#and when i say the phantom blood manga i mean all books

[haarute]

just bought myself the phantom blood manga as a self birthday gift :)

[crystalbehindthescenes]

it's a long one but this is from a YouTube comment I made pertaining to the style we used for the animation, some context the person talked about Jojo's anime not being manga accurate.

tldr a lot of the philosophy is be close but follow the vibe cus the style changes too much to just Be Manga Accurate. manga accurate isn't enough info

So the thing about "manga accurate" is there's a clear distinct difference between Araki's style in Phantom Blood and say Stone Ocean. Araki's style has changed since 1987 and even then Part 3's similar style was different from Phantom Blood.

In animation this is a fickle thing to deal with cus animation for the most part is about being consistent, but also easier to animate. There's also the goal of your animators learning the style (this is an issue in the industry cus shows end too early or change the style that they cant learn the style so off modelness happens more often)

DP obviously chose to go with changing the artstyles according to the style of the Arc with Part 1 and 2 being closer in similarity. So it is manga accurate, just not accurate to Stone Ocean. Stone Ocean 2000 is manga accurate but not accurate to Phantom Blood 1987. There's alsothe fact Jojos manga art doesnt have a set palette. Which DP acknowledged but again its easier to pick a palette that looked the best (throw in the color design is a different department from animation, animators cant control what goes on there but of course sailorcrisis and I are our color design department)

Its the same here but for the sake of consistency, sailorcrisis and I decided to go with one character design and stick with it. Naoko has more than one style that we broke down into 4 or 5, mainly based on reprints and book covers. We call them Nakayoshi (1991), Tankobon (1992), Shinsoban (2003), and finally recently Kanzenban/Perfect Edition (2014) as well as the recent full color manga and what's WITHIN the pages. She draws a little different when working with Black and White.

This design is heavily based on Kanzenban for shre but Theres differences in anatomy and even her painting style throughout the years which effects what colors we think are "manga accurate", it effects how we draw the eyes for example. Kanzenban doesn't entirely dictate what we use though! ie the brooch here is based on some old concept Nakayoshi era designs, while in Kanzenban the brooch is gold or silver (kanzenban is even inconsistent). Its not currently manga accurate but we both think it looks good and elegant, like Naoko's tastes. Even the cel shading style we use comes from her anime art but not necesarilly copying what she does but as a means of studying how she uses watercolors, her habits.

Anyway depsite the differences, there are some habbits thats still in Naoko's style, so the best course of action for us was to look at them all, use aspects of them and put it together, like an amalgamation of 20 years of Naoko's art. Even the cel shading style we use comes from her anime art but not necesarilly copying what she does but as a means of studying how she watercolors, her habits. The bonus in making amalgamations is that for manga fans, it's a specific of style for someone. Shinsoban lovers see shinsoban, Nakayoshi lovers see Nakayoshi ect. Cus all the styles are in there in subtle tiny ways. ie the noses are visible which is not the case in Kanzenban or shinsoban, but the skirt's shape comes directly from Shinsoban cus we felt that looked the best with the body shape we used (which also comes from shinsoban and Kanzenban, the bodies are a LOT more hourglass curvier in Naoko's older art)

Its partially why the animation took 3 years, but the design process took MUCH longer! mainly cus sailorcrisis and I prefer different styles! 😂 she likes shinsoban and Kanzenban, i like Nakayoshi and Tankbon (which itself is a broad term since Tankobon and Nakayoshi was around the same time and the names pertain to the series' entire run from 91 to 95. Nakayoshi was the magazine, Tankobon was the home release volume books. but the one I prefer is the style in early chapters i like that one!) but yeah instead of choosing one or the other we mixed it up, and made a single character design out of it. (though we are making changes but theyre small lots of times, we are perfectionists lol)

So.. yea its manga accurate but not necesarilly pertaining to a specific one. It's all about hitting the vibe and understanding what Naoko was trying to go for. Same for Jojo, just a different way of goin about it. Stone Ocean would NOT be the same vibe if it was in Phatom Blood's style. Our way is not the 100% correct way for some people either, and it probably won't work for every manga series. But the philosophy is just "be close but follow the vibe." the vibe kinda being Naoko's elegant and expensive tastes, ethereal and slow motion.

[aidendh]

BSD! OC! Kuuske Saiki | P1

Rework of my RAU! Kusuke Saiki

--

Kanji: 斉木 • 空助

Rōmanji: Saiki Kusuke

Also Known As: Dr. Kuuske, Ku-kun (mother), Dr. (Metaverse)

Namesake: N/A

--

-:Personal Information:-

Status: Unknown

Gender: Male (He/They)

Sexuality: Demiromantic, Asexual

Birthday: 19th June

Age: 19 (Persona Arc)

Height: 179 cm (5'10")

Weight: 63 kg

Blood Type: B

Likes: Reading, inventing, loosing to his sibling, minstrels, magic stars

Dislikes: Spiders, bats, the dark, glasses

--

-:Professional Information:-

Occupation: Inventor

Affiliation: Untouchables, University of Cambridge

--

-:Metaverse Information:-

Name: Kuuske Saiki / Kusuke Saiki

Location: Untouchables

Distortion: Laboratory

Treasure: Butterfly Hair Clip

-

Code Name: Dr.

Theme: Scientist

Mask: Telepathy Canceler

Weapon: Scythe / Explosives

Persona: Twin Demons

[Navigator]

(Technically two entities as one Persona)

-

Osamu (Death)

[Has a black liquid dripping from his eyes and mouth (overdosed)]

Element - Curse

Repel - Psy

Weakness - Fire

Passive Skill: Null [all Elements except Fire]

-

Fyodor (Judgment)

[Ghostly white/blank eyes, Scar that bleeds on his neck (beheaded)]

Element - Psy

Repel - Psy

Weakness - Physical

Known Skill: One Shot Kill

Book: Unknown

--

-:Relationships:-

Family:

Unknown Mother

Unknown Younger Sibling

Unknown Father

Pet(s): Kit (red panda)

--

-:Appearances:-

Manga Debut: Lost Souls, Persona arc

Anime Debut: Bungou Stray Dogs: Lost Souls, Persona arc

Light Novel Debut: The Butterfly

--

-:Portrayal:-

Japanese Voice: Nojima Kenji

English Voice: Chris Patton

--

"

Dr. Kuuske to an unknown customer

"I could care less how you refer to me. Better yet, don't refer to me at all! .....Though I would prefer He/They."

Kuuske Saiki (斉木 空助,, Saiki Kusuke) is Survivor's weapon/medical supplier and the previous owner of Untouchables, not much is known about him

Personality: Prideful, Competitive, Sadistic, Attention Seeking, Selfish, Curious, Deceitful, Honest, Mutterer

Confidant/Arcana: Temperance

-:Quotes:-

• (About his hair style) "I have terrible eyesight in my left, so I have no use for it."-Kuuske

'You just think it looks cool.'-Kusuo

• (Kuuske's Motto) "Curiosity killed the cat, but reincarnation brought it back."

• (After awakening his Persona) "Interesting.., so this is what happens when you unlock a Persona in your own Palace."

• (Shadow Kuuske while waving at the Phantom Thieves) "Have fun trying to find my Treasure!"

--

-:Etymology:-

• The name Kuuske is a misspelling of his given name 'Kusuke'

• The name Saiki means 'equal' (斉/sai) and 'tree' (木/ki)

• His full name Saiki Kusuke is a pun on the Japanse pronunciation of the word 'Psychic' (Saikikusu), 'Suke' is common in Japanese given names for males

--

-:Trivia:-

He has an IQ of 218

He studied at Cambridge at the age of 14

He has a muttering problem

He has notebooks filled with blackmail

Despite his inventions, he prefers to not use technology unless hes working

He has a flip phone that can do perfect video calls

He is protective and possessive of his younger sibling, though he still wants them to live their life

He made a Scythe based on a show he watched, he calls it 'The Green/Red Crescent'

He owns a Green/White one and gave Akira a Red/Black one

Kuuske will wear a skirt/feminine clothing just to spite others

He'll do a lot just out of spite

He hardly ever gets sick, but when he does, he gets it bad, this causes him to have panic attacks

This'll also happen when someone he is close to is sick

He's scared of bats and spiders

[Continued in P2]

Kuuske Saiki

-

-

-

Dr. Kuuske

-

--

A Clingy Older Brother and a Genius Inventor

'Curiosity killed the cat, but reincarnation brought it back.'

Confidant: Temperance

--

[thelovelyghostwriter]

do you think kuraneon is gonna be canon in the official hxh universe and what must have happened?

Whether or not they would be canon is up to Sir Togashi himself. While he does have romantic elements in his previous works like Yu Yu Hakusho and Ten de Showaru Cupid, it's not as explicit in HxH (e.g. Meruem/Komugi).

If you asked me this before knowing about the KuraNeon Marriage Theory (will give a link in the reblog later on) and KuraNeon paired up in mobile games, I would have said "0% chance" because we do not see them interact on-screen (even if I had shipped them since I first laid my eyes on Neon).

However, it is kinda sus that Kurapika became a Nostrade Family Young Boss; with Light and Neon nowhere shown. The more "accepted" theory is that Light is unable to continue and Neon is dead (although I do have rebuttals about Neon being dead - that's another conversation). I do wonder why he had to keep their mafia family name - there is no reason to if he truly let them wither. But from Light's last appearance in a manga panel, Kurapika did reassure him that he'll handle everything and you see the Nostrade mafia family organisation doing well under Kurapika. Which is also why my friend went to bring up that plausible KuraNeon Marriage Theory. 

I know that a lot of people think they don’t interact, but that is on-screen. After York New City arc, we don’t see Kurapika until way later, however him being in charge as the Nostrade Boss indicates that he stayed with the Nostrades. God knows what they did while living under one roof. 

Another thing that is major sus is the mobile games. Even non-shippers are baffled why KuraNeon is a thing. Kurapika and Neon are seen dressed as Hikoboshi and Orihime in two sets of the mobage cards; a romantic couple that is known in a Japanese legend and celebrated on 7 July (Tanabata Festival). They are even shown writing on coloured papers in one of the cards + Kurapika holding a bamboo - these coloured papers are used during the Tanabata festival where wishes are written on them and hung on bamboo. It is believed that the reunion between the two lovers Hikoboshi and Orihime are so joyous that they grant the wishes of the people. As far as I know, the only pairing that gets to have a Orihime/Hikoboshi theme in their cards is Machi/Hisoka; and we do see Hisoka/Machi having a soft spot for one another in canon (in the current arc, Machi does patch him up after his defeat and Hisoka spared her).  

Hmmm.. I should make a post about this whole Tanabata thing actually. Asides from that, they are also the v-day banner in 2019 for the games and she gave him a cake during the valentine’s day event, to which showed a scene of him thinking about what to give her back (and low and behold, Kurapika’s White’s Day card featured him with a gift and him wearing the same outfit of the scene where he thought about what to give her). 

In a separate mobile game, they have a special attack together. Their mobage cards have identical backgrounds and themes. Therefore, it isn’t just one mobile game that does this. It makes me wonder why the official team devs do that when this pairing shipping sub-fandom is really small and many even dislike it. 

Even as a shipper, it also baffles me why devs do that when they have little screentime together (gotta be more objective here). If you do consider the KuraNeon Marriage Theory or consider that they might end up together in the manga, it makes sense why the official hxh game devs pair them together. And I am unsure about the source - but I think for Japanese manga production of non-manga material, you need approval from the writer? All the more to be suspicious of the mobile games that contains KuraNeon above every single pairing out there. 

Hence, if you ask me, there is a chance of Kurapika/Neon being canon. How that might happen is a little tricky and depending on the type of portrayal they will be (I have four interpretations of this ship on my pinned post lol). 

I’m not sure if you only define canon as the vanilla/romantic type, or it also includes one that is a little twisted. I've noticed that hxh has friendship and family dynamics that are already complicated and not as wholesome as one would think. I do believe that if KuraNeon were to be canon, it would be the latter interpretation. 

There are actually a few things that are needed to be considered for it to happen: 1) Neon’s fate - she needs to be alive (or maybe not)  Now, a lot of people believe she died because Chrollo’s book speculates that she does. However, we don’t see her dead body. It’s literally just Chrollo’s interpretation. This is contrasted by Kurapika that states that the previous Scarlet Eye owners did not need to be killed (and the “daughter of a mafia leader” is one of them). If the daughter of a mafia leader is truly Neon, then it brings a question of who should you believe more: Chrollo or Kurapika? (Imo it’s super interesting how these two guys who are enemies have different narratives on the same girl). 

Of course, there was this potential discrepancy I found while re-watching this arc. The Scarlet Eyes that Kurapika bidded for 2.9 billion was a fake. They thought it was stolen when Squala took it with him and died - but it was actually that Kortopi’s Gallery Fake copy disappears after 24hour. So technically, the Eyes is with the Troupe. Now, assuming that Togashi has not forgotten this detail (I believe he still remembers), I do think that it is possible that since Chrollo is the type to get bored of the stuff he steals, he will just sell it and it will be obtained by the later owners. As for “the daughter of a mafia leader”, I’m sure it’s Neon that Kurapika is referring to - be it him mentioning her as merely a previous owner despite the set of Scarlet Eyes being “stolen” or she bought another set. (There is a chance that is not Neon, but another daughter of a random mafia leader, but what are the chances of another daughter being like that?) 

I guess I just wanted to point this detail out because many people readily believed Chrollo’s book (it was not even himself). He stated that he did not know when it disappeared. 

As for that “Hisoka killed Neon” theory, while it is believable and interesting, the only thing that is doubtful for that is that a) Hisoka could not have gone off to kill Neon in such a short period of time, b) that would be an insult to Kurapika’s capabilities if she was under his care, c) the fortune-telling ability doesn’t bother Hisoka. Pakunoda and Hisoka had a short conversation about the fortune and both of them acknowledged that the future changed. Hisoka wrote over his fortune despite having a good one to manipulate the events in hopes of fighting Chrollo - that is an indication of his belief that he writes his own future, and therefore which is why I argue that the fortune-telling ability never bothered him.

As for the “Kurapika killed Neon” theory, I think... they all need to get one thing straight about Kurapika: as much as possible, except for the spiders, he doesn’t kill (or at least dislikes to kill). He stated that none of the owners had to die even if two preferred to die. If there’s a way, he will not shed blood. Besides, Kurapika doesn’t actually hate Neon - contrary to popular belief. There wasn’t a single manga panel that indicates his hatred for her; or even annoyance. It was only the time where Mellody mentioned that he will kill her if she stands in the way, but Kurapika, as much as mentioned before, doesn’t kill if there is an alternative way. 

I have yet to fully explore possible reasons why Neon’s ability disappears from Chrollo’s book if she’s still alive (my friend thinks it’s related to Kurapika’s dolphin ability). However, there are many rebuttals to the theories on how she died. 

But yeah, I think for it to be canon, Neon has to be alive. Unless... they were already canon and he sailed to the Dark Continent and she died slightly before that event (tbh I rather not have this).

2) Kurapika’s fate - he needs to live

Number 2 is a condition is if they aren’t canon yet before he sails to the Dark Continent. 

