tables were pretty sparse and it was difficult to capture the backgrounds without getting a bunch of random people in it too.

I would have been the photographer, but I definitely wanted my hands in the shots. In a way, it was meaningful - to show that this was made by my own two hands. Plus, I wanted to depict natural interaction with the product. It made it feel real.

The photos were cute! I feared it would look a little amateurish with all the merch in there, but I think fun was what I was really going for, not “professional.” And plus the flip-through was a Snap anyway LOL. As long as the photos have good lighting and tasteful composition, you really can’t go wrong with “fun.”

Now that I’ve finished editing my photos, there really isn’t anything holding me back from opening pre-orders. I’ve pretty much come to terms with my pricing. If I fail to break even, I’ll just have to open commissions to try to make up for it. I was telling my friend on the way home, “I gave this zine EVERYTHING I had to give. So at the very least, I won’t be disappointed in myself.” No stone left unturned, no detail left unchecked. It was perfect according to my standards. I really love my zine okay?!

I thought I was crazy for not only choosing a small fandom, I narrowed it down even further by picking ONE GUY to make this zine about. She replied, “Even if it’s small, those people who love him now must be EXTREMELY LOYAL to still be in love with a character from a 15-year-old game. All of them will want your zine.” - I went to bed that night with the intention of making the pre-order post live in the morning. I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake until at least 5 or 6 am. Luckily, I was able to doze off for a an hour or two before I would shake myself awake again. It was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. It was the moment of truth - to see if all my effort made a difference. Was it going to sell? - The pre-order post looked really freaking good. I’ll give it that. I even made a YT account just to post that darn preview video on tumblr lol. It was definitely fun seeing everyone’s excitement and we all just freaked out together.

I broke even! That’s what really matters. Honestly at this point, I couldn’t care less if I made profit or not. I now know how much people really like the zine and that alone made me so happy I could die.

I was particularly fascinated at Google Form’s ability to transfer all the data collected into a spreadsheet. That is extremely helpful. I spent hours organizing the data. It was really fun…?! Now I can tell who gets invoiced and who paid and separate them into categories. IT’S FANTASTIC!

Stayed up late researching how much adding tracking could be. I had a slight panic attack thinking “what if my books got lost in transit?” It would really hurt me to have to reprint books and ship them again. And then I realized I will need to fill out customs forms for all international orders. Yikes, I’m gonna be living at the post office lol. You can print them out at home if you fill out the form online but there are still some things I’m uncertain about. I may visit the post office later this week to ask all my questions. - This morning I sent out everyone’s invoices. I gave the international people the option to purchase tracking. It’s expensive… but I need to provide that option just in case.

I received a nice message from someone who offered to advertise for me on Instagram. Of course, I gave them the OK! I’m really so shocked they would do that… They said the liked the zine so much it deserved more exposure. My dude… I love you… T_T

I thought about advertising on insta myself earlier in the week. For some reason I felt it was going to be fruitless since I don’t have an art account on there with a following. So, I gave up on the idea. Hey it worked out in the end.

I’ve never been so organized in my entire life. I want this zine experience to be perfect. The people have placed their trust in me, so I cannot mess up. - Edited some pages in the zine. The typography must be perfect… It made me think back to undergrad days in graphic design school. Man, if only I can present this as a project - photos, videos, matching accessories and all. I’d probably get an A lol. - Orders slow down after the first day. The rest is just about getting new people to see the post and giving other people more time to decide.

I finished my Kratos stationery today. It’s going to be so cute. My friend said people would want to buy it but I don’t have it in me to do more products at this time. Plus, I want it to be a surprise.

Why make stationery? Well my real job (no, I don’t draw Kratos all day for a living) is a stationery designer! It would feel really wrong not to put into practice what etiquette I’ve learned in this business. Plus, I felt that it was necessary to properly thank all those who ordered. And it’s fun?

I started designing the shipping labels for the domestic orders since I don’t need to fill out a customs form for those. I wish I had sticker labels but… it’s okay. It will still look good in the end. - Every so often, I would get nervous at the amount of money I’m responsible for. Perhaps, if I had a store with existing products I wouldn’t feel this way, but the fact that the books haven’t been printed yet made me scared. I know, I need this money to even print the books in the first place, but I’m just baffled at my customers’ trust in almost a total stranger. I felt pressured that I could not let them down and lose that trust. It probably didn’t help that I watched a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) that day.

