#anyways wonder if these are gonna be just one cour

[muthaz-rapapa]

…good news to wake up to 😊

[whydontyousaeso]

“That big, dumb, smile”

Cody Rhodes x fem reader

Warnings- none!

Type- fluff

A/n- shout out to Drew for giving me this idea and getting me out of the small slump I was in. Fr tho after this I’ll start posting what I promised, love you guys 🫶

You groaned as you sat down, your body killing you.

It was unfortunately one of those matches where your body took everything personal, so you were in an insane amount of pain.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?”

You opened your eyes to see your husband, Cody Rhodes, approaching you in your shared locker room.

“I’m fine darling, just a little sore.”

He rubbed your shoulders, releasing some of the pain in your upper body.

You cracked out a small smile, watching him mold his face with an even bigger one.

That big dumb smile.

“I have to go for my match, but when I get done I’m taking you home and getting you in a warm bath. I love you sunshine”

“I love you too pumpkin”

“Sweetheart? Where are you?”

“I’m in here!”

You called out from your shared home gym, standing in front of the weights you were just lifting.

Your shirt was drenched in sweat, and you were huffing from the intense workout.

“I was wondering where you were, it was starting to freak me out a bit.”

You turned towards him and walked over, wrapping your arms around him and laying your head on his chest. Almost instinctively he wrapped both of his arms around you, one resting on the back of your head, the other on your waist.

He kissed the top of your head, causing you to look up at him.

That big dumb smile was there.

You traced his “Dream” tattoo and just took in him.

“Want to go take a shower together darling? We have a big night ahead of us”

You looked up again and stood on your toes, placing a kiss on his cheek.

“Of course, anything with you darling”

You sat in the chair next to Cody’s hospital bed. He had just got back from his surgery on his pec.

Honestly you were a bit frustrated.

He knew he would hurt him more if he done that stupid match in hell in a cell.

But he did it anyways.

Ultimately you couldn’t control what he did, but you tried to convince him against it with no avail.

You heard him stir and looked up, seeing him wake up slowly.

“Pumpkin? How are you feeling?”

You reached out and rubbed his cheek gently, feeling him lean into your touch.

“Felt better.”

You just smiled softly and kissed his head. He was still slightly under the pain medicine, but it didn’t fail.

He showed that big dumb smile, placing a small kiss on the inside of your hand.

“Your recovery will be over before you know it”

You squealed and jumped up and down, watching Cody throw Gunther over the top rope.

He finally did it, he was gonna headline wrestlemania.

You watched him celebrate, hands still covering your mouth. This was insane for both of you, having him work so hard just to come back in time to have a spot in the rumble.

You looked on your phone, seeing all the “congrats!” Messages from family and friends. You responded to a few, basically shaking from excitement.

You heard the door swing open and jumped up, running to the man you were able to call your husband.

Instantly he picked you up, kissing your lips and grabbing you desperately.

You laughed into the kiss, holding onto his neck.

He pulled back and laughed with you.

Smiling that big dumb smile.

“I’m so proud of you baby, you’ll be the champ in no time!”

He just smiled more and kissed you again, taking in every moment.

You gave Cody a tight lipped smile as he walked back into his locker room.

He didn’t win the title.

He just shrugged and sat down next to you, pulling you into his lap.

“It’s alright sweetheart, at least you’re not injured.”

He hummed in agreement, resting his head in the crook of your neck.

“I don’t think this is entirely a bad thing though.”

“What do you mean?”

You rubbed the back of his head.

“It’s easier to take off time without the championship.”

“Why would I need to take time off dear?”

He looked up at you, a bit of confusion laced across his features.

“For the baby of course.”

His eyes widened for a second.

“Baby?”

You nodded and bit your lip.

“You’re pregnant y/n?”

You nodded once more, watching his eyes light up.

Along with that big dumb smile.

He didn’t know you were standing in the doorway watching them.

Cody was holding your 5 month old daughter in the nursery, kissing her head and stomach.

You watched her laugh and smile as Cody gave her all the attention in the world.

And you saw how Cody looked at her, like she was the only thing in the entire world.

She was just like her father.

She had his eyes.

But most importantly,

She had the same big dumb smile that he had.

That damned big dumb smile.

[beetlebug-bii]

Hello! Can we get the next part in feral child MC please? It's very cute and now I'm excited it's okay if you can't I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I hope you have a wonderful day or night or whatever wherever you are! 😁

Feral Child Mc (unfortunately) Goes To School

A/N: of course! I hope you enjoy, I haven't slept in like two days and its two in the morning so xdtfyg I hope you enjoy starling! also I love your username so much hehehe

Content Warnings: Swearing, mentions of weed, biting, feral behavior written by a dumbass, silly goofy eepy times

REQUESTS ARE OPEN, FEEL FREE TO ASK TO YOUR HEARTS CONTENT -- p.s. previous Feral MC story at the end!

Do not ask me

How

You managed

In one week, one measly week

How the FUCK YOU MANAGED TO SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE SIX TIMES

FLOOD IT THRICE

AND SOMEHOW HOT BOX LUCIFER'S ROOM

no okay I know how that last one happened and it was Lucifers breaking point

Let's just say

You and Satan have a very...

Let's say complex relationship

Some days you're so ready to beat the shit out of one another it's a shocker that nobody has died yet

Other days the brothers live in fear

They can hear the two of you scrumbling in the walls desperately, gnawing at the wooden beams and gnashing your teeth at the thought of causing the entire building to crumble, leaving the two of you to sit upon your throne of rubble and bone...

Yeah the brothers DO N O T

Appreciate Big Brother Satan bonding time

Now you would never have thought to hotbox Lucifers room on your own, honestly Satan was pretty surprised you came to him with the idea and even knew what it was and like yeah he was absolutely gonna help you with that shit because it's so fucking funny but still-

Jokes on him

You didnt come up with it

No in fact it was the man in the walls

Which you have explained to the brothers and now all of them live in fear of some fucking guy just living in their walls

Well all except Lucifer for some reason but I digress

One night whilst scrumbling you came across the attic and low and behold there was just some fucking guy in there

And at first you were like

Hello? Whys there a twink in the attic?

Anyways he didnt take too kindly to you saying that bullshit outloud and the two of you argued over whether or not he was a twink for a solid two hours before he just kind of went

Damn are you fucking high on someth-

Wait a minute

Yo kid I just had the best idea

Anyways you didnt quite get it but you were guaranteed that it would be hilarious

And it was

For all of two hours

And then it wasnt

Because Lucifer came down from his high

And got filled with stress again

Like honestly the man probably needs it you did him a favor /j

Anyways

Then you were no longer allowed "free roam without a babysitter"

"No mammon doesnt count"

"No satan doesnt count either"

"You know what, none of you count"

And then you were put on A BABY LEASH

YEAH THATS RIGHT

HARNESS AND ALL

BABY LEASHED RIGHT ALONGSIDE CERBUS AND HIS NORMAL DOG LEASH

AND YOU WERE DRAGGED TO SCHOOL

On the bright side...

At least you're actually a kid

So it's nowhere as embarrassing as it is for Levi to be hooked to the baby leash and dragged to RAD

You arrived and you were so polite

Such an angel to be around

Is what I would say if I were a fucking liar

You got there and were on all cours growling at the other students

You ran into Luke and he TREMBLED

HE YELPED AND LEAPT INTO SIMEONS ARMS

DO YOU KNOW THE PSYCHOLIGICAL DAMAGE YOU JUST DID ON THAT POOR