One thing that confuses people is that they think that just because Kurapika is under the Kakin Employment, it means that he is no longer affiliated with the Nostrades. The Kakin Employment contract is temporary - he is still affiliated with the Nostrades (and their business is bodyguarding, take note). As for him being in the Zodiac, he is still the Nostrade Family Young Boss - being part of the Zodiacs is like some political committee. 

I know there are rumours (I say rumours cause I don’t see the interview script by my own eyes) that Togashi once indicated that the Phantom Troupe and Kurapika will all die. I do think that Togashi can kill one of his main characters, but there’s one thing that makes me question whether he changed his mind: Nitro Rice from the Dark Continent. 

The Nitro Rice is a thing in the Dark Continent that prolongs one’s life - a direct solution to Kurapika’s Emperor Time problem. I think if he does last until they reach the Dark Continent, he has a chance to prolong his lifespan that he has lost while using Emperor Time. 

Now, if he indeed gets to survive, manages to complete his mission, there’s another problem he will face: a will to live. Because currently, all he has ever lived for is bringing justice to his clan. Beyond that, what can he live for? Which kind of makes the ending for him to happily live with someone (be it his friends or having a family) a suitable one. 

3) Neon’s development

Neon is seriously misunderstood among the fandom - even her personality. I’ve seen a lot of Kurapika x (other character) ships where Neon is the 3rd party in fanfics; and it is a one-sided love. 

However, Neon is actually an emotionally detached person while Kurapika is the one that gets attached to people, even if he initially avoids them. Neon has what psychologists will call “Avoidant-Dismissive Attachment Style” while Kurapika has “Avoidant-Fearful Attachment Style”. This is rightfully so due to their different backgrounds. I actually believe that between the two of them, Kurapika will be the one who falls first or if this is one-sided, Kurapika is the one that likes her because of their attachment styles. 

Neon has zero friends, is materialistic and lacks sympathy for dead people (the complete opposite of Kurapika). She believes in focusing on the present and the living (it’s actually a pretty good principle to live for). She needs to learn how to be more attached to people and learn compassion - which she actually is seen as being capable of. She was surprised that Eliza broke down and cried, and even forgo bidding physically. I think this is an indication of her starting to feel sympathy for people and perhaps being more mature - cemented by the fact that she lost her powers.

Therefore, I do think she needs to learn how to warm her heart up to people (which she might have already started to after the York New incident) if she were to feel something for Kurapika. 

4) Kurapika’s view of her

Okay, this is one factor that is either you take it the vanilla way or the kinky way lmao. I actually wrote a Cognitive Dissonance Theory for Kurapika on my Tumblr post for this one (will try to link it in the reblog). 

Kurapika’s initial belief is that flesh collectors are scums who should be arrested, yet he is surprised to see that his flesh-collecting employer is a girl of his age. I think there is already dissonance in his mind there once he met her. 

Contrary to popular belief, Kurapika doesn’t hate Neon (there’s no single manga panel that ever once showed he detest her or feel annoyed with her; as compared to other employees of hers). In fact, he does quickly understand that Neon is being exploited by her father - to which he corrects Basho about the situation. In the manga, when he woke up after the fever, he says her name (in the 2011 anime, it was “Boss” but in the manga, it’s “Neon”) and immediately asks about her; which indicates that he is concerned for her. Of course, she is his employer but in that situation where he is bedridden and not working, him asking about her won’t be just due to him working as a bodyguard. 

However, this doesn’t show that he has feelings for her. It only proves that a) he doesn’t hate her, b) he does care about her. He needs to see Neon as more than just a flesh collector for him to like her; on top of spending time with one another. He needs to see (if he hasn’t already) that she is a girl his age that has a different predicament than him. 

This is the vanilla way I guess. 

The darker and more saucy interesting interpretation would be him thinking it’s okay to objectify her just as much as she objectifies his clan’s eyes (that’s another post I gotta do for another day - but hey, this interpretation is paralleled to Tserreidnich/Theta). 

5) Spending Time with one another

I think as mentioned, it is already a given that Kurapika and Neon had spent time together under one roof off-screen while we see Gon and Killua on-screen during the 3 arcs. However, I think Neon cannot suddenly become less detached and Kurapika cannot want something more than his mission at the moment; so I do think that even if they had spent time before Dark Continent Exploration arc, Neon and Kurapika needs to spend time together after he comes back (that’s if they haven’t banged before he sailed to the Dark Continent like they did in my fic lmao). 

So yeah, I think these are generally the five things that I think should happen if they were to be canon. 

I don’t know why I was compelled to do a long-ass post of this, but I hope this answers your question. I can go on and write a report about this but Imma stop here for now. 

[vagabondedlife]

Kei Fujiwara’s name is hardly recognizable to most fans of Japanese cinema despite her crucial role in director Shinya Tsukamoto’s early cult classics. As Tsukamoto’s “right hand” woman in the 1980s, Fujiwara became closely involved in his underground theater troupe, Kaijyu Theater, and contributed to the productions of the experimental and DIY films The Phantom of Regular Size (1986), The Adventures of Denchu Kozo (1987), and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989). Her credits include actress, cinematographer, prop artist, makeup artist, and set-designer (her apartment was used as a primary set). She also engineered Tetsuo’s iconic phallic drill.

Born in Kumamoto in 1957, Fujiwara moved to Tokyo in her early twenties and discovered theater troupe director Jūrō Kara, who became her mentor. After a decade, she created her own troupe called Organ Vital, which underwent a series of evolutions but remains her life work. Her new project this year is Ibunkitan, a form of micro-nomadic theater, whose kanji characters mean “strange-listen-machine-story.” A private person now living in the reclusive mountains of Nagano, Fujiwara rarely gives interviews, but seemed excited to talk about her rarely discussed directorial debut, Organ (1996).

An avant-garde exploration of violence, pain and pleasure with an operatic amount of coagulated blood and extrasomatic body horror, Organ follows two detectives after they break into an organ harvester’s warehouse and collide with yakuza gangsters, a drugged doctor, and his eye-patch wearing sister Yoko, played by Fujiwara herself, who also produced and wrote the film. A cherished work among hardcore fans of Japanese cult cinema, Organ is still ripe for rediscovery. The film’s offerings of a full-bodied sensorial experience and an abusive questioning of cruelty prove tirelessly relevant.

Fujiwara’s work was recently revived at FFFest in New York City with a double feature of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Organ. Fujiwara prepared a special statement that was shared as an introduction. Following the screening, we had the opportunity to speak to the artist about her life, practice, and ideals in more depth. The conversation was held over the phone in Japanese.

NOTEBOOK: Is Ibunkitan a new Organ Vital?

KEI FUJIWARA: Yes, it’s a new Organ Vital. When I was young, I lived in the rural area. I always just read theater but never had the opportunity to see state-of-the-art theater. When I was in high school, I was always reading, and I picked up an Antonin Artaud book that featured this French term. It meant the vessels of life. When translated to English, I’m told it just becomes, “vitals of organ,” or something, but in Japanese it is called gozōroppu and to me signifies the corporal. That’s the name of my theater company, and it has always been that for me. Born into this three-dimensional world with bodies, we sense and express. That’s what’s interesting in life. Ibunkitan can be done in a very small space. We’ve done it in temples, in the corner of a shop, in salons. Our first performance was in March, and we’re planning to do another in November. We've been invited to perform my new Jomon-inspired piece in a live-house in the mountains in Nagano, so we’re preparing some woodwork for that now.

NOTEBOOK: You were working in Shinya Tsukamoto’s Kaijyu Theater production between working with Jūrō Kara?

FUJIWARA: Jūrō Kara, my mentor—when I was in Jōkyō Gekijo [Situation Theatre], he took a liking to me and wrote roles for me. A lot happened, and Kara said he would make a new troupe with me, but I had other plans, so I left once, and he said, “As my mentee, you can leave but wait for me to come get you.” That’s when I went to work with Shinya Tsukamoto on his plays and films. It was after Tetsuo: The Iron Man [1989] that Kara started the new troupe “Kara-gumi” and I returned to work with him.

NOTEBOOK: How was it that you began working with Tsukamoto?

FUJIWARA: I had just left Kara and after a while a friend said that Tsukamoto was looking for someone to act in his plays. He was Tsukamoto’s classmate and an actor, and he made the introduction. I found Tsukamoto interesting and talented. So, I began working diligently as his right hand after that.

NOTEBOOK: I wanted to ask you about Tsukamoto’s 1987 film, The Adventures of Denchu Kozo.

FUJIWARA: Denchu Kozo and Tetsuo were actually both shot in my apartment where I was living at the time. You know all those cats? I couldn’t rent a normal apartment, so I had to live in a cheap nagaya tenement house on the verge of getting demolished. I just needed a place to live that permitted pets. Denchu Kozo and Tetsuo’s interior shots are all at my place.

NOTEBOOK: Are the scenes projected in the TV monitor in Tetsuo from Denchu Kozo?

FUJIWARA: Yes. They’re from Denchu Kozo.

Above: Organ

NOTEBOOK: What turned you onto making Organ, if you were always only interested in theater?

FUJIWARA: That was because of my experience filmmaking with Tsukamoto. It prepared me for how arduous it would be. Theater is an impermanent art, and that’s why it’s such a luxurious art form. But film is like capturing a world in a crystal ball. The joy of creating film is like making your own universe. My staff members at the time— six men other than myself—were all talented, and I thought, “Everyone’s here, why don’t I just make it?” So, all the staff also became the actors, and that’s how we started filming. But it was so difficult at first. We used the atelier space we had and reformed it over and over and shot it like that. It was time-consuming. It became the warehouse set, the school set. It kept on transforming. We did it all in the same space.

NOTEBOOK: That seems like a very theatrical way of using space.

FUJIWARA: Yes.

NOTEBOOK: But first, you started writing it?

FUJIWARA: Yes, I first started writing it. I’m actually not very good at planning. I just think that if I put my mind to it, I can make it happen. So I wrote the script, and had the staff pool in their savings. Between the seven of us we had 200,000 yen, so I thought, “Great, if we have 200,000 yen and one reel of film is 5,000 yen, and even if we bought lights, we can make 30 minutes of footage.” As for the equipment, there are countless aspiring-filmmaker boys who have camera equipment lying around collecting dust, so we borrowed from them. As for the set, we were all used to making it for our theater. We were good at foraging free stuff to make things. That warehouse set in the beginning of Organ was made with an extremely cheap budget. Then we started filming. All those organs in that scene were worked from what was supposed to be our dinner for the day [laughs]. We used real food. We took some gelatin- and konjac-noodles and thought, “This can look like veins!”

NOTEBOOK: And then you had it for dinner?

FUJIWARA: Well, we ended up not being able to, because it was covered in fake blood! It was all about how little money we could spend and still make something, which was a valuable lesson for me.

NOTEBOOK: You’ve mentioned the Kenji Miyazawa poem, Ame ni mo makezu1.

FUJIWARA: Yes, I just really like Kenji Miyazawa. I like the way he thinks, and his philosophy. He’s a Buddhist, and as I haven’t studied Buddhism properly, I cannot say for sure, but I think his seimeikan, or view of life, is on par with that of Osamu Tezuka. Osamu Tezuka and Kenji Miyazawa are two gods with the same perspective regarding seimeikan. No matter how great their art is, Yoshihide Otomo and Hayao Miyazaki can never reach Osamu’s level. Osamu’s core is love. There’s only love. The way they think about life is totally different. I was reading manga before I was literate [laughs]. I like Osamu Tezuka, but also Sanpei Shirato. And in my teens, I liked Daijiro Morohoshi. He’s an extremely interesting person.

NOTEBOOK: Do you think that your films need to be discovered?

FUJIWARA: They need to lock in perfectly with someone’s desire to watch it, or else watching it has no meaning. It just appears as a confusing, grotesque film.

NOTEBOOK: Please tell us about your make up and special effects.

FUJIWARA: Since Tetsuo, my method is always the same. I don’t have any background knowledge of special effect makeup. I just have a gut feeling of what can and can’t be used. Tsukamoto had these drawing storyboards for Tetsuo, like the steel body and the drill penis. For the latter, Tsukamoto just wanted to make something simple and said it would be enough if we could just pretend like it was moving, but I thought it would only be interesting if it actually moved. I didn’t have any hi-tech skills, so I thought, “That’s it!” I took the nearest working electric fan, dissembled it down to its core, used all the rubber and tape I had at home, sprayed it up and got it to go, vroom [laughs]! It was the same for Organ. I used household products, mostly kitchenware.

Above: Organ

NOTEBOOK: What about your cinematography?

FUJIWARA: I had no background knowledge. The first time I started shooting was on Tsukamoto’s set. A lot of people who graduated film school and wanted to help were there, but Tsukamoto didn’t trust any of them. Just because you have technique doesn’t mean you can shoot well. He thought that the person wielding the camera needs a certain amount of power, of energy. So I, who had never touched a camera in my life, was given the camera and told where to press to get it rolling, and shot all of the scenes Tsukamoto was in.

NOTEBOOK: Do you still shoot with a camera lately?

FUJIWARA: Rarely.

NOTEBOOK: As the occasion for this screening was FFFest, Female Filmmakers Festival, could you comment about your experience as a female filmmaker?

FUJIWARA: Something men don’t have—there are two types: female filmmakers who focus their perspective on their immediate surroundings and daily lives, and those who focus on creating a worldview from the even more intimate bodily perspective. That’s what’s a little different from male filmmakers. Even in theater, most female directors write familial narratives, although I don’t [laughs].

NOTEBOOK: The podcast Ladies Horror Night, on the occasion of this screening, recorded an episode that raised the question of why you, a female filmmaker, didn’t include more female characters. I’m not sure about this pressure for female filmmakers to represent female subjects, as I think there’s power in the female filmmaker re-writing the male-centric story. Can you speak on this and how you came to write the police story in Organ?

FUJIWARA: When I think about seimeikan—our view of life—it appears to me that the moral judgment of good versus bad is not something universal, but just a rule that protects our lifestyle in society. It’s a regulation. We make regulations to protect ourselves. That takes the form of “good” and “evil.” But that’s not the good and evil that holds ground in nature. Animals kill other animals for their own predation, right? Humans, too, in the context of war, can kill other humans and become heroes. The concept of zen-aku, or the notion of good and evil, is just a societal regulation. The police represent upholders of this regulation. And then there are those who defy this regulation, who lie in a realm completely different from this conventional morality. Organ is a clash between these two groups. That’s how I formed the police narrative. As for why there are few female characters, well… In the case of females, expressing them requires—for many, not all—a focus on the micro world, the micro perspective, that is, if you pay attention to their priorities. In other words, if you have a goal and you want to finish something, but she says she needs to take a bath at this certain time and cannot participate, there’s nothing you can do. In my theater, only men can keep up with me. Because of this standpoint, if a woman were to express a woman, she would need to create a micro world. But when describing a police story, a macro worldview, the direction would lose focus.

NOTEBOOK: It would become more internal?

FUJIWARA: Right. That’s why there aren’t as many female characters. But the wife of Numata represents the reality for women. And also the female teacher who approaches the criminal but gets killed. Woman participated in this way. But it’s hard for them to take leading parts for the narrative. It’s hard to let them be there and have their perspective be represented, because their perspective is in a different dimension.