So, I prayed every single day that nothing would go wrong. I’d check my spreadsheet constantly for any mistakes. It was a little obsessive, but I would rather be that than overlook something.

I began collecting cardboard boxes. My plan was to cut them up to protect the books during transit. I would have preferred hard envelopes but they were a bit pricey. If I have to do more work myself, so be it.

I’ve been getting nice DMs from some buyers. I think my invoice due date scared them… I really did not intend to be strict, but I wanted people to pay now if they can rather than forget about it. This happens at work all the time, so the best thing to do is have it due immediately. It would not look good to have to wait on stragglers when I close pre-orders, so I’ll probably reach out when there is one week left. - My Kratos stationery arrived! Aww it is SO CUTE!!! My babies… I have a lot of notes to write so I got started right away. It’s going to be a lot of work trying to come up with creative ways to say “thank you,” but I don’t mind. I said I was going to put my all into the zine experience so I will.

At long last, the charm order has been put in motion. My friend said it could take a while… I hope it won’t be longer than 3 weeks. I really do not want to keep everyone waiting. I may ship out the ones who did not win a charm first. I mean, there is no reason to make those guys wait. I should ask the charm winners if they still want to wait and see if anyone wants to give it up for someone else who is more patient. Hm. - I finally stopped by the post office today to collect customs forms. I have my work cut out for me since I’m filling all of them in by hand. D:

I’m not used to international addresses so I think I’ll ask for help in checking them for spelling errors and typos. Heaven forbid I mess up on the very last part of the zine experience.

In my nervousness, I decided to reach out about invoices early on. If someone wanted to cancel, I would rather find out sooner rather than later. Everyone was really nice about paying and thank goodness they’re still excited.

Feeling kind of overwhelmed by all the things I need to do, but it’s a good thing. If I don’t know what to do, I can either: cut cardboard, write letters, type shipping labels, draw more Kratos for a… possible volume 2? Someone I talked to today already said they’ll pre-order a second book if I make one. Omg I think I’ll die. But we’ll see. It’s just a joke right now haha… - Preorders end today. I had another nightmare last night that the books could not be printed properly and there was nothing I could do. Why do I keep getting nightmares about the zine! I had one a few days before about people canceling their orders when I asked them about the invoices. I’ll take these dreams with a grain of salt. I’m probably just stressed/worried but everything is going to be okay. When I open my eyes, nothing is on fire.

I received my final proof a few days ago. With all of the artwork completed and changes applied. The book looks good, no doubt about it. There was only one thing I was nit-picky about but it can be fixed. The press operator offered to print another book for me to inspect. I’ll go see it on Monday and then submit the rest of the orders. I also asked to to have a meeting with the press operator so we are on the same page. It would be beneficial to have an understanding of how my book is made so that I may be more helpful to him.

I spent the day preparing shipping labels. I hate to admit, I am not too familiar with the format international addresses so I had an address validator open as I was typing them in. For the most part, everyone was helpful in already formatting their addresses in the preorder form! - My parents called me the day after preorders were closed. They wanted to say congratulations on my success. No one thought it would do this well. I couldn’t be offended by that since I was also guilty of it. I’m happy though. It feels like my love spread across the world and was contagious.

I tried to think of what advice I would give to others. Obviously, genuine love for the subject and hard work were a necessity. But it would be good to consider value. If I were selling it at this price, I had to make sure my pieces and presentation looked the part. I ask myself, if someone else sold it, would I buy it?

I sent out messages to all the charm winners in the morning. I wanted to apologize profusely at the ridiculous amount of time it has taken to get them made. But no, I’ve got to stop apologizing. I stated the facts and left it at that. Everyone was really kind and patient⁠—to which I was thankful for. I don’t usually get that when I’m working customer service. - All the books were done printing in one day. Wow! I went to pick it up immediately of course. I can’t believe all of this is coming to an end. I finished preparing the mailers. All that was left was to stuff and seal the domestic orders. They were the easiest to do so I’m going to ship those first. The rest will need customs forms, which I haven’t filled out just yet. It’s going to be a while for those…

The mailers were quite sturdy with the cardboard cutouts I slipped in them. I have nothing to worry about. I’m sure my babies will be okay! - I took a whole box of domestic orders to the post office today. Wasn’t sure what to expect. But my clerk had to input every single address one at a time while I checked for errors. Omg, why are the post office shipping labels SO HUGE. I thought it was going to be half the size. And they’re ruining my designer labels! Slight panic but oh well…

I had a long long line behind me. I’m so sorry, people. Luckily there were two clerks or I would be really sweating. Despite my intimidating box of zines, the clerk and I had Synergy and we managed to ship all of these in about 15 minutes. I received a very long receipt and quite the bill lol. - Shipped the international orders today. I was kind of a mess since I had no idea what to do. I keep wondering if I can help speed up the process in any way but I don’t think I have the option to ship first-class at home.

When shipping international, keep the post office copy of the customs forms together with the package since they use that to type the address info into the system. Also, we get free tracking, which I did not know about. The other clerk told me that we did not get tracking for international first-class but I guess he was misinformed. It’s good to know for next time. - The charms finally arrived!! And THEY’RE HOLOGRAPHIC?! It was pretty awesome, but it makes picture-taking kind of difficult!! Anyway, I was a tiny bit disgruntled that they got my order incorrect, and I even asked for a reprint. But they said no, so I left it at that. Besides, it seems the holographic effect was well-received.

I like this size that I made. It’s really cute! Larger than your normal charm but not too huge. It’s almost like an Instax photo! - There was one customer who I found lives near me! I asked her if she wanted me to hand-deliver it to her in a public setting and she agreed (to my amazement). We finally met a few days ago and talked for hours and hours lol! I’m glad to have finally made a new friend here in this town but of course she’s moving away in two weeks. <:’3

We’re going to meet again to make the most of her time left. - I shipped the rest of the orders on the following Monday. I HAD to get these out. The poor guys have been waiting over a month! I think I picked a bad time to go because I had a huge line behind me and only one guy working. People in line were getting antsy or mad. The clerk at the other post office was super fast but not this guy…

For some reason shipping to the UK and Japan nearly doubled in price since the last time I checked. RIP. T_T - Omg I finally made a mistake. I wrote a letter to the wrong person. And the contents of that letter are too personalized!!! I am dying of embarrassment!!!!! Screams!! Had to apologize to both customers too!!! Luckily they were good sports about it but I’m seriously kicking myself AAAAAAAA!!!! - The most rewarding part after sending all my babies away is seeing the commentary on my project. It is so so nice to receive positive feedback. People are happy! Happy with something I created out of thin air. Everything was worth it 1000 times over. I can die happy!

I’m especially thankful to those who show understanding for how much effort went into it. It definitely wasn’t easy and I poured way too many hours into it… not that I regret that.

I don’t want to jump the gun but I would really love to make a volume 2. Because I know I can do better than last time. New and improved art and comics! But we’ll see if I make enough pieces for another book. I was against printing 40 pages before but now I kind of like it. It feels more worth it than a 25-page zine. If i’m going though so much effort, might as well bring in the entire package.

I’ll be printing more of this volume for Aselia Con 2020. Now I know people will appreciate it.

#diary

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amisbro · 7 years ago

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Let’s Answer: Some UtaPri Q’s

That you might have had for me but never asked for some reason This is going under a cut and some answers will be short but some will be essays so that is the reason for the cut Ready? LET’S ROLL!

Q: How many years have you been in the fandom? A: That would be 4 officially as of January this year Q: What made you discover UtaPri? A: Oddly...a gif of this guy

Funny thing is that while...yes Ren was my “most despised” character of the series from Series 1 he became arguably my fave from STARISH later on (despite the blip in Season 4)

Q: How many of the UtaPri Lives have you seen? A: That would be 2 and they were unsubbed when I watched them. It was 3rd stage and 4th stage with 4th legit getting me to go at one point during an MC segment

(to be fair this was me being a dumbass for not watching subs but I’m weird about fansubs)

Q: Any plans to watch any of the other Lives?