NOTEBOOK: What about the character you play, Yoko?

FUJIWARA: Yoko is outside of that realm. She’s an outlier. She doesn’t represent family or the household or the joy of daily life, because she didn’t enjoy any of those things. That’s why she can exist there.

NOTEBOOK: How did you direct your actors in Organ, was it different from how you usually direct them in theater?

FUJIWARA: It’s the same. The only direction I gave them in Organ was that they only get one shot. I don’t give actors multiple takes. If there’s a camera or equipment problem that requires another take or two, I’ll do it. But I won’t do it for the actor. The actor has one chance, the take. But, on the offhand that the actor makes a mistake and requires a take two, I tell them they need to buy their own film roll. That was the rule. So, no one ever made a single mistake. They were all dead serious, completely focused. They’re all broke and have no money to buy film.

NOTEBOOK: In that sense it’s theatrical.

FUJIWARA: Right, and I had one actress tell me that that it was brilliant. She said, “I do lots of work for TV and film, but everyone is so lukewarm and they do take after take, and think about it so leniently. But there’s none of that here. The one take is the real thing.”

NOTEBOOK: So, that urgency was good for the actors?

FUJIWARA: Right. They said they couldn’t afford to buy their own film.

NOTEBOOK: If you give theater actors the same direction for film, how does that work? The performances in Organ don’t come off as exaggerated; I doubt a viewer without knowing would assume they are all theater actors.

FUJIWARA: There’s no difference. In theater, my scripts are like music scores. The lines come out and dance, modulate, sing, calling on the innate sensation playing the instrument that is yourself on stage. The actor, with this music-score-as-script, has a multitude of possibilities of how to play it. In film, the scripted character is a part of the environment. They are simply material for the scene. I didn’t need to explain this to them, they naturally just became materials for the scene.

Above: Organ

NOTEBOOK: That’s a good transition into my next question: can you talk about your music and sound design direction?

FUJIWARA: Music is difficult. What I say doesn’t get across, because I was working with new people. They hadn’t even seen any of my theater. I like German bands, something strong and hard. But even if they mimic the Germans, the Japanese can’t avoid making music that doesn’t sound soft and weak. One day I said, “Make it more powerful, something that alludes to the power of nature, more animalistic and sturdily-built,” and they said, “Okay.” The demo they brought to me literally had animal sounds, like elephants wailing and dogs barking, and I was like, “…That’s not what I meant” [laughs]. It didn’t get across. But there were some interesting sound bites that I could use. But Japanese band musicians can’t get over their own softness. I think what they have is different.

NOTEBOOK: So you’re not happy with the results?

FUJIWARA: Well, I’m the type of person that thinks, que sera, sera. So I wasn’t satisfied, but…

NOTEBOOK: You’ve mentioned that you a very easily scared person. But in Tetsuo and Organ, your characters say, “I won’t be afraid.” How do you interpret this difference?

FUJIWARA: When I came to Tokyo in my twenties, the first theater directors I met said they’d never met anyone as weak and sensitive as myself. They didn’t think I could live on a few years longer, much less do theater, and that I might find myself drugged up in a brothel in the near future. Kara was the only person that ever said to me that I was the strongest person he’d met. In other words, the fear and strength that I have appears to others as a weakness that can barely withstand life, but it’s just my highly sensitive nature they see. In actuality, I’m very strong. I feel very easily, so that seems weak, but my capacity for empathy is just very large. I feel others’ pain and sadness so strongly that I throw up thinking about them. That’s why I don’t watch TV or read the newspaper. Or else I would be crying all day [laughs].

NOTEBOOK: Watching Organ feels like you’re making the audience feel this extreme pain you describe.

FUJIWARA: Yes, that’s the result of the film. My second film, ID [2005], is even more so.

NOTEBOOK: In addition to fear and pain, pleasure is another large theme. After the screening, someone told me your film was grotesque but something about it was so pleasurable. How do you maintain that balance?

FUJIWARA: I think humans, in order to live, can’t cut those away from existence. If you deny desire, you’re not human. The existence of such things causes our misery, too. Thus, desire and slaughter are inescapable. My fear and sorrow regarding this, and my questioning what are they anyway. That’s what I wanted to portray.

NOTEBOOK: What’s interesting about your portrayal of violence is that Yoko uses the gun as a weapon but doesn’t shoot from it. The one time she tries to shoot at her father, it wasn’t loaded. She mostly hits with it.

FUJIWARA: When I act a role, it needs to be real for me to imagine it. I can’t shoot a gun just like that. I need to feel it. Whenever I do something I feel a corporal build-up that can’t just be released by shooting away.

NOTEBOOK: Shooting it would be too easy?

FUJIWARA: An action needs to be taken. The body and the heart are connected. It’s not that easy.

NOTEBOOK: What was the biggest challenge in shooting Organ?

FUJIWARA: The most difficult challenge was the first scene, in the warehouse. When the doctor and yakuza fend off the police while trying to dissect the man. That shoot was in the middle of summer, but we had to close off the warehouse because it was a night scene. It was hot, smelly, only men, and everyone’s body odor was suffocating the room. That was really difficult. At the time there were seven of us, and now there are three of us, just Takahashi, Mori and I. In Organ, all the actors take on multiple roles. Whenever they weren’t onscreen they were doing lights or shooting. We shot it scene by scene in order. I remember towards the end of the film, during the scene in the tunnel, when my role Yoko comes in on a bike and there’s a fighting scene, we couldn’t get a permit to shoot. We were able to shoot outside the tunnel on the road but not inside. But I badly wanted to shoot inside so we went at midnight, and the characters got all bloody and we were shooting, and the police came. They thought it was a real yakuza fight and took off the safety on their pistols and were about to shoot at us. We thought we were done for. The character Yasuda, who later falls into the ditch and gets stabbed with a Japanese sword, was responsible for getting the permits and he had all the documents on him. So, he came out from the ditch all bloody and with a sword in him, screaming, “We’re shooting a film!” terrifying the police even more. While he was negotiating with them we finished shooting the scene. The police just told us to be safe and left, but it was all thanks to him for putting his life on the line. We really thought we were going to get shot. Usually film shoots have large crews and it’s obvious, but in our case, all the crew were also the actors, so it was hard to tell, and the lights were hidden.

NOTEBOOK: What about the camera?

FUJIWARA: Yes, but it was a small 16mm Scoopic, and the police were so focused on the bloody actors they didn’t notice it. The police were terrified, but it was a great location and I just needed to shoot there no matter what.

[duhragonball]

BEGIN: Battle Tendency Liveblog.   JJBA Ch. 45-47

🇺🇸🗽🧗‍♂️🧼🪀🌵Part 2, Hell Yeah!🌪️🎈🛩️🌋🚬

I'm pretty friggin' excited for Part 6 anime, and Part 6 is one of my faves, so one could understandably assume that Part 6 is my favorite.  And I post a lot of other JoJo stuff on this blog, so it's probably not obvious, but Part 2 is the best.   

I got into JoJo in 2017, watching Parts 1-4 in anime version, then reading the scanlations of Parts 5-8 while I waited for the anime to catch up.    Then I re-liveblogged the Part 5 manga because there was finally a proper translation available.   And technically the Part 8 liveblog never ended, since the manga is still ongoing.  

As I developed an appreciation for the manga, I started to feel like I should go back and check out the comic versions of Parts 1 through 4.  Where better to start than my personal favorite?   But I never got around to it, until now.

There's a few things I want to explore with Part 2.    First, I want to go through and work out why exactly I like it so much.   It's kind of tough to articulate, but usually I just say that it's fast-paced and something's always happening.   Part 1 takes a while to get going, and Parts 3-8 rely on the Stand concept, which means that each of them occasionally fall into the trap of becoming formulaic.   Part 2 doesn't have the hassle of introducing all the lore, and it doesn't have the luxury of just doing a gauntlet of Stand Battles to pad out the story.   But I think there's more to it than that.  Battle Tendency has a charm all it's own, and that's what I want to talk about.

Second, now that I've become familiar with Parts 1-7 (and most of 8), I want to go back and see how 2 holds up as part of this mythos.   BT sort of gets overlooked, I think, and that's fair, since it doesn't involve Dio, Stands, or the more outlandish costumes of the later installments.  A lot of fans write off Parts 1 and 2 for being "boring", but at least Phantom Blood carries the prestige of starting it all, and providing the origin of Dio.  Something I think a lot about is whether or not Part 2 "connects" with the later entries in the JoJo series.  It forms a trilogy with 1 and 3, and Part 4 features Joseph's legacy in an important way, but what about the later ones?   Parts 5 through 8 owe a huge debt to Stardust Crusaders for introducing Stands, and to Phantom Blood for introducing JoJo's, but what does Part 2 give them, if anything?   

Third, I'm interested in seeing how BT holds up in isolation.    It's a direct sequel to Part 1, and it ends with a prelude to Part 3, so it's clearly designed to function as part of a larger saga.   But Parts 4 and 5 really don't operate that way, and that got me thinking that maybe Part 2 is more self-contained than I give it credit for.  

But enough about that, let's get this started.

There's two plot threads in these opening chapters.  One reintroduces Robert E. O. Speedwagon, now a 70 year old oil tycoon, and Straizo, who has succeeded the late Tonpetti as the Ripple Master.   Speedwagon has been using his oil fortune to fund a research organization called the Speedwagon Foundation, and it discovered something major during an archaeological expedition: an engraving of the stone mask, the same one Dio used to turn himself into a vampire 50 years earlier.   Note that the mummified corpse lying on the slab with the engraving has vampire fangs.   Whoever this guy is, he didn't just know about the masks, he used one personally.

It might get revealed later in the comics, but I'm pretty sure the anime version had Speedwagon explain that he primary purpose of his foundation was to learn more about phenomena like the Stone Mask, which is probably why they were digging up an Aztec temple in Mexico to begin with.   As I recall, the Stone Mask was discovered in that part of the world, and taken back to Europe, where it eventually came into the possession of the Joestar family.   Speedwagon would know this tale, and so if he wanted to find out more about the mask, he would have known where to start.   Fifty years later, he seems to have hit paydirt.

But the mask engraving isn't why he called Straizo all the way in from Tibet.   Deeper in the temple, there's a weird looking area that looks like something from out of an H.R. Giger painting.   In the center stands this column, or pillar, if you will, and mounted on the pillar is...

...This guy, surrounded by more stone masks.   When I first watched this part of the anime, I though the big reveal here was that there were lots and lots of Stone Masks, which would be a big problem, since Part 1 made a big deal out of destroying the one Stone Mask that started all the trouble.   And maybe the guy in the pillar was the one who invented the things, I thought, but the bigger problem is that he made so many of them.   But no, Speedwagon explains that the "Pillar Man" is not an image carved into the stone, but a living being, in some form of suspended animation.  He even has a pulse.   

So who is this guy and why did he create the Stone Masks?   Speedwagon does not care.   He only wants this Pillar Man destroyed before he wakes up, and that's the sole reason he called in Straizo.   The two of them were the only survivors of the battle with Dio 50 years ago, and Straizo's Hamon power, also known as the Ripple, can destroy vampires that were created by the Stone Mask.    So he's desperately hoping Straizo can finish off the Pillar Man the same way.   But Straizo doesn't seem as concerned about it, and he asks about Joseph Joestar instead.    So I guess I ought to circle back to the other plotline... 

Fifty years after Jonathan Joestar sacrificed himself to defeat Dio Brando, his wife Erina and his grandson Joseph have moved to New York City.   Joseph tries to buy a Coke, but this kid swipes his wallet.   Kind of funny how Joesph's first and last appearances in JJBA are him getting robbed. 

But the kid runs afoul of the local corrupt cops, who bludgeon him with their batons and threaten to put him in jail for 20 years unless he agrees to give them a cut of whatever money he makes from pickpocketing.   When Joseph catches up to this scene, the cop even says he's going to keep Joseph's wallet "as evidence".   I gotta say, not everything from Battle Tendency has aged well, but this police brutality stuff has become incredibly relevant.  This could be 2021, except the cop would have had a gun, and he would have shot Smokey, then Joseph because he mistook the Coke bottle for a rocket launcher.  

Joseph tries to defuse the situation by claiming he gave the wallet to the kid as a gift, but the cop doesn't believe that story, and he wouldn't care even if he did.   He even smears boogers in Joseph's face just to prove that he can say and do whatever he pleases.    Up to this point, Joseph looks and seems a lot like Jonathan.  Later artwork tries to downplay that resemblance, probably just so it's easier to tell them apart.   The anime gave Joseph different color hair, and Hirohiko Araki himself started drawing young Joseph with aviator goggles all the time, even though he doesn't wear them that much in this story.  But starting out, the idea was that Joseph is the spitting image of his grandfather, and it almost looks like this is just an clever way to sneak Jonathan back into the story and transport him forward in time, except....

Coming through, coming through, coming through now  

Coming through, coming through, coming through now

Coming through, coming through, coming through 

Shake it like it's heat, Overdrive!

Yeah, so Joseph can do Hamon/Ripple tricks just like his grandfather, and all the others guys who could use Hamon back in Part 1.   The difference is that when Joseph does it, it looks coooooool.  After breaking Officer Hulk Hogan’s trigger finger, Joseph takes a big swig of soda, because it’s awesome.

To Smokey’s surprise, Joseph did all that badass stuff a second ago, but he’s terrified about his grandmother scolding him for it.  So Joseph wants to run for it, and that suits Smokey, so they rush off together, beginning a long tradition of JoJo’s running from things.   Enemies, consequences, you name it. 

Smokey asks Joseph how he learned how to do that trick with the coke bottle, and he says he has no idea, he’s just always been able to do it.    He knows his grandfather had the same power, but he’s dead, and so are his mother and father.  Curiously, Joseph’s father did not have Hamon powers, so it seems to have skipped a generation. 

And that sets up the other side of the plot.   Speedwagon wants Straizo to destroy the Pillar Man immediately, but Straizo first asks about Joseph.   He had heard some time ago that Joseph had innate Hamon abilities, and he had used them once to rescue Speedwagon from a kidnapping attempt in midair.   A flashback shows us this moment, with guys threatening to ransom and kill Speedwagon, but Joseph is just chilling in the back with a Superman comic. 

Okay, time out.   This panel rules and all, but the Superman comic book didn’t start until 1939, a year after Battle Tendency begins.   Superman was featured in the 1938 magazine Action Comics, but this scene on the plane is a flashback to Joseph from his early teens.   Also, the earliest DC bullet logo didn’t appear until 1940, so what is this?  Some kind of magic, time travelling comic book?    I hope someone got fired for this blunder! 

Anyway, Joseph was content to ignore the hijackers until one of them struck him, and even that wouldn’t have upset him except he got his own blood on his clothes, which Erina bought him, so that sends him into a rage.   Speedwagon was worried that Joseph might clobber the hijackers, but instead he knocks out the pilot, then drags him and Speedwagon out of the plane before it crashes.    The main thrust of that story was that Speedwagon was more worried about what Joseph might do than the hijackers who had already threatened to murder him.   Joseph is slow to anger, but once you piss him off he’s going to go to war, and he doesn’t always think things through.