A: Funny thing about that. I found 1st stage on Youtube a while ago but never finished it. I’m gonna try to find it again (if Broc didn’t strike them all down) so I can watch it cos I DO want to see where the “Live Series” started in its humble beginnings. So...yes I do have intentions on at least watching the first two and then 3rd and 4th again. 5th I’m “ehh” on and I think people know my stance on 6th BUT I will make sure to expand on it in a bit Q: Are you going to watch Maji Love Kingdom when it comes out next year? A: As long as the Gov keeps our internet free and open...yes I have intentions on watching it. Now will I watch it as much as say...SSX? THAT depends on what I thought of the movie if I am going to watch it 50 times or something crazy like that (Plus to be really real...last movie I remember watching as much as the SSX OVA was the Animalympics movie that I DEMAND everyone watches...you can find it on YT so you have zero excuses) Q: If Broccoli announces a 7th stage and it has all three groups at it again would you watch it? A: So this takes us to the point where I will talk about WHY I never watched 6th stage despite I know I could find it if I wanted to. So...okay have I been a royal d**k about watching 6th stage? Yeah I have and while there is probably no REAL justifiable reason for me not watching it let’s try this So you have a stage that you are going to do and for the first time ever its going to have EIGHTEEN SEIYUUS performing together. First off that is a massive undertaking and the second thing is you have to figure out how to block stuff out. Even WWE at its grandest show had issues with time where things went long so they had to cut things or cut them short. Broccoli and King (I know the latter probably had jack shit to do with this but I just wanted associate them cos they do the group singles) had to know that this show was going to be a project because of the fact that they were going to have a lot of people on the stage and there were probably people that were wondering what songs were going to be performed...understandable. Here is my issue The stage was announced back around...what the first episode of Season 4 so they had time to figure out what songs were going to be put in and how much time they were going to get. I get that they also had a noise ordinance they had to deal with (basically no loud noises past I think it was 9 PM JST) so that’s fine but you had a “new group” that was performing for the first time on the stage so my issue was I thought they should have gotten to do THEIR SINGLES especially if ,as we would come to find out, STARISH and QN were getting their own stages later on (and STARISH got to go back to the place of 6th stage...kind of annoyed by that) ANYWHO Here is the other issue I think I had with them not getting as much time (or close) as one of the other groups We KNOW there is going to be this movie with STARISH ,QN and HEAVENS and there are people (away from tumblr) that think currently that this movie is going to be very “STARISH-centric” and well its not WRONG to think like that but it can be a little expected. The issue however boils down to this The question is IF Broccoli announces a 7th stage right? Okay let’s say they do and all three units are there THEN I will go back and watch 6th (albeit begrudgingly) because I know by then that HEAVENS will possibly get time to perform and I can be happy with that. As of now though we don’t know if its going to happen. If it IS and its the FINAL then its almost fitting because both STARISH and HEAVENS have 7 members! Now let’s answer this one Q: If UtaPri got a 5th season after Maji Love Kingdom but HEAVENS wasn’t in it would you watch it? A: Yes just like I am going to watch this movie. Here’s the thing When I started watching UtaPri it was after Season 2 had ended. At this time we had STARISH and we had just introduced QUARTET NIGHT into the fold and as we know at that time I was staunchly in the camp of QN...still am even if you don’t hear me talk about them nearly as much. I’m NOT going to be one of those fans that goes “Well HEAVENS isn’t in UtaPri anymore so it can fuck off. Let me just get a steamroller and smash all my CDs from the series that I bought cos its over” If I felt THAT WAY...do ya think I would be playing Shining Live right now (okay not “RIGHT NOW” cos its near 1:30 in the morning but you get the idea). The fact is I STILL need to finish getting the plat on Repeat Love and then I have Amazing Aria/Sweet Serenade and then Dolce so that is going to keep me busy PLUS I still need to get the DVDs for Legend Star and Revolutions...yeah I’m not leaving this fandom any time soon regardless whether HEAVENS is in it or not. TsukiPara or B-Pro would need to come out in English for that to even be a THOUGHT (and even then a friend of mine on twitter told me about Fate/Grand Order..I’m gonna be busy). Q: YOU DIDN’T FINISH YOUR BIRTHDAY FIC YOU OLD MAN...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! A: You got me You ever come up with an idea for a fic and its far too fucking grand to sit down and write it...yeah that is what happens with my fics sometimes and this one was no exception cos it was supposed to have a lot of stuff in it but implementing it was going to take till damn near AUGUST and by that time a couple of K Movies would be out and THIS DUDE’S BIRTHDAY IS THEN TOO

Random thing I never told anyone: I actually considered Yukari “Genderfluid” upon repeated viewings of the movie and then also seeing RoK...thought you might be interested in that

ANYWHO Yeah the birthday fic got scrapped cos I legit was probably going to be into AUGUST to finish it then I have to turn around and do Yukari’s birthday post...that wasn’t happening Now this DOESN’T mean I don’t have ANY ideas for fics cos I do but its been hell with doing theory posts for Shining Live ,starting to grind on JP and other stuff. I do have plans to do more fics though and yes this beautiful person will be involved...especially when comes to everyone’s favorite coffee addict in Shiki but “spoilers” LAST ONE!! Q: You write a lot of self-insert fics with primarily HEAVENS or them with QN and STARISH is seemingly left out intentionally...what gives? A: ANOTHER FUNNY THING! The last fic I scrapped was supposed to go from May 1 to May 27th (my birthday) and in it there was supposed to be at least Masa when he performed “Lasting Oneness” with Kira. Had I wrote out the fic to its conclusion (which was going to feature an appearance from Len Tsukimori of La Corda fame) it was going to feature Len and Syo doing a song together and then also Nagi and Natsuki so there were plans for that. I won’t give away the next fic plot BUT STARISH might be involved and we are gonna have some good clean fun with them...I say that cos almost all my fics are rated G unless someone legit dares me to write angst at which point I need like a month to prepare for it ANYWHO THIS POST WENT ON WAY TOO GOD DAMN LONG! I hope there was an answer to a question you might have wanted the answer to and if not PLEASE hit me in my inbox or on my twitter machine (same as my url here) and I will definitely try to answer the question you might have Au Revoir

#Amisbro #Some UtaPri questions #because I always wanted to get shit out in the open #but for some reason I never did #Welp...ENJOY!

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dylvee · 8 years ago

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Not to be a ROC (rude of color) but ova is very... White. Like a lot in Steven universe and RWBY and stuff bothers me but y'all praise it to no end. I feel you guys are missing a lot of nuance and differing opinions on the podcasts tbh

Definitely a valid criticism of us. I try to spot bad stuff in this realm but I’m going to miss a lot because of my limited perspective. OVA isn’t really intentionally anything, it’s not like I specifically picked anyone, it’s legacy of FTSW plus Justin and Michelle who specifically contacted me. I am somewhat close to opening us up to having more people on, so we can expand our coverage of shows and such, and this will certainly be something I take into account when we do that.

#oh-god-not-her

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theomnicode · 3 years ago

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Rumour mill and bad public relations

It's not just the lack of information going out that seems to keep the hero rumour mill busy.

Saitama? Attitude problem?

Does Saitama have that much of a poor rep in HA that there's rumours circulating about him being an ass the moment he moved in?

Apparently yes.

Not just a fraud, he's a jerk too it seems.

Although he hasn't exactly given out the best image of himself to other heroes whenever he has interacted with them.

One occasion is due to his own arrogance about his abilities, which is probably one of the reasons HA knocked him down a peg by starting him at c-rank. Then his self-assuredness in his own abilities was absolutely demolished in the Garou fight, very intentionally.

Saitama is mostly a humble person and he never brags, but his confidence in his own abilities was bordering on arrogance. And rubbed other heroes the wrong way.

Saitama does not have to intentionally display his unflattering character traits in the open though. When he tries to be helpful, social and open and mingle with other heroes, he finds out that being honest and himself just doesn't work out that well and instead of endearing himself to other heroes, they end up disliking him.