But he’s never been trained to use his powers like Straizo’s order.  Upon hearing this, Straizo kills his own disciples, and all of the Speedwagon Foundation guys, then knocks Speedwagon himself out.   This will anger Joseph when he hears about it, but Straizo is counting on this.    As he explains, Hamon power can slow his aging process down considerably.   He and Speedwagon are both about 70 here, but he looks much younger.   Even so, he’s feeling his age, and he confesses that he always admired Dio for his immortality and power.   So now that there’s Stone Masks available, he’s decided to use one on himself, become a vampire, and become “a being that surpasses all”.  

And that’s a theme that runs through all of Battle Tendency, along with the rest of the JoJo franchise.  The main villains always seek power to position themselves above the rest of humanity.  At first, it seems kind of random for one of the men who opposed Dio to suddenly switch allegiences like this, but in truth, it’s human nature to be tempted by this kind of power.  Dio succumbed to the lure of the Mask, and now we find that Straizo would have done the same.   He just didn’t have the opportunity until now.

But the reason he’s concerned about Joseph is that he’s thinking this through.  Dio was defeated after all, so Straizo wants to eliminate anyone who could potentially defeat him.  Aside from himself and Speedwagon, the only others who know about the battle with Dio and the Stone Mask are Erina and Joseph.   Once he eliminates them, he’ll be free to do as he pleases.

Back to New York, this is a pretty sweet drawing of a car.    I’m not a car guy, but even I can get behind this.  By now, Smokey has met Erina Joestar, and he finds out some of the backstory from Part 1.    Erina’s husband died at sea, and she was pregnant with their son, Joseph’s father, and had a baby girl whom she rescued from the same incident at sea.   The two children grew up, married, had Joseph, and died, the father in World War I, and the mother of some unspecified illness.  Perhaps out of loneliness, Erina is “unflinchingly kind” even to someone like Smokey Brown, who doesn’t seem to think he’s worthy of her favor.

Anyway, Erina wants to take Smokey out to dinner at this nice Italian restaurant, but this racist mafia guy makes a big stink about a Black person being allowed to eat there.    Joseph gets up to kick his ass, but first he has to check with Erina to make sure it’s okay, and she’s like “Yeah, destroy that guy,” because even though she doesn’t approve of Joseph beating up people, she can’t abide disrespect to her friends.   This leads to the memorable fight scene where Joseph is like eight steps ahead of his opponent.  He goes for his brass knuckles, but can’t find them, and Joseph deduces where they are because of some bloodstains on his shirt.  He even suggests what this guy is about to say next because he’s so predictable.

Then he dodges every blow, moving so quickly that this jerk thinks he was hitting Joseph, when in fact he was punching a hat rack behind Joseph, and somehow he didn’t notice that he impaled his hand on broken wood until Joseph explained it to him.     And honestly, this feels like the prototype for a lot of Stand Battles down the line.  I’ll have more to say on that later.

What puts Battle Tendency over the top is how Joseph not only outwits this big lummox, but the rest of the diners at this restaurant all start applauding him for doing it.    They’re just honored to be present in this insane comic book where literally anything can happen.   “He made that asshole punch a hat rack!   This is awesome!”

Then this dude suddenly speaks up.   He’s not only the mafia guy in charge of the first guy, but he’s also heard a hot tip about Speedwagon getting murdered in Mexico by a Tibetan man.   He knew Erina would be interested in hearing this, but he’d never met her before.  Small world, huh?  

How would this guy already know about it, though?  I guess Straizo deliberately leaked the story, specifically so Joseph would find out about it sooner, but it seems awfully convenient.   But that’s how Battle Tendency rolls.   This thing’s only seven volumes long, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover...

[5millioncatipilars]

Ok y’all I need

anime recommendations

(Non anime recommendations also encouraged)

Why?

I’m between hyperfixations and starting to Feel it

But I’m a picky bitch so here are my requirements

Fantasy world bc I deal with enough real life as it is. Modern day fantasy is fine too.

I need the angst. Either tragic backstory or future angst or ongoing I need it.

But not all angst of course bc it hits different when the person with all the angst is also the entire shows source of sunlight.

Preferably no annoying uwu damsel in distress with the overly high pitched voice. Strong women only bc I am a proud simp and need a woman to step on my neck, but I prefer male characters anyway.

Angst please. I have an aching void in my soul that craves to be filled with nothing but sadness and will continue to keep me up at night until I am crying over someone’s pain other than my own.

At the same time I will accept shows where nothing ever changes and everything is just fine and the mc is so op that nothing can bring harm to them or their world bc my life is currently in turmoil and I would love to see one that isn’t.

Nothing too long bc I’m not ready for that kind of commitment. Also those 12-24 episode anime are some of the best out there.

The art style has to be good bc I’m not going to stare at something for multiple hours a day that isn’t pretty.

Subbed or dubbed does not matter to me.

If the manga is better I will not be reading it bc books are expensive and I don’t like reading on my phone or computer.

Not in movie form bc I don’t have the attention span for that.

When I say angst I mean the kind of stuff you can’t find in American tv shows. Have any of y’all watched Saiyuki? I’m talking watch the fist season then go watch Gaiden kind of angst. I’m talking worse than any ghibli movie kind of angst. I’m talking needs a CW but there’s not even that much violence or blood type angst. I’m talking will make me rethink my life choices and better me as a person type of angst. I’m talking you’re surprised that mc didn’t turn into a villain type angst.

Speaking of Saiyuki, that’s a perfect example. All happy go lucky, basically the same story every episode, everyone’s having a good time, then Boom! Gaiden! Angst! Then back to our regularly scheduled program, then Boom! Reminder of angst!

No romance bc I am asexual and that shit is icky

Anime I’ve watched that I liked to give you a reference

Saiyuki

Chrono Crusade

Cashern Sins

Durarara

Trigun

Legend of legendary heroes

Blue exorcist

Inuyasha

Wolf’s Rain

Dramatical Murder (don’t watch the OVAs trust me)

Castlevania

Saiki K

Anime I didn’t like

Sword art online

7 deadly sins

Bleach

One peice

Naruto

Fairy tale

FMA (past a certain point)

Soul eater (liked it then, not so much now)

Non anime previous hyperfixations include, but not limited to:

DSMP

Bucky Barnes (specifically)

Danny Phantom

Rangers apprentice

D&D

Detroit Become Human

Renaissance faire

Six of crows (the book)

The last airbender (but not legend of Kora)

Invader Zim (much angst potential there if you look)

Merlin (BBC)

Good Omens

I have drained these fandoms of all of their content and the void demands something new to feast upon.

Tldr: I need angsty shows to watch pls.

[kalperun]

The Origin of Abilities in BSD and how they came to be and possible Fyodor motives explained.

(Also small talk about The Book so Spoiler warning!)

Personally, I’ve always wondered about the logistics of abilities. I wondered where they came from, are people born with it, or do they show up mysteriously one day? How do abilities interact with each other as well - especially with supernatural phenomens with abilities that are the same and why does that happen?

Just what could possibly cause that?

And then - as I was talking with @whyis-every-username-taken it hit me.

What if abilities actually came from entities?

I then realized, the more that I thought about it, that the more plausible it became - even if it changed a small detail I made on a previous theory in Fyodor’s ability.

But to show where this all began - I need to bring you all back to the only entity we actually know to exist in current canon.

Arahabaki.

The God of destruction and calamity, a being of ultimate power that the government used to test against other abilities and other worldly entities to ultimately create artificial abilities.

But - what gave the government this idea? What spurred this madness on that made the government think that could actually work and use time, money, and effort to actually obtain an entity and successfully seal it even though it had the power to end them all.

I would like to believe that the government had some sort of conclusive research first - no matter how slim - that they could indeed create artificial abilities from entities.

Which led me to this conclusion-

Abilities come from entities.

Or more specifically fragments of entities.

And the reason I say fragments is because of supernatural phenomenons - like the one caused by Gide and Oda in their last battle.

When Gide and Oda were fighting they experienced the only known supernatural phenomenon known in canon so far.

Their abilities were the EXACT same so they melded with each other, attracting to each other, their ability’s powers increasing to the point where time actually seemed to stop from them.

And I believe that these supernatural phenomenons are caused because their abilities come from the same entity. And that entity wants to become whole with its other fragment badly.

That in turn can cause a supernatural phenomenon especially since the fragments are being forced to fight each other. It’s trying to resist death but at the same time become whole - which is why Oda kept seeing multiple futures when facing Gide as well. Something that he was confused about but this could explain why that happened.

Which brings me to my next point.

Because of this - it only seems right to conclude that entities are sentient beings. They have a sense of awareness - perhaps even identity despite being limited to nothing more than a tool. And if entities are sentient and the source of abilities - then abilities are sentient.

This is best exhibited by three people - and also one event.

But first I’ll begin with the people.

Kyouka’s ability Demon Snow allows her to summon a phantom ghost. But she can’t control it.

And in canon the reason why she can’t control it is because her ability was passed down from her mom to her. It wasn’t her ability.

I would like to add more to that though.

I believe that she can’t control it because her ability has become more aware - it wasn’t restricted as it used to be by her mom, in some sort of perfect vessel. No - it had been caged but then became a little bit more free in Kyouka and had its own will. It was acting out, but once Kyouka was able to to officially become apart of the ADA she gained some semblance of control and her ability remained sentient. It could still act on its own.

That was made evident when Demon Snow made tea for Kyouka of it’s own volition which Kyouka was displeased about. But I couldn’t find the gif for that so have this instead.

Based on this Demon Snow and Elise are actually quite similar.

But Elise wasn’t a passed down ability. She was Mori’s and Mori’s alone - and yet she is actually quite sentient. It is true though that Mori can ‘configure’ Elise’s personality but she does have her own will and can be separate from Mori as her own being, yet she is still leashed to Mori.

I believe this could be explained by the fact that Mori has a larger entity fragment - an entity that is more whole yet he still has control over it.

This could also explain why Chuuya can’t control Corruption. Arahabaki more whole - and the more whole an entity is the less control you have over it, unless an entity has been passed down by blood.

And now - we come to Atsushi.

Atsushi’s situation is actually the exact same as Kyouka. His ability was out of control before Fukuzawa, making me arrive to two conclusions.

A) Atsushi’s ability was not his own and instead passed down by blood.

Or

B) Atsushi’s entity (ability) fragment was too big and he was unable to control it - like Chuuya, his ability would take control over him.

Honestly, it could be either and both options could explain why everyone is after the Tiger beetle - thinking he knows where the Book is but he doesn’t.

But remember. Entities are sentient. And therefore abilities are sentient.

So what if Atsushi didn’t know but his ability itsslf knew?

If it’s option A) his ability knows because his parent who possessed the ability originally knew where the book was.

But if it’s option B) his ability knows because its a fragment of the book - for the book is an elaborate ability - and therefore the Book is perhaps a whole entity.

And detailing off of option B) the Book itself was described as a book - whose pages were made up of parallel universes. And whatever people write in it - it calls forth that parallel universe that sort of grants your wish with a twist of karma.

And perhaps - the reason why entities became fragmented was because of the power of the Book being used.

The Book tore them apart with each universe that was written over - or perhaps - all entities (and therefore abilities actually) could have been created from the Book. Not to far fetched if you MAJOR CURRENT MANGA SPOILER AHEAD remember that Sigma was created from the Book. So why not entities/abilities as well?

If that’s the case - then the Book is a sentient object that gave life to entities which were then torn apart and in turn created abilities that were absorbed by people. So - abilities can’t be born with.

But I would like to backtrack a bit and talk about how far abilities can be sentient. I would like to bring up the event that happened in the BSD: Dead Apple movie about specific scene with Fyodor in it. A scene that I’m bringing up that changes a small detail of a theory I made a while back on what Fyodor’s powers could be.

I would like to bring up this scene:

The scene where Fyodor hotly explains how he was crime and punishment and that’s why his ability didn’t attack him under Shibusawa’s ability.

In a way - with all of this here - I think it was a way of saying that his ability and himself were actually on the same page.

What that page was - hell if I know - but if that’s the case then everyone else that had their abilities attack them, means that their entities wanted to kill them.

They probably wanted to be free.

They saw a chance - and they took it.

And maybe that’s why Fyodor sees ability users as sin.

If you were an entity - trapped and used as nothing more than a tool, restricted by someone else’s will and enslaved, wouldn’t you want to be free as well?

And maybe - just maybe - that could actually be the page that Fyodor is on with his entity fragment. The harm that ability users are doing without realizing it, ability users being masters over something that they don’t understand at all and these abilities wanting to probably return home.

Home being the Book, which could be why Fyodor is looking for it. Why his entity fragment is working with him so well - that could be why they want the book.

To get rid of the sin of ability users and free the entities back to where they actually belong.

The Book.

Oh gee, talk about keyboard smash, but I hope this makes some sort of sense because I just typed all this out in one go and that’s it. That’s all I want to do with it.

Yeah - I can see that there is some holes in this theory - especially with Lovecraft - but that’s why it’s a theory!

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed.

[mistaeq]

[1/5]🐎Hello! I'd like a JJBA [1&4] matchup? I'm a female, Virgo sun, Libra Moon, INFJ-T, and I'm Demisexual/Panromantic. I'm 5'11 and very insecure about my height, among other things. I'm very shy, and awkward. When I'm uncomfortable or around people I'm unfamiliar with I either don't speak at all, or I cannot stop talking, I just go off. Most awkward situations I find myself in, I put myself in through saying something stupid. I'm haunted by those moments.

Matchup

TW // none

Thank you for your request, hun! I like your passions a lot, from literature, to art and nature and horror stuff :0 you really sound like an interesting person ~ enjoy! ^_^

Phantom Blood and Diamond is Unbreakable Matchup

WORD COUNT: 1.3k

My first matchup choice for you is...

Robert E. O. Speedwagon!

He's a master in making you comfortable. Robert is 25, and already knows enough about life to be helpful for you.

You can tell Speedwagon likes you, but as soon as you tell him about your sexuality, he stops and gets interested in an explanation. He doesn't want to get something wrong, with you.

Robert likes your height, as he's way bigger than you and able to completely wrap his body around yours. Only if you're okay with it. Before holding you this way, he usually asks.

Whenever he meets someone you don't know, he's not the type of man who forces you to talk or to introduce yourself. Robert will keep you close, and if you don't feel like talking, he's fine with you not talking.

Speedwagon agrees on you on how much first impressions matter. After all, it's because of the good impression Jonathan gave him, that he met his best friend, and his idea of the Joestar being a noble soul never changed.

The man loves when you act protective towards him. He spent years protecting himself, that feeling now protected by someone feels incredibly good.

After you get closer and actually become a couple, Robert cherished moments in which he sees you more open and affectionate.

Your first kiss was given by mistake, actually. You were giving him some good affection, and comfortable with kissing him, you leaned towards his cheek. Right in that moment, he turned his head to look at you. And the kiss just... happened. You both stayed because it felt right.

"Uhm... sorry for kissing back, y/n... it was a... reflex. If you want it to mean something, though... I wouldn't be complaining..." then, he giggled.

Speedwagon knows and respects the fact that you don't really enjoy showing off too much your affection in public, so he'll just subtly hold your hand or give you warm smiles.

He might have become a gentleman, after his adventure with Jonathan. But he's the same man who lived in Ogre Street, deep down. He's totally okay with playful pranks, and sometimes he'll even get his revenge on your pranks.

Robert is not an artistic person himself, but he enjoys listening and watching you while you draw, or write. If you give him permission, he will happily read what you've written and sincerely compliment you.

Speedwagon focuses a lot on people he cares about. He's a caring man and will never let you think you aren't loved enough. He won't even give you enough time to feel abandonment issues.

Even if it's an habit of yours, Robert will beg you several times not to bottle up your feelings. He's a great listener, and will always be there, when you'll need him.

He loves horror stuff, crime and conspiracy theories. Speedwagon is the type of man who would make up a whole speech about this. A serious speech.

Even if he's not a great artist nor a great writer, after he's learnt to appreciate more his country's culture, he likes literature and history a lot.

Robert will lock himself up with you in a library and read in your company for hours. He has a soft spot for the light that forms in your eyes, when you read and learn together.

If you happen to read romance together, expect Speedwagon to be a little clingy. He wants a kiss too, why should the book's characters be the only ones who get a kiss?

Don't be ashamed of asking him to spend some time in the nature. He needs a break from the city, and as he's starting setting up his Foundation, he needs peace. With you, possibly.

My second matchup choice for you is...

Kishibe Rohan!

There really are a lot of chaotic dumbasses, in Morioh Cho.

When from his window, he sees someone so chill around new people, he thinks he's dreaming. He needs to be more about you.

He succeeds in approaching you enough to use Heaven's Door on you. Asking would have been too embarrassing for him, the famous mangaka Kishibe Rohan. What if you understood he's interested in you?

Rohan learns you're demisexual, and this equals the fact that he can't expect you to fall in his arms and live happily ever after. You need to get to know each other and develop a relationship, before falling in love.

Pfft. Easy. He points his finger at your pages, and writes "I already know and care about Kishibe Rohan". His satisfaction doesn't last much. The ink disappears, as Heaven's Door manifests in front of its user and shakes its head.

The stand wouldn't have helped its user to force your feelings, even if it was for a good cause. So Rohan gave up and chose to have a good talk with you.

He caught you in a moment when you couldn't stop talking. But it was kinda different. Rohan enjoyed it, in a certain way. Seeing that you had so much to tell when talking to him, made him feel different, even though he had started to admire you for how chill you seemed.

The first impression Rohan gives out is never good, honestly. The fact that you talked so much to him doesn't mean you had a good feeling about him. He's kinda arrogant. It's a defense type of thing.

But you feel like he wants to spend time with you.

"Just because we always meet everywhere doesn't mean that I, Kishibe Rohan, am following you, y/n."

You didn't even mention him following you. He unwillingly exposed himself. That's when you understood Rohan isn't, in fact, arrogant, rather a softie in denial.

When you two start getting close to each other, he feels you becoming protective over him. Rohan thanks you, but tells you he doesn't need it. When you try to stop being protective, he whines because he wants you to care about him again.

When you're introduced to his house, you feel like you went through heaven's door - ba dum tsss -. You didn't know about his passion before, and you learn he's a mangaka.

When you crash at his place, you enjoy watching him working on his manga, Pink Dark Boy, and as you like drawing, he can't hide he has let you help him several times so you could take a break afterwards and spend some deserved time cuddling.

His house's curtains are always down, you don't have to worry about other people seeing you smooch Rohan. Just because he dislikes PDA as much as you.

If you're okay with it, he'd like to keep your relationship secret for a bit. He's not ready to see Josuke and Okuyasu snickering and chattering over your feelings.

When you two draw together, you happen to steal his pencils and brushes, so Rohan has to run after you for the whole house. If he succeeds in reaching for you, he wins a kiss. And - maybe - his drawing tools.

He noticed how critical you are about your drawing skills. It's not something Rohan thought he would have ever done, but he'll let you sit on his lap, his hand wrapped around yours, holding a pencil and guiding your hand in drawing a sketch.

Rohan is the ceo of Don't-Bottle-Your-Feelings-Up. He has temper, if he thinks something bad about someone, he'll just straight up say it. That's why he talked you a lot of times into not keeping everything inside your chest.

He doesn't watch lots of horror or conspiracy stuff, but if you happen to read or learn something interesting, tell him, he'll be grateful for you giving him inspiration for his manga.

Rohan often brings you in hidden places full of nature - he found those out while looking for inspiration in Morioh Cho - where you can spend some time alone and where he can draw quick sketches of you obliviously smiling.

[splendidshinobi]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 6-10

back at it again with the white vans

episode 6: the alchemy exam

alrighty then

um mustang calling edward “ed” is EXTREMELY offputting

ohhhhhhh noooooo not shou tucker

FUCK

im wholly unprepared

them all being in central instead of east is low key jarring like my brain isnt computing it

alexander’s intro is basically the same 

nina bbyyyyy girl u deserved so much better

ed is such a fucking nerd...chemistry club modern au confirmed

god the more tucker talks the more i wanna beat his face in

al pretending to eat by tossing a potato in his armor i-

aww theyre playing in the snow theyre so pure

wonder how long thatll last

“bigger brother” and “little big brother” and ed doesnt even get mad

ed’s birthday party????????

A MELON? ED YOURE SO RUDE

so 03 had ed’s bday instead of elicia’s...CAUSE THEY GOT ELICIA IN THE WOMB

“it’s here!” “the tea?” “the baby!” hughes is a fuck head

ok so now they’re having elicia replace rush valley baby arc

this was winry’s time to shine in fmab i miss her 

if winry isnt here who is gonna birth this baby

oh my god they just realized ed can use alchemy without a circle

no wonder he’s been using circles this whole time

SO ELICIA JUST POPPED OUT????? WHAT

STUFF ALEXANDER IN THE ARMOR AND PRETEND YOURE A TALKING DOG???

“i dont think thats very funny” NO ALPHONSE IT IS NOT

THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING WITH THAT ONE I SWEAR TO GOD IN THIS ESSAY I WILL

damn bradley what up homie

im so thrown off by the way theyre doing the exam omg

seriously what the hell is fuhrer bradley’s purpose right now is he even the fuhrer in this i feel like they wouldve mentioned it

oh lord ed is about to impress everyone with his clappy hands

ok so next episode is nina FUCK

episode 7: night of the chimera’s cry

havoc babeeee

im gonna marry him my himbo king

also can RIZA DO SOMETHING PLZ

“huhhhhhhhh nina” ew tucker that was weirdly gross

wonder why

cant do it cant do it

do we think jean kirstein was modeled after jean havoc slightly looks wise

was that purposeful 

ill have to google 

serial killer who only targets women?  it cant be scar...scar drinks respect women juice

barry or slicer bros maybe? um ok

why did we start with liore if they were just gonna hop right back into the past for a huge chunk of episodes idk

assessment day??? oh noodles

AL WHY DID YOU TELL TUCKER TO MAKE ANOTHER TALKING CHIMERA ALPHONSE NO

THE NOISE I EMITTED IM GONNA TAKE A LAP

im gonna FUCKING SCREAM

ed r u writing to winry??? that’s a bit out of character for u good sir

no tucker put that baby down

im gonna fucking SCREAM

aww he burned nina’s picture thats not sus at all

SHESKA!!!!!

wait does the ironblood alchemist know what tucker did to his wife? thats kinda the vibe im getting

SCARRRRRRRR

looking like a pirate too damn

his voice sounds different is that j michael tatum 

apparently not it was dameon clarke in 03 ya learn something new everyday 

ew elicia has a lot of hair for a FUCKING NEWBORN

ed really is such a cynic very suspicious of everyone as he should be really

basque grand knowS SOMETHING

oh jesus oh fuck oh god please do not TOUCH THAT BABY

ed and al snuck back in to the house well u know what its for the best

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

im gonna cry again please god no

FUCKING DIE SHIT HOLE

she’s hurting? oh my god

my sweet angel

ew his eyes!!!!!!! 

tucker is such a fucking failure...like look at the chimera squad and greed’s theatre troupe being the way they are. ugh it really hits how fucking unfair it is 

ed was really about to split them? boy you know better

where is nina going...im hurting

ed really tried to save her in this one

SCAR KILLS NINA IN THE STREETS???????? SIR

thats different

oh snap 

oh FUCK

SCAR WHY DID YOU LEAVE HER BODY LIKE THAT

THE WAY SHE WAS ARRANGED ON THE WALL THAT WAS FUCKED UP

AND THEY FOUND HER LIKE THAT???? AT LEAST IN BROTHERHOOD THEY DIDNT HVE TO SEE HER CORPSE ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

that was fucked.

episode 8: the philosopher’s stone

can yall get ed and al away from nina’s fucking MURAL 

get out of the car mustang

finally jesus christ

roy mustang talking about healthy coping mechanisms dont make me laugh but alright baby boy go off i guess?

im curious about who this goddamn serial killer is though lets turn to that plot thread

r u kidding me

mustang is making ed and al take over tucker’s research?? thats actually wildly messed up

oh tucker was straight executed that’s a choice i guess

tucker and the philosopher’s stone sounds inaccurate but ok

ed please stop being mean to your brother

03 mustang has got me reaching for a fucking baseball bat on GOD

scar and edward having this conversation right now i literally cannot

WINRY yes bitch

BRADLEY WHAT IN TARNATION

JESUS LORRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD

alphonse shut your mouthhhhhhhhhhh

im so confused what is bradley up to

“alchemists are not cold blooded murderers?”

i mean

kimblee would beg to differ for one

whos this creepy lady 

her voice sounds familiar

barry’s food shop?

the killer is barry ok got it

IS BARRY DISGUISED AS A WOMAN

I KNEW THAT WAS JERRY JEWELL’S VOICE

WELL I KNEW IT SOUNDED FAMILIAR AT LEAST

WINRY GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TRUCk

has PINAKO TAUGHT YOU NOTHING

ok so i VASTLY prefer suit of armor original manga canon barry

this is such an odd plot what in fuck

um OW the meat cleaver

im so confused this fucking plotline

oh hey alphonse nice of you to show up!

is barry still gonna become a suit of armor later on

it makes NO SENSE to introduce him otherwise 

everytime i see 03 mustang i wanna beat his ass HONESTLY

literally i will shove my foot up his ass

fullmetal here we go

ed thinks he’s so punk rock 

oh great scar’s seen the watch

episode 9: be thou for the people

ed you simp buying winry all this stuff my edwin heart is ascending

SIMP SIMP SIMP

“mr. elric”?? you mean MAJOR ELRIC

to be fair though fuck the military

YOUSWELL??? oh LORD

im gonna need to read a full chronology of this show

 alphonse continues to be a precious angel 

where’s my boy yoki!!!!!

edward you idiot don’t go flaunting your money

woof woof ed

al looks so offended by ed saying they just met

whereas in brotherhood didnt he totally throw ed under the bus??? 

a choice to be sure

ah there he is hello yoki

who’s the chick

shes a lesbian

yoki makes me miss my baby girl mei chang

mei where r u

WAS THIS MILITARY DUDE REALLY ABOUT TO CUT DOWN A CHILD??? oh my god

hawkeye getting a promotion yes bby girl

jesus theyre transferring them to east now OKKKKKAY thats not how it happened it the book but ill take it....just doing it the opposite way i guess

who is lyra who is she

cute some military bribery 

umm lyra what the fuck did you do

lyra is a homunculus im callin it now

they definitely invented/changed up some homunculi in fact im certain they did and shes one of em. gotta be

i feel like 03 wrote ed as much more insensitive towards others than he really is...just a vibe im getting

i know he was faking for the townspeople’s sake but i still get this vibe from other instances 

i mean i cant say its not “canon” because its 03 canon

anyways what a show off

i cant believe theyre going to east...fuery and breda better be there

ok finally some answers on their ages....ed got his license at 12 like normal and nina and youswell were when he was 12...liore was 15, 

if they didnt flash the ages on the screen id be lost honestly

at least we’re back up to “present day”

episode 10: the phantom thief

ed saying he doesnt wanna see mustang

same

03 mustang is activating my fight or flight and im choosing fight

ed cheating at cards totally checks out

um who the fuck is this woman

what is she wearing

SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THAT CUTOUT MAAM HOW DO YOUR C**CHY LIPS NOT POKE OUT

idk but this is fem!hisoka

“hey shouldnt we talk first” after getting handcuffed??? christ almighty these innuendos

siren??????? siren is probably also a “fake” homunculus

ugh

ok so the nurse is siren

ya aint slick girly

alphonse control your crush

I REFUSE!!!! ALMEI RIGHTS

why is al’s hair so brown in this flashback anywayssss

oh its spelled psiren ope

like she’s literally a batman villain...

oh my god...............the tiddy grab. my son would never

my son is respectful

is this her homunculus tat or just a random alchemy tat

the added plotlines and original content continue to confuse and astound me every single time....

ok but if psiren really was doing this for the hospital she wouldnt be so flashy about it. like thats how you get caught sweet cheeks

girly stop flirting with this child on god im gonna fucking kick you

now shes a nun????????????????

Shes a fucking troll i hate her

im going to kick alphonse into the sun 

oh great now shes a teacher

wow shes a savior. the savior of amestrian venice. greatttttt

ed looking exactly like this emoji on this gondola rn 🧍‍♀️

STOP FLIRTING WITH THE CHILD 

GOD THIS IS SO BATMAN VILLAIN ESQUE

alphonse plzzzzzzzzzz she aint your girl

ok so probably not the last we see of this ding dong con artist

ok so its starting to get muddy. im scared the 03 stans are gonna come after me like i do like it and im having fun watching it but some of the plot and characterization choices are just....odd??? idk i gotta keep going though!! im sorry i just stan arakawa and her work in all her glory!!!

[cami-chats]

Year Of Fanfic 2020

684,938 words

WHAT A YEAR. Wow. 684,938 words published on AO3!!! (I’d say about 50k of that wasn’t actually written this year and is instead from WIP’s that started from previous years, but that still leaves me with a solid 600k words. which. geez.) 

Last year was at 400k, and my goal for this year was to stay around that area, not PASS IT BY 200K. I’m not expecting this to happen again, so I hope everyone was happy with this lmao. 

This year had fics for: Avatar (2009), Beauty Pop (manga), Charmed (TV 1998), Check Please! (webcomic), Harry Potter, Julie And The Phantoms, Jurassic World, Lady Bloodfight, Marvel, Newsies (1992), Shadowhunters, That ‘70′s Show, The Umbrella Academy, The Witcher, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. 

Full list of fics under the cut (with word count and link), if anyone wants to take a peek at the bullshit I’ve been up to >.< 

Avatar (2009)

Blue Sun (3711 words) Sharing (10164 words) You Can't Share Everything (1257 words)

Beauty Pop

The Golden Pair (5094 words)

Charmed

Crossed (2678 words) A Charmed Past (2586 words) Forget Me Not (1120 words)

Check Please!