Saitama being easily distracted and not your atypical hero who does not need to worry for his own safety, does not make him look like the serious type of hero either and a hero who just does not care enough, another point not in his favour. Attempting to explain his reasoning and avoiding confrontation is seen as backtalking too.

Other heroes really get the sense that Saitama only cops an attitude with them, is arrogant to a fault and challenges their leadership and talks back and generally a jerk. Not to mention a mission screw up.

Which is already apparently making more rumours circulate around how he's problematic to work with and making other heroes he has never met before make up their own minds before they've even met him.

There is one thing that can make it even worse however.

Genos talking about Saitama's unimaginable heroics can be extremely damaging to his public image. Everyone believes now that Garou beat up all the S-rank heroes and Blast or unnamed hero they don't know about beat Garou.

If Genos starts talking about how amazing Saitama actually is, for one, nobody is going to believe him and two, if they do happen to believe him, it will be seen as Saitama attempting to get some undeserved clout out of the horrible situation.

S-rank heroes are in the hospital and what does this fraud do? Claim he did some insane stuff like travel back in time and punch Garou in the face.

Making his already shaky public image even worse. A PR disaster. It can absolutely have very bad effects in how Saitama conducts his heroism if nobody will tell him anything and he loses trust of other heroes, invoke disciplinary measures and get HA upper echleon corrupt members looking for payback only add to the bad rumours.

And since Saitama doesn't even remember anything that happened, Genos telling things like that to other people which brings forth harmful effects, will only only further create tensions or even a rift between them if it looks like Genos attempts to unintentionally slander him.

Saitama wants to be seen as a hero and being seen as hero is important to him, that much he conveys to King. People should be able to look up to heroes and reputation is important when it comes to trusting heroes and Saitama has displayed in the past that he's willing to take the fall, long as it preserves the reputation of other heroes.

There may be curious easter eggs in OVA 2 about Don Pacino and his appearance, which forced the supermarket where Genoes attempted to buy a sale from to close, thanking the customers for loyalty. It may be a reference to irl Dom Pachino named guy. The same person also stole Genos' keys to Saitama's house.

Dom Pachino (born Domingo J. Del Valle in Manhattan, New York City) is a rapper of Puerto Rican descent. He is a former member of the rap group Killarmy and also has a solo career. He is also known as P.R. Terrorist, but he has rarely used this name since the September 11, 2001 attacks afraid that it may be taken the wrong way and affect sales.

It can be interpreted that slandering Saitama's public image can indeed affect the loyalty Saitama and Genos have for each other, get Genos kicked out of the house and make Saitama consider only working alone.

Saitama and Genos seems to be in for a rough time.

#opm #one punch man #opm meta #opm spoilers #saitama #forte #wild horn #king #genos #rumours #public relations #snek

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Fate/Stay Night's Cooler, Edgier Brother You've Never Watched

A frail girl in a white dress walks to the edge of a tall building. Soothing music plays over ethereal vocals as grainy images of a butterfly appear. Another cut back to the girl, this time lying dead on the sidewalk. This is the sequence that plays during the opening credits to the first Garden of Sinners movie. It’s a strange way to introduce a story, but a perfect glimpse into what The Garden of Sinners is going to be like. Across its eight movies and two OVAs, The Garden of Sinners is dark, beautiful, challenging, dense, confusing, thoughtful, and heavy, sometimes all at once. It’s by no means an easy series to watch, but it’s also a one-of-a-kind experience that shouldn’t be missed.

Though The Garden of Sinners itself isn’t very well known, its creator has made quite a name in the anime world: Kinoko Nasu. Before he wrote Fate/Stay Night, which has since spawned a massive franchise, Nasu wrote and self-published The Garden of Sinners (known in Japan as Kara no Kyokai) as a series of novels, which Ufotable (a studio now known for its adaptations of Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero) later adapted into a movie series with a soundtrack by the legendary Yuki Kajiura. The Garden of Sinners has an all-star team behind it, no doubt, and they were clearly giving it their all across the board.