Gotta be damned because I want it all (30613 words) Take My Hand (15245 words) Still Family (3575 words) Too Old (1964 words) Red Ferrari (1024 words) Pickup After-Party (680 words)

Harry Potter

The Potter's, Both Old And New (86071 words) WIP! Harry's Parents (1567 words) I'm his, but he's not mine. (3890 words) Baby Steps (3816 words) If he kisses you, it just means he's touch starved (1694 words) I Never Did Like Roses (2659 words) When did you last check? (1499 words) Shocked Reactions (1351 words) Past Mistakes (1907 words) Seduction was never so difficult (2581 words) Wartime Sacrifices (9846 words) Hi Hungry, I'm Dad (2890 words) In the closet, but not like that (1592 words) A Game Changing Kiss (1026 words) Oblivious was never so cute (1874 words) Logically (743 words) Not Who I Remember (1108 words) Boys And Marriages (9768 words) Mais bien sûr (901 words) Back To You (4456 words) Anything For You (1371 words) Just An Inch (740 words) Love At Night (1524 words) Puppy Eyes (1137 words) Grown (1255 words) I Knew You First (1686 words) Birthday Wish (2016 words) Caller ID: Daddy (604 words) Family Time (673 words) My Best Friend (2961 words) Everything About You (2074 words) Every Kiss (3136 words) Out Of Commission (1691 words) For The Crowd (928 words) It's Just Sex (2055 words) Thicker And Better (1890 words) My Son (1583 words) A Little Bit Of Failure (772 words) Just Go With It (1495 words) Lay Your Love Down Soft And Sweet (5480 words) Metal Decoration (1329 words) Innocent? (1577 words) Jail Break (1530 words) One Turn To Another (2445 words) Return To Me, My Love (5010 words) Warmth (819 words) Bring Your Kid To Work Day (760 words) A Little Vivian Ward (5977 words) How To Lie (8975 words) Since You Been Gone (2542 words) Unromantic Confession (983 words) Your Hands (423 words) The Best Hugs (1509 words) Waiting Around (2014 words) Through The Gates Of Hell, I'm By Your Side (1006 words) Perfect Black Flowers (1318 words) Going For A Ride (748 words) Kitchen Appliances (1180 words) Property Of James (550 words) Meet-Cute (Again) (1300 words) Have you heard the news that you're dead? (3994 words) Wedding Jitters (18673 words) Seeing Double (Sort Of) (1887 words) Dauntless (1022 words) Excitement (1941 words) Past Demons (1183 words) Not Actually Brothers (5972 words) Absorb (2235 words) On My Mind (1255 words) Lights On (659 words) Pregnancy Scare (852 words) Silver And Gold (3381 words) Periodical Pains (277 words) In Your Dreams, Whatever They Be (1698 words) Regrets (2374 words) Like Somebody I Used To Know (3546 words) Girlfriend (2252 words) Your Husband Looks Like Your Ex-Girlfriend (1680 words) Skirt The Subject (859 words) The Model Boyfriend (841 words) Too Sad (1955 words) Flowery Tattoo (1025 words) Wake Up Kisses (549 words) What Do You Know Of Love? (2515 words) My Bodyguard, My Love (2911 words) The Bachelor (1501 words) Closing Shift (939 words) Always Negotiating (413 words) Keep Holding On (1009 words) Christmas Eve (609 words) Top Of The World (1956 words) The Wishing Stone (2015 words) What I Like About You (29812 words)

Julie And The Phantoms

Baby Bi, Bi, Bi (1157 words) New Sound (659 words)

Jurassic World

First Dinosaur (482 words)

Lady Bloodfight

Ladies Bloodfight (529 words) This Isn't Dinner (348 words) You Need Motivation (401 words)

Marvel

About A Little Boy That Lived In A Blue World (14621 words) WIP! The Kidnapper's Heart (15880 words) WIP! Handle With... (1314 words) In Body, In Soul (4964 words) The Value Of Bucky (8744 words) By Scent (11880 words) Some Self Love (1956 words) Have We? (2244 words) Sexy Thoughts (1475 words) All These Kidnappings And Only You Quoted Star Wars (5366 words) The Best Season And Friend (8060 words) Party Of Misunderstandings (1187 words) Molten Red And Gold (4988 words) More Color, More Pride (616 words) Fantasia (1018 words) All that's best of dark and bright (4148 words) Get What You Paid For (698 words) The Sound Of Your Heart (701 words) Your Halo (4146 words) Squad Of Two (586 words) Lady Natasha's Consort (967 words) You'll Do. (2368 words) My Blood Red Heart (7567 words) Meeting Jean Grey (1650 words) Work Six Times As Hard (3311 words) Only In Papers (707 words) Anywhere You Go, Let Me Go Too (19778 words) French Braid (447 words) The Man Who Has Everything (759 words) Front Page (831 words) Swirlin' On You Babe (1241 words) Lace And Silk (572 words) A Rose For You, My Dear (10369 words) Just One Look (532 words) An Airforce Pilot, A Pararescuer, And A Nuclear Deterrent Share A Bed (5085 words) Watching Is Loving (606 words) Damaged Wings (2931 words) Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (14793 words) Your Dad Sucks (828 words) A Birthday Party To Remember (890 words) Childhood Sweethearts (1001 words) CEO's New Assistant (1183 words) Another Captain (1802 words) A Space Romance (3110 words) The Farm (1598 words) Black Lightning (2118 words) One Hell Of A Reunion (2556 words) All We Are Is Dust In The Wind (1432 words) Knives, Arrows, And Repulsors (640 words) Cooking Class (1439 words) The Wrong Uniform (865 words) Parent Of Two (374 words) Wrong Package (1522 words) Young Man (973 words) Grumpy (279 words) College Flame (2054 words) Feel It (382 words) Got Keys? (524 words) Domino Effect (360 words) Two Super Soldier Dumbasses (454 words) The Best Bathtub (1649 words) Play Pretend (402 words) Whose Soap? (557 words) Ugly Sobs (534 words) Blue Is Everywhere I See (667 words) Stranger Things (1259 words) Racing And Winning (422 words) Sleepy Meditation (535 words) Apollo's Gift (2293 words) Toys And Dolls (645 words) Black Holes (478 words) I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood (2002 words) The Winter Ghost (822 words) The Bodyguards (4559 words) An Element (534 words) Perfect Recall (2147 words) Household of Videos (433 words) Masquerade (1297 words) Luck Be A Lady (440 words) A Little Wasp (322 words) A Hero In Need Of Saving (303 words)

Newsies

Gotta Get Brooklyn (1695 words) Brooklyn Means Queer (481 words)

Shadowhunters

Not Bossy, Just The Boss (3861 words) Mundane Boyfriend (4884 words) You Talk Too Much (4960 words) The Person You Most Care About (1585 words) Out Tonight (2046 words)

That ‘70′s Show

We Said Nine (285 words)

The Umbrella Academy

The Book (2058 words) Who Do I Have To Kill For Coffee (803 words) All These Cracks Till I Break (4636 words)

The Witcher

The World On A Platter (11046 words) Bare Strings Of Breathlessness (1353 words) Parties Like This (704 words) Fiancé, I Guess? (1061 words) Being In Love (2310 words) I was highest by your warmth (441 words) Shrike To Snow (4160 words) Waking Comfortably (567 words) Absolve (529 words) Not A Stray (1280 words) Nightly Conversations (2990 words) Backwards Relationship (1689 words) Angelic Action Versus Human Nature (1351 words)

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Every Day (1190 words) The Master And Priest Of Suwa (3801 words)

[freckled-words]

Count The Teeth - Part Two

Did I make any progress on the story today? No. Did I add more content to my plot breakdown list? Yes. AKA = I made more work for myself instead of achieving work on this. YAAAAAY ~

Edited by @the-wild-ego​

PART ONE

Needless to say, you did not like NateMare. 

Your friends and coworkers went nuts when they saw the tattoo. Thankfully it only appeared to be a tattoo to them, even when you were moving around. 

Every morning, when you looked in the mirror and saw it, you felt a strong urge to dig your nails into your skin and try to shred it off. 

It was only the knowledge that this was a temporary curse that kept you from going through with that thought. 

Though each time NateMare showed up on your balcony, in your kitchen, or in your bedroom, you felt that instinct come back. 

The damned chain was either relaying information to him, or he was, in fact, stalking you. Despite his numerous vague denials. There was no other explanation as to how he knew when you had days off from work, or when you were home on your own. 

Over the past three weeks of this happening, you learned only the bare essentials about the man. 

First being that he was not, in fact, a man, he was a Phantom Siren. He boasted about being one of two. Since it made him so special and rare. 

When he wasn’t looking, you were rolling your eyes and silently mocking him. 

The second being that there were more than just him and the vampire running around out there. When you asked for a little more clarification, he refused to share, saying instead that they had to be discovered on their own. Something about reinforcing their existence. 

The rest you learned about NateMare was conveyed through his pain-in-the-ass personality. 

He’d show up in a way that would scare the crap out of you. Drag you to one library or another, then make you do all the researching. All the while he’d be on his phone or reading manga. 

Regardless of all the times, you’d remind him, “This would go a lot faster if we were both looking.” He would wave you off and keep doing whatever it was he was doing. 

By the fourth week, you were just about ready to try the experiment of strangling a phantom. 

It was getting late, the library would be closed in an hour. NateMare, wonderful research buddy that he was, was fast asleep on the table top. He’d been asleep for the past 20 minutes. The thought of ditching him was tempting, especially with the picture of him being woken up by the cross librarian being added onto it. 

You touched the phantom chain on your throat and decided against it. The last thing you wanted was for him to retaliate while you were on the bus home. 

You yawned again, hard enough this time to make your eyes water. As you rubbed and blinked away the extra moisture, your vision blurred. You saw someone walk by your table, but couldn’t get a very good look. 

NateMare stirred, his body twitched and a small growl left his lips. He settled again once the stranger was walking past the reception desk and out of the building. 

Hearing that growl, which was not a noise a human would make, gave you confirmation about your decision to stay. 

You closed the book you had in front of you, deeming it to be another dud. You had a small pile of books to choose from, and all of them had been less than promising when you took them off the shelf. 

Your sight narrowed in on a thin volume sitting on the top of the pile. Its cover was a russet red, and if you weren’t mistaken, made of leather. 

You had no memory of finding this book on the shelves. Picking it up you confirmed your guess about the leather covering. 

There was no title or author anywhere in the book. There wasn’t any library barcode, either. Had someone put down a personal book by mistake?

Opening the book, you were met with the smell of aged paper. Which wasn’t hard to believe with how yellow the paper was. 

The words on the page were handwritten or printed in a way to be handwritten. If it was written by hand, it was the most elegant handwriting you’d ever seen. Only people that took the time to learn calligraphy could produce letters like this.

A skim over the first page put any thoughts of finding the proper owner out of your mind. You properly read the next couple pages and found yourself getting excited. 

You kicked NateMare in the leg, “Wake up, I think I’ve got something.”

He grumbled and cracked an eye open, “Check the book out and give me the cliff notes tomorrow.”

You kicked him again, “You wanted my help finding information. Here’s the information. I’m not a lackey you can bully into doing what you want. If you want to find the vampire, do some work.”

You shoved the book under his nose, with it opened to the passage you read last. 

Both his eyes opened and he scowled down at the book in confusion. Picking it up he brought it closer to his face. You heard him breathe in deep, “Where did you find this?”

“I didn’t find it. It found us. It just appeared on the top of the pile. I think it’s someone’s personal journal or something.” You didn’t follow up with the question about what he was doing with it. From what you could tell, he was trying to get a scent from the paper.

He growled something to himself that you didn’t quite catch. You filed it away as a curse since he settled on glaring at the book while he read. 

You could see the wheels turning in his head as the words processed. His posture switched from ‘annoyed, uninterested student’ to ‘invested intrigue’.

He turned the page, and what he read next made him smirk, “I knew it.”

“Knew what? You got ahead of me in the reading material, so you’re going to have to share with the class.” Despite having been forced into this, you were curious. 

NateMare read aloud, “‘Born from concentrated energy and fear, vampires seek blood to keep themselves tethered to the physical realm.’ This fucker is just like me, only a little more twisted.”

A brow raised, you asked, “You were born from concentrated energy and fear?”

“No, concentrated energy from my host’s fans.” He answered idly as he scanned over the pages. 

This, of course, made even less sense than the explanation for vampires. 

Feeling left out, you stood from your chair and leaned in closer to try and see the pages. 

His grip on the book suddenly became tighter, you were worried he was going to rip it in half, “What is it?”

He threw the book down and stood from his chair. Putting his hands over his face, he began to growl and curse. If not for his hands he’d be yelling more than loud enough for the librarian to ask them to leave.

You took the book and looked over the passage that had hit a nerve for Mr. Smokey Ghost.

“Once a vampire has come into existence, the first blood it tastes becomes its host anchor. The vampire will take on the appearance of the most influential of a bloodline’s generation. This allows them an easier means of obtaining sustenance. Once their chosen host passes, they assume the appearance of the next generation, and will continue to do so until the bloodline ceases to be.”

By the time you finished reading NateMare had gotten himself under control. He had his hands on his hips, and his sight fixed on the floor. Sensing that the smallest thing might set him off you asked, “I take it this is why he resembles you? Same host source?”

NateMare opened his mouth, then closed it, pressing his lips together. A minute passed where you thought he was trying not to explode into a smoke bomb. He lifted a finger, pointing it towards the book he finally huffed out, “If that thing is telling the truth, then yeah. I gotta go. Keep that book, or I’ll turn you into smoked jerky.”

There were wisps of smoke seeping from the corners of his eyes as he left. 

You didn’t dare move until he’d stomped his way through the doors.

Exhaling in relief you looked back at the book, “I think you just got someone in a whole lot of trouble.”

[aftermathdb]

DEATH BATTLE review: All Might vs. Might Guy

First Atlantis^2, then Widow^2, then Marvel^2, then ONE^2, and now Might^2.

(Holy Hell! I have exactly 100 screenshots for this episode!)

All Might′s Preview.

We open on a world where superpowers are common.

A world where schools are everywhere so that people can harness their powers.

These “Quirks” are varied, and some are… not that great.

But one aspiring hero would rise up to be the greatest hero around. Toshinori Yagi, who was given the greatest Quirk of all: One for All.

The hosts go over how badass this Quirk is. But more specifically how it’s the Quirk that can be passed down to other users.

Toshinori got his from Nana Shimura, and he became the ever-smiling All Might.

All Might keeps that smile on his face to ensure that everyone around him feels safe.

Thanks to All Might’s Quirk, he’s got everything from Super Strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Aside from Boomstick’s apparent ability to manifest seafood, the hosts go over All Might‘s main powerset.

Interestingly enough, All Might’s tendency to name his moves after the US is kinda accurate.

For example, the Texas Smash and Oklahoma Smash both create forms of tornadoes. And guess what states are smack-dab in the way of those things?

But All Might can combine those States together in one extremely powerful attack: The United States of Smash. PLUS ULTRA!

The power of the USoS is actually quantifiable. Given the size of the storm compared to the buildings around it, the force would be over 11,000 tons of TNT.

All Might can also move at speed around Mach 29.

Now, here’s the thing: All Might’s doing a lot of this with a handicap. So these moves are still impressive. Since DEATH BATTLE takes a look at these characters in their prime, those are the stats that would be used. In his hayday, All Might would be 60 times more powerful.

He’s on par with many a fighter, like Nomu, whom he had punched 300 times in ten seconds.

Even when crippled, All Might’s proven exactly why he’s been the number one hero for years.

Might Guy′s Preview.

a

In the world of Naruto, there exists schools that train the best Ninjas around. These schools would essentially teach Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, or in Boomstick’s terms, Ninja Magic.

But one ninja doesn’t really have that. Rock Lee was never really that good at the whole “Ninja Magic” thing, so when he found a mentor, it was a good thing for him.

Enter: Might Guy.

Despite not having that great of skill when compared to the other guys, Might Guy and his dad opted to focus on one thing and become the undisputed master of it:

Punching people (Thanks for the description there, Boomstick).

Strong Fist is a subset of Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat. A hard martial art that is focused on breaking the bones of the opponent.

Only the toughest people can really use Strong Fist according to the hosts, and it comes with it’s own set of skills.

But it’s a really big double-edged sword.

And we get more into that double-edged sword by an animated segment.

Regardless, the technique Guy and Duy developed was the Eight Gates.

With these Gates, they can unlock a whole slew of crazy abilities by way of removing limits on the body. From mental inhibitions, to physical limitations.

Some of these Gates are safe to use. Numbers 1-3 are good to go, but once you go past that, you’re in trouble.

At Gate numero six, Guy moves so fast that his fists ignite the air around him and can be used as projectiles.

In order to ignite the Hydrogen in the air, Guy’s swinging at speeds at 40000 km/h.

For reference, that’s nearly five times as fast as the X-15 Rocket Jet, the fastest man-made jet that has been made so far.

Gate Seven is still relatively safe for Guy, according to the hosts, but the final Gate is a fatal attack.

That’s not some sort of “Battle Aura” you’re seeing around Guy, that’s his blood burning. With this, he can use… “Night Guy.”

Yeah, I’m a little unimpressed too.

This form was able to decimate Madara. You should know that guy by now. He’s the deadly villain that could take on Naruto and easily defeat him in base mode.

Naruto’s super modes are definately better that Guy’s best mode, but it’s also way better than Jiraya’s best move.

Guy is also a match for Kakashi, who could catch lightning.

Kakashi’s speed clocks in at around 763000 m/s, so Guy is definitely in that ballpark.

And with all the feats he has, he’s proven to be a badass through and through. It takes a lot to bring down this Mighty Guy.

… Yeah, the end quote doesn’t exactly inspire greatness, but eh, it’s probably iconic (Really sorry, not a Naruto fan).

The Battle Itself.

Torrian is back to head this project, All Might will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, while All Might was voiced by a guy named “Dick Splitter” (No, I’m not making that up). "Mighty” by both Brandon Yates and Therewolf sprite artist (If there are any), and audio lead by Chris Kokkinos.

Our fight starts with Guy sitting in a park, reading a bit of Manga. For those eagle-eyed viewers, you’ll notiice that he’s reading a My Hero Academia book. I’ve circled it for you.

Anyways, All Might drops in and does his dramatic enterance. After geeking out, Guy challenges him to…

An ARM WRESTLING CONTEST!

Which All Might readily accepts.

I want to go on record and say that this initial explosion is in essence, them just starting.

And can I also point out the absurdity in the ground being cratered before the table? Like what is that table made of?- Adamantium?

Well, my accusation is unlikely. The table breaks, and then the two duke it out. Not out of jealousy or because one of them accused the other of sabotaging the contest, but because they’re just that hammy.

So with the fight underway, these two go at it. It’s readily clear that All Might has the edge up in strength over Base Guy, but Guy is certainly faster  given how often he dodges the attacks that All Might dishes out.

He even gets a perfect 10 on his dodging!

I want it to be known that Might Guy actually dodged this attack. He clearly has the speed advantage.

And these two just keep complimenting each other! Like, come on! Who am I supposed to root for here?

Anyways, Guy opens his Sixth Gate, which gives him an edge up over All Might.

And you want to know what’s better than a beam struggle?- A Barrage attack struggle.

What’s better than that?

When the barrages are fire vs wind!

They make an explosion that brings Guy to the ground, and he opens the Seventh Gate.

He unleashes his Daytime Tiger, and actually puts All Might on the defensive.

Here’s my question: How is it that all that power is being condensed in that one park? Those buildings should have destableized by now!

Anyways, Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Might Guy gets impaled! Well, it was a good run, and he certainly put up quite the fight…

And he’s also not done yet. We still have one more Gate.

REAL finishing blow iin

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

You gotta wonder what the report by the  authorities and news is going to be like.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, this fight actually is close. Guy’s Gates were really the big thing that was letting him keep up with All Might and his  speed was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Now, As for All Might, since DEATH BATTLE was looking at him in his prime, they had to scale accordingly.

All Might himself claimed that a fight he finished in 300 punches could have been done in 5. So that means that the All Might that is being used is 60 times stronger.

Take this feat for example, All Might’s foe Gigantomachia, once blew a hole through the mountain. Adding in the X60 multiplier, and All Might’s batting in the 154.8 Gigaton range.

However, Guy is still way faster, add in his better training and more versatile arsenal, Might Guy just needed to hit All Might harder than All Might could hit him.

All Might’s feat of changing the weather clocks in at about 1462 Gigatons of TNT.

Now, that’s impressive and all, but Guy hasn’t really shown his full power.

So we have to compare him to another person that we’ve seen all too many times before: Naruto.

Now remember: Base Naruto < Madara, and Night Guy > Madara.

As we’ve seen all too many times before, Naruto’s Base Chakra was enough to blow a hole through the moon.

How much force is that?

About 480 Petatons of TNT.

How much is a Petaton?

A million Gigatons. Simply put All Might > Might Guy, but Night Guy > All Might. Sure, Guy goes down not too long after using the attack, but he wins in the moment, and that’s what matters.

The winner is Might Guy.

Overall impression.

I came into this thinking “This feels more like season premiere material.” Something to hype up the crowd for the upcoming season. And I was right in the absolute most wrong sense of the word. The fight is spectacular, and it makes me want to read up on MHA. In all honesty, if this were a season premiere,  everything after it would feel boring in comparison.

Now, admittedly, this was basically just a fistfight. A battle of who could punch harder than the other guy. Which isn’t very exciting on it’s own, but is still interesting given the characters.

Plus, given that no sane parent would ever give their kid the name “Richard” if their  last name was “Splitter”  I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that this is the official VA for Guy.

I’m not going to link to his twitter, I’d rather he not get in trouble, but it’s still pretty cool.

Then again, my dad knew a guy named “Richard Head” so I guess the name “Dick Splitter” isn’t that farfetched. Who knows, maybe this is a real name.

Tangent aside, this battle was epic in all sense of the word. I’m sure there are a lot of references that I missed because of my lack of knowledge on these two, but it was a joy to see, and the music is awesome. Definitely looking forward to downloading it.

9.6/10.

Next Time…

I’m calling…

… Well shit. I don’t know what to call. But I recognize Miles Morales, Beerus,  and Danny Phantom, so who knows?

Though the end colors for the start of Season 7 makes me think of… Harley Quinn.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

A DEATH BATTLE.

[highdio]

It’s prob been a long time but what do you mean by Araki wrote Dio based on the protagonist format?

(Longish reply because I’ve gotten a couple other asks on this).  I mean that Dio’s storyline follows a protagonist’s arc as if he’s the MC/hero, and that he embodies a lot of standard protag traits.

Re: his having a protag’s story arc, a big part of that’s because Araki had Dio in mind when he started writing Phantom Blood. Araki talks about the difficulty he had figuring out who Jonathan was (he’s based off the somewhat vague idea of a “good” person). Dio though, Araki knew how to write him from the start, he constantly says stuff like this in interviews:

The title of the series is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but first and foremost, I actually wanted to draw Dio.

I think that’s because he’d already written Dio as a Jump protag in Cool Shock BT.  BT’s basically the same character as Dio: same personality, same basic look (later art of BT like this one is basically Dio):

and BT’s “Evil” too (Araki’s word for him). Big difference is BT schemes and manipulates and poisons and maims as payback in defense of the weak while Dio’s out for himself.

When Araki started writing Phantom Blood, he had Dio already defined in his mind almost like a close friend. Dio gets introduced before the hero and he has his own set of goals and ambitions as he progresses through the story.

And Araki gave Dio’s traits that work great for a Jump-type protag: he’s confident, he never gives up no matter the odds, constantly strives to grow and improve, he outmanuevers opponents and he’s always adapting. Except for the whole being completely immoral and killing people part, Dio’s got shonen manga hero virtues.

I just got Araki’s book on Writing Manga and in it, he describes Dio’s story arc under the section “The Protagonist always Rises”:

Dio moves in a rising direction, like Jonathan. Dio accepts and embraces his evil nature and follows his dark path without hesitation. In other words, both Dio and Jonathan are living life with everything they’ve got, and both always maintain a rising personal arc.

It’s like Phantom Blood’s got two MCs. IMO the fact that Araki doesn’t subordinate Dio’s storyline to the hero’s makes him a memorable villain.

(And fwiw, what Araki describes as Dio “embracing his nature” works as a hero-type trait.  Dio’s self-acceptance sets him apart from villains who hide behind a bunch of justifications for the evil they do.  Dio doesn’t make excuses, he knows who he is, and he’s framed by Araki as taking responsibility for and even delight in his actions.  All of which, again, are good attributes, just reframed as belonging to an irredeemably evil asshole.)

[fey-and-sudden-and-unholy]

Identity ask: 3, 8 & 20

Replies to this thing, for @seams-unusualpdx:

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.Hmm, this will take some thought.  There are a lot of characters I completely love, but not many that I look at and go “Hey, that’s me!”  So, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do one each, for identifying, but I’ll list my favorites otherwise.

a.) Pandora Hearts - It’s the only manga I’ve read from start to finish, and if you’re into Alice in Wonderland, Victoriana, well-thought-out, psychologically complex characters and truly evil plot twists, I highly recommend it.  I have a few favorites, but the one I identify most closely with is Lacie Baskerville.  She’s been through a lot, and while it has hardened her, she still has love in her heart and tries to keep a good perspective, and while she’s damaged she’s kind of remarkably well-adjusted, considering everything.  She’s got a villain’s background but doesn’t act as a villain (mostly… except when those guys hurt her friend, at which point she kills them and dances in their blood, but… I probably would’ve, too, in her place, so there we are still.)  

b.) Labyrinth - One of the major movies of my childhood.  Little-me identified quite a bit with Sarah.  She had a family life she wasn’t happy with and was preoccupied with the fairness of things.  I still get preoccupied with the fairness of things, though I’m better about catching myself at it.  X-D  My favorite character was Jareth, though.

c.) Welcome to Night Vale - Night Vale makes me so happy.  /)_(\  I adore the casual weirdness of it.  There’s really no one I identify with, but I love so many of them!  Cecil and Kevin and Tamika, and STEVE CARLSBERG and The Faceless Old Woman who Secretly Lives Inside your Home.

d.) The Last Unicorn - Another major childhood thing.  I identify a little bit with Molly Grue, in that, again her life’s been harder than she wanted it to be, and she’s still got kindness in her.  I admire her practicality.  I try for that.  Don’t always succeed.

e.) Phantom of the Opera.  Another one I’ve loved since I was a kid and I stumbled across this animated version of it.  The acting was pretty terrible, but the story was actually more faithful to the book than literally anything else that’s ever been on the screen.  I think you can find it somewhere on YouTube, these days.  Little-me, having been picked on a lot at school, identified with Erik pretty hard.  (As a result, yes, I was of the opinion that Christine should’ve chosen him for many many years.  I ship her more with her career, these days. X-D)

f.)The Lecter Series:  the books, the movies, the show, in that order.  (Don’t get me wrong, the show was fantastic. I loved it, but it was an AU, and my heart belongs first and foremost to the original stories.)  I wouldn’t say I identify with anyone, but I’m fascinated by Lecter as a character, in the books/movies, and I was fascinated by Will Graham in the show.  For some reason show!Lecter didn’t compel me the same way the previous versions of him did. 

g.) American Horror Story - My very favorite characters are Myrtle Snow and Liz Taylor.  I aspire to be as unabashedly myself as they are themselves.  Honorable mentions go to James Patick March, Misty Day, Marie Laveau, Edward Mordrake, Nan and Fiona Good.

h.) American Gods.  Laura Moon and Mad Sweeney give me life.  I have no feelings one way or another about them, ship-wise, and I don’t especially identify with them. I just wanna watch them snark at each other forever. :->

i.) Gotham. The Penguin was never my favorite villain, until this show, but I really love him, in this.  

j.) Harry Potter.  I love a lot of these people, but I suppose the one I come closest to identifying with is Luna Lovegood… a bit of Snape ( with the unhappy family life and being picked on in school, though I’m pretty sure I ultimately handled it better), and a bit of Credence Barebone, for similar reasons.  (The grandmother who had the biggest hand in raising me was very fond of trying to use religion as a means of manipulating and frightening me into submission.  If the darkness it put in me were capable of jumping out and killing people, she would’ve been the first to go.)

I think I’d better stop there, otherwise I’ll be nattering all night.

8.what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?Well, the Beatles would have to be the first thing I talk about, here.  For the first 10 years of my life my father and I listened to them on the way to and from school, pretty much every day.    There was some David Bowie, Queen, Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin, too, some days (And I feel connected to them too, especially Bowie), but mostly it was the Beatles.  Bowie is also huge, partially because of Labyrinth and partially because, you know, he’s God.  Loreena McKennitt is another one.  I adore her voice; it literally stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it.  Chopin made me love the piano, even if I never had the patience or talent to learn to play it well.  Maynard James Keenan’s voice gives me chills regularly.  Getting to hear him sing live, on Tool’s Lateralus tour, was a religious experience.  

20. Would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?Hmmmm, probably Hogwarts, with Middle Earth as a runner up.  Narnia’s okay, but I’m not so much into it as the other two.  There are plenty of other fictional worlds I’d rather be in.

[kuriquinn]

Lifeline

Summary: The remorse swirls up inside him again, threatening to drown him, but Sakura doesn’t leave his side. She murmurs softly in his ear, mostly nonsensical repetitions of “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” [SasuSaku Festival 2017 – Day 4 – Prompt: “Sasuke’s Regrets”]

Disclaimer: This story utilises characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelisations, comics or short stories is intended by KuriQuinn in any way, shape or form. This fan-oriented story is written solely for the author's own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All plot and Original Characters except for those introduced in the canon books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn. (© KuriQuinn 2016- )

Rating: T

Warning: Spoilers for pretty much everything up to Chapter 699. Trigger Warnings: Possible triggering subject matter. In-depth description and discussion of on-going mental health issues (panic attacks, sleep paralysis, mentions of PTSD)

Canon-Compliance: As close to canon as fanfiction can possibly be. With a few personal additions :P Takes place during the Blank Period.

Beta Reader:  Sakura's Unicorn

There are nights when he doesn’t sleep.