This background is, in part, what makes The Garden of Sinners so unique. Every aspect of The Garden of Sinners — the animation, the art, the music, the writing — is excellent on its own. But combined, they’re something else. The Garden of Sinners is an incredibly dense story. It’s very dialogue-heavy, the characters are intentionally difficult to figure out at first, and the plot is told out of order. In spite of that, its haunting atmosphere and quiet beauty keep the story anchored, creating an otherworldly feeling that makes its stranger aspects feel more natural. It’s as though you’re wandering through a dream, a world where everything is just slightly skewed, but one that you can’t help but be drawn into. A dream where supernatural forces wander just below the surface, where a person’s psychological state can have very real impacts on the world. Sudden bursts of violence break up the beauty, but it retains that pull that promises answers right around the corner. It’s this feeling that gives even the story’s slowest moments a kind of haunting beauty that keeps you fully engaged.

You’ll notice that I’ve avoided talking about what the story is actually about, and that’s because a proper synopsis would practically take a whole article on its own and would almost have to include spoilers. At a basic level, The Garden of Sinners is about a girl named Shiki — who has the ability to see and activate lines of death that represent the concept of death inherent in everything — and Kokutou, a perfectly ordinary boy who’s nonetheless drawn to something in Shiki. Each film is a seemingly stand-alone story, but it’s only when viewed together that you start to see how the puzzle fits together. Offhanded comments in early films come back as crucial plot points in later ones, and the overall themes of the story only become apparent at the end.

The Garden of Sinners isn’t an easy anime to watch by any means; it’s not the sort of series you can have on in the background while you’re doing something else. It demands every ounce of thought and focus its audience has, but gives something wonderful in exchange. I loved it the first time I saw it, but it’s only on rewatching it (several times) that I found myself appreciating the subtle details that I overlooked at first. Virtually every line of dialogue and every shot has some sort of meaning behind it, whether hidden plot information or extra details about the characters that add to your understanding of who they actually are. This is doubly important because Garden of Sinners is intentionally coy with its cast, keeping them emotionally distant until the seventh film, which also concludes the main plot.

The seventh movie, titled Murder Speculation Part B (...not nothing heart.), forces Shiki and Kokutou both to confront something that’s existed as an undercurrent from the very beginning: Shiki’s desire to kill. Kokutou, like any decent person, abhors murder but also loves Shiki, someone who’s obsessed with the idea. Everything about the film’s plot exists to emphasize their differences and the strain it puts on both. It’s an emotionally raw experience, full of unfulfilled feelings, frustrations, and shocking bursts of violence. It’s here that the series makes its mark, that it turns around and gives you the answers the other films have kept hidden. Everything about the film is cathartic to the extreme, a perfect capstone to The Garden of Sinners’ main arc.

But that’s not all it has to offer. If you’ve seen any of the Fate adaptations, you’re probably familiar with Nasu’s fondness for digging into his characters’ psyches and using them to make broader philosophical points, a habit that’s front and center here. Each film has something meaningful to say, whether it’s about gender or how identities are constructed or what makes people connect. The Garden of Sinners was written in the late ‘90s, years before Fate/Stay Night, and showcases Nasu at his rawest. All of his idiosyncrasies are on display here: his formalistic dialogue, his complex magical systems, his fondness for philosophizing, and even some prototypes of characters who show up in Tsukihime and Fate. Though The Garden of Sinners is a radically different sort of story, it has a lot of the same fundamentals that Fate fans love (and even a few references to concepts that show up in Fate), so it’s perfect for fans craving more of Nasu’s work. Looking for supernatural action? No shortage of that here. Craving some character-driven philosophy? The Garden of Sinners has got you covered. Everything that makes Nasu such a great writer is present here, making it a perfect series for long-time fans and newcomers alike.

In spite of its quality, The Garden of Sinners hasn’t gotten the same level of recognition as Fate, partially because of limited availability in the US. But now that’s changed! The entire series is available for streaming right here on Crunchyroll, so now’s the perfect time to watch it! It’s a beautiful story presented with gorgeous animation and one of the best soundtracks from one of the best composers working in anime; everything about the series is fantastic across the board. Even if you’re just now getting into to Kinoko Nasu’s work, you owe it to yourself to check out The Garden of Sinners! You won’t be disappointed.

Interested in watching The Garden of Sinners? Give it a watch and let me know what you think in the comments!