Sometimes, it’s because he’s knee-deep in some spot of trouble or another, saving people in distress, or hunting down obscure leads that amount to little more than whispers. Mostly, though, it’s because his dreams are too dark, too real for him to surrender to sleep.

Before, he dealt with the situation simply: travel until he passed out, too exhausted to dream.

It’s not so easy this time around.

Sasuke turns on his side, staring through the shadows of their small cabin. Splinters of moonlight illuminate Sakura’s slumbering form.

No, that’s not right.

His wife’s slumbering form.

It’s so strange to think of her like that, and yet, so natural. It’s only been a few days since they married, and he still wonders sometimes if he dreamed it all. But here she is, curled on her side, back to him, sleeping peacefully.

Her long hair is braided down her back, the tail of it hanging across the uchiwa symbol on the back of her nightshirt. Sasuke reaches out to trace it with his fingers, and a soft smile forms on his lips.

It’s an unexpected feeling of pride to see her wear it.

She surprised him with that. He had been away for the day and upon returning to her side, discovered that every garment she owned had been emblazoned with his family’s crest. Now, whenever he finds himself lagging behind her (a lot more often these days), he gets to see that symbol flashing at him from beneath pink locks.

To him, it’s a beacon of the future, even as it remains a constant reminder of the past.

Continuing to trace the lines of the fan-shaped figure, Sasuke’s mind flashes back to another time when he stared so intently at Sakura’s back.

He sees his hand glowing with blue light, hears the shrieking chirp of birds. He can feel the heat of his chakra becoming stronger as he shoves it toward the unsuspecting girl in front of him –

Sasuke sits up quickly, the movement jarring his thoughts back to the present. He stares numbly down at where his left arm used to be, still able to sense the heat there. The tingling sensation creeps up through that missing limb.

These are the only times he truly feels that phantom limb pain, and the loss of control bothers him, makes him want to fix it right away, but there’s no way to do that. Even though the air is empty, he imagines his chakra vibrating with the ghostly crackle of a nascent Chidori.

Sasuke’s heart pounds erratically, pain radiating outward across his chest, like giant fingers of flame reaching and grasping across bone and muscle. His stomach pulls tight and he feels bile rising in his throat, brought on by the incessant, desperate need to get out.

With less grace than he’s capable of, he swings around until his feet are planted firmly on the ground, giving him at least a physical hold on the waking world. Scrubbing his hand down his face—it comes away drenched in sweat—he tries to erase the memory from his mind.

He’s revisited that day in dreams enough times that he knows how to fight it back; it’s just a matter of calming himself. Yet, even as he tries to regulate his breathing, it still feels like something is smothering him.

Flashes of memories gnaw at him, and they don’t just end with Sakura. Being possessed of a Sharingan, he sees it all over again in crushing detail.

He relives the moment he shoved his arm through Naruto’s shoulder and the slow seep of his best friend’s blood as it drenched their bodies, the beat of a heart Sasuke narrowly missed crushing. He remembers leaning over Naruto, weighing the pros and cons of killing him, the cold, hard logic sounding out in his head—

Stop it!

As he tries to stand, it feels as if he’s experiencing the action from far away, from one end of a long tunnel. He feels detached from his body in some places, while in others, he is all too present.

The crack of bones echoes in his ears, the metallic, sickly-sweet smell of blood filling his nose.

Where is it coming from?

Sasuke gasps for air, unable to pull in even the smallest breath.

Gasping like Itachi right before he died—before Sasuke killed him. Maybe not himself with his own two hands around the man’s throat as he imagined so often as a child, but his rage spurred him on. He exhausted his sick and dying brother, played into his hands without even asking the questions because he was so damned stupid!

He’s actually choking now, and the sound is sickeningly familiar. He’s heard the wet, rattling wheeze from the countless people he’s killed. He might’ve refused to take lives needlessly during his early years under Orochimaru, but he broke that rule so, so easily.

There’s blood on his hands now—those poor damned and twisted souls trying to escape the Snake Sannin, the samurai guarding the Kage, his friends and family—people he killed because of stupid decisions—

“Sasuke?”

He hears a whisper in the distance, but the roaring in his ears, the cacophony of accusing voices in his head, almost drowns it out. He’s barely aware of something moving in his periphery, and it’s his first instinct to take out the possible threat.

The wide-eyed woman in front of him barely ducks his wild swing. If he had a kunai in his hand, her face would now be a mess of blood.

“S-Sa..kura…” he says, hating that her name comes out as more of a stutter than a question. He tries to convey his apology—he didn’t mean to, he would never!—but that’s the problem, isn’t it?  He’s always hurting her, even when he doesn’t want to.

“Sasuke,” Sakura says, her tone gentle and conversational, “can you take my hand?”

She says it as if it’s nothing, as if she’s asking him if it’s raining outside. The voice of a doctor looking at a patient, trying to figure out what’s wrong. Trying to treat the problem, making him better. That should bother him. He hates it when she coddles him and always has, but right now, summoning up that indignation is too much effort.

“I can’t,” he chokes out, gritting his teeth because he sounds so weak right now. “I c-can’t stop—”

“I didn’t ask you to stop,” she tells him gently, a comforting smile on her face. “I just want to hold your hand.” She reaches out, fingers close enough for him to grasp but not too far inside his personal space. “Sasuke, can you take my hand?”

He considers, one moment parsing the decision, one moment not thinking about—

Itachi’s blood-soaked smile flashes across his retinas again and Sasuke’s fingers recoil.

“I know you can do it,” Sakura continues as his panic rises once more. “It’s right there in front of you.”

She wiggles her fingers invitingly.

Sasuke forces himself to focus, wills his brain and reflexes to kick in again, and before he can talk himself out of it, he clutches her fingers in his own.

Sakura grips him back firmly, adjusting the way their hands fit together so that the hold is more secure. She has to put effort into the action because his entire frame is shaking so violently, he might throw her off if she doesn’t.

He concentrates his attention on the texture of her palm against his own—rough and calloused. Despite being the hands of a healer, they’ve held weapons and mixed poisons, been torn and burned and broken, healed and hardened with chakra.

Warrior’s hands. A warrior like him.

But his hands are stained with much more blood.

He gives a forceful jerk, trying to retreat, but her hold on him doesn’t waver.

“Shhh. Sasuke, I know you’re scared right now, but you’re safe with me.”

Scared? He doesn’t get scared. He’s not allowed to be scared, not after everything.

His attention wavers as Sakura rubs circles across the joint of his thumb. She reaches deliberately up his arm beneath the loose sleeve of his shirt, pressing as much of their skin together as possible. Slowly, she trails her palm down the length of his arm, back and forth, keeping constant contact with him.

“Good. Now, can I ask you to do something, Sasuke? For me?”

He forces himself to focus.

“I’m going to breathe, and I’d like you to copy me, okay? I know you can—you can imitate anything, right?”

He quakes with another tremor. “I can’t sto—”

“You don’t have to stop. Just copy me, okay? That’s all I’m asking. Do what I’m doing.”

He wants to. Above all else, he wants to—he owes her so much, and he will do anything to make it up to her, even something so small—but he can’t get any air into his lungs. He tastes blood, imagines again that this is how Itachi must have felt—

“Okay. It’s okay, you’re doing fine, Sasuke,” she tells him calmly. “Do you maybe want to go outside? We can go outside if you want.”

He can’t respond in words, but simply wraps his fingers more tightly around her wrist and squeezes an affirmative. Without having to confirm with him, she helps him to his feet and all but carries him out the door.

Whenever this has happened before, the idea of anyone touching him has made him violently sick; he’d be tempted to lash out with fist or whatever weapon was closest.  But Sakura…he trusts her; out of anyone in the world, he can trust her.

The girl he left behind. The girl who couldn’t kill him. The woman who waited.

Who he made wait.

The remorse swirls up inside him again, threatening to drown him, but Sakura doesn’t leave his side. She murmurs softly in his ear, mostly nonsensical repetitions of “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.”

Then they are outside and the cool night air hits his sweat-soaked skin. Still, there is no real relief there, and he is still drowning in the taste of blood.

She doesn’t leave him, instead holding him when his knees buckle, gently lowering him to the ground.

“See? There we go. Can you breathe now?”

Breathing. Should be easy. Automatic system. He can do this.

Sakura inhales deeply and loudly through her nose, and then lets her breath out just as slowly. Sasuke gulps a deep, painful lungful of air, almost choking in the process, but it holds. He sputters as he exhales, but Sakura squeezes his hand in encouragement. She repeats the action again, waiting for his breaths to echo her own.

“All right. You’re doing great,” she says once he finally settles into a somewhat repetitive rhythm. “Now, look around. Can you tell me five things you see?”

It’s infantile and, under normal circumstances, he would resent this, but right now, the task seems incredibly difficult. Slowly, he does so, squinting at the forest surrounding them with the same focus he uses to detect enemy ninja.

“Tree,” he says through gritted teeth. “Rock. Traps. Cabin. Fire pit.”

“Okay, that’s great. Now—name four things you can hear, all right? Try to be more detailed this time.”

That’s harder.

He needs to listen more carefully, parse the individual sounds that fill the night.

It proceeds like this several times, her asking him something more after each of his answers. She wants him to explain the smells he can pick up in the air, describe the texture of the ground beneath his bare feet—all the while reminding him to copy her slow rhythm of inhaling and exhaling.

After what might as well be an eternity, Sasuke’s body stills and so does hers.

“Are you feeling better?” she asks, tentative.

He nods once. Even though he is far from okay, at least now, he can breathe.

“Do you want me to stop touching you?” she asks, and he shakes his head no. “Okay.” They sit in silence together for several more beats, just listening to one another breathe. Then she speaks again. “I guess that was a terrible dream you had. Or memory.”

She makes it sound like she’s merely wondering, not directly asking him. He can ignore it if he wants to, and while he appreciates the gesture, he’s made a silent promise to himself not to ignore Sakura ever again.

“…Both.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He shakes his head. No. Of course not.

“Alright. But if you do, I’m here. I will always be here,” she reminds him.

“I know.”

He’s always known, even when he was too stupid to acknowledge it.

They sit in silence for a spell. Sasuke stares up at the sky—starless, tonight, no more than a blanket of black surrounding the moon—and listens to the rustle of the wind. In the distance, a brook babbles and crickets chirp.

“I’m sorry,” Sakura says.

The words, more than their suddenness, surprise him.

He peers over at her, trying to understand the context behind her words. “About what?”

“I didn’t realise you had panic attacks, and I…I should have. Considering, well, everything.”

He shrugs. “They happen. I deal with it.”

This doesn’t mollify her.

“Alone.”

“Yes.”

Another long silence.

“I used to get them,” Sakura tells him. Sasuke can’t hide the surprise when he meets her gaze. “Years ago.”

That does make sense then.

After the war, even the most well-adjusted individual must have experienced post-traumatic stress. Just the nature of fighting off the resurrected corpses of loved ones would’ve caused lasting mental wounds.

It just seems odd to think of Sakura being one of those people dealing with inner demons; she is so warm and bright and hopeful. It makes him nauseous to think exactly what could cause her to have panic attacks.

Mostly because he suspects that he is that cause.

Which is why her next words surprise him.

“The first time was after we rescued Gaara. After that fight with Sasori.”

He’s heard about that fight, but never from her. Bits and pieces from Naruto and Kakashi, and embellished versions of the story from locals whenever Sasuke passed through Suna. She’s a legend there. And yet, even though Sakura was the first of them to defeat a member of Akatsuki, she never talks about it.

Then again, Sakura has never been the type of shinobi to boast about her victories.

It appears it’s more than that.

She physically shudders beside him, and he reflexively puts his arm around her shoulder.

“I dreamed about it for months,” she tells him. “Of not being in control of my body, of being made into one of those things. Or that he didn’t kill me. He kept me locked up and butchered you…and everyone else right in front of me before he…” She swallows. “On the good nights, I’d wake up and I couldn’t move.”

“Sleep paralysis,” he realises. He experienced that himself after his family’s murder.

She nods, leaning into him. “It was…hard to deal with. Lady Tsunade helped a lot.”

“What about…” he begins, and then swallows to make sure his voice doesn’t sound so feeble. “What about after?”

“After?”

“Kaguya. After I…”

The genjutsu he cast on her that day, right after they defeated the demon goddess, was one of his strongest. He doesn’t have Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, but with the Rinnegan, Sasuke’s genjutsu capabilities come a close second.

The illusion he trapped her in should’ve kept her catatonic until he released it. Escaping it could not have been easy on her.

Sakura considers and then exhales. “Do you want me to lie to you? Say I was fine?”

His mouth goes dry. “No.”

“Good. Because I wasn’t,” she tells him, and that nauseous sensation is back. “It was horrible. Worse than after Sasori. I was afraid to sleep because I thought my heart was going to stop every time I closed my eyes. Those first few weeks…a part of me was glad you were locked up, because it meant I was…”

“Safe,” he supplies weakly.

He feels her nod and his stomach clenches. He always suspected that Sakura wasn’t as forgiving of him as she always seemed, but this confirmation feels like a physical blow.

“What changed?” he asks. How did she go from being terrified by the thought of his freedom, to offering to travel with him? To writing him letters, waiting for him to return, and travelling by his side?

Why would she agree to become his wife?

“I realised something,” she confesses.

“What was that?”

“You were protecting me.”

That brings him up short because he can barely remember his thought process that day, he was so far gone. “I don’t…”

“Kakashi-sensei told me what you said afterward. And you were right. If I had been awake, I would’ve tried to stop you and Naruto. I would’ve gotten in the way, and one of us—maybe even all of us—would’ve ended up dead. Aside from the fact that it would’ve really, really sucked if that happened, there would’ve been no one to undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi and everyone would be dead. So. I wasn’t happy about it—I’m still not happy about it—but I stopped seeing it as something you did to me, and something you did for me. Just because I don’t like something, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t the right decision.” She sighs and stares up at the sky, a sad smile on her face. “Life is too short to fill it with regrets, Sasuke. Don’t you think?”

Sasuke stares at the woman beside him, this strong, mystifying, possibly insane woman, and is once more struck by a crippling disbelief that she is here with him. Out of everyone in the world that she could have, despite his many sins, she has chosen him. He can’t help but think that despite the horrible things he has done in this life and all the others before it, somewhere, somehow, he must’ve done something to merit this.

Or he is meant to spend the rest of his life proving that he does. It’s a burden he’ll gladly bear, all things considered.

“Yes,” he finally manages to say. “I do.”

She beams at him. “I’m glad.”

She squeezes his hand. “But if you ever do something like that to me again,” she tells him firmly, “I will end you.”

There is no lie in her words.

“And I would let you,” he vows.

“Just so we’re clear.”

“Hm.”

She yawns now and presses farther into his chest. “Do you want to go back inside yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Can I stay out here with you?” she asks, and instantly, he’s transported to all those times she asked to be with him, and all the times he refused her.

That’s one regret he can make up for right now.

“Yes.”

終わり

Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome, but if you feel like keeping me caffeinated out of the goodness of your heart, it certainly would be appreciated! I’m also starting to post original works to my patreon.

I’m only able to keep writing as I do thanks to the support of readers like you, so every bit helps!

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