Skyler loves writing and chatting about anime, and is always ready to gush about the latest One Piece chapter. Read more of his work at his blog apieceofanime.com and follow him on Twitter at Videogamep3.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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theovofertility-blog · 5 years ago

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Best IVF Center in Delhi

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Best IVF Doctors in Delhi With High Success Rate

Best IVF Doctors in Delhi With High Success Rate Dr. Nisha Agarwal, Dr. Sunita Gupta, Dr. Sushma Jindal, Dr. Alka Kriplani, Dr. K.D Nayar, Dr. Anjali Chaudhary .There is no uncertainty that IVF innovation speaks to one of current meds examples of overcoming adversity. IVF is one of the most recommendable barrenness medicines when every other treatment have fizzled. In spite of the fact that it is one of the best barrenness technique and one of the components that the majority of the couples disregard is IVF specialist. Generally your prosperity pace of getting pregnant through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) is subject to the IVF specialist you choose. At the moment that you are endeavoring to get pregnant using that, it is essential for you to grasp the choices open and moreover appreciate the upsides of each treatment. Best IVF Doctors in Delhi With High Success, has the best human administrations, workplaces and kinds of apparatus and gives the best readiness treatment. Thus, this extends the accomplishment pace of readiness. Best IVF Doctor in Delhi with high Success Rate is known for their magnificent and educated staff, an exhibited record and from the moment you step inside the centers, a vibe better than average factor quickly hits patient’s! The cost of Best Ivf Doctor in delhi with High Success Rate and the remote possibility that unprecedented implantations are utilized for super ovulation, by then treatment ends up being a great deal of exorbitant. This is the essential clarification which is the explanation Delhi is getting unmistakable quality for infertility treatment

Top most affordable IVF clinics in Delhi Ncr

Top most affordable IVF clinics in Delhi Ncr included such as Fertile Solutions IVF and Research Center, International Fertility Center, Aveya IVF and Fertility Center, Benison IVF and Health Care Clinic, Apollo Fertility - Moti Nagar. Fruitful Solutions IVF And Research Center is viewed as best for administrations covering diverse ART medications like IVF, IUI, ICSI, alongside TESA, MESA, Laparoscopic Surgery, Hysteroscopy Surgery and Male Infertility. Prolific Solutions IVF (FSIVF) and Research Center is a specialist in the field of fruitlessness medications. FSIVF is flourishing by the endeavors of veteran IVF specialists and loyal staff individuals who together guarantee legitimate treatment and complete fulfillment for the patients. The middle is well outfitted with every single present day office to think about different gynecology and obstetrics issue. Fruitful Solutions IVF And Research Center has a group of all around qualified, exceptionally dedicated experts, upheld by a gathering of committed paramedical staff.

Best test tube baby center in delhi

Barrenness can be a way of life, hereditary, or incessant issue however it might bring a questionable time for a couple, who are intentionally attempting to build their family. Barrenness around the globe is influencing a huge number of couples' life. On occasion couples, who effectively had their prior kids, think that its hard to imagine their next children. Thusly, it presumes barrenness can happen anytime of time in the lives of the couples. There is no particular explanation or cause after which barrenness issues in couples upgrade. Today, there are numerous symptomatic machines and medicinal tests are accessible, which precisely distinguishes the reason for fruitlessness among couples. These tests likewise help with offering a look at the treatment system and the charges of the methodology. Unnaturally conceived child treatment is a method for counterfeit help through is which the preparation procedure is upheld. The barrenness system is carefully performed under the sharp perception of fruitlessness master and a certified research center authority Best test tube baby center in delhi known as a point of unnaturally conceived child focuses as it has the most qualified and experienced specialists to seek after powerful treatment. Being the capital of India, the city of Delhi proficiently conveys greatest offices, neighborhood comforts, and accommodations through the best unnaturally conceived child focuses in Delhi. The couples, who travel to India for unnaturally conceived child so the best test tube baby center in delhi is medications secure a bit of leeway of getting reasonable unnaturally conceived child Delhi with most extreme outcomes. This barrenness technique is touchy, dealt with fortunately by the best unnaturally conceived child specialists in Delhi.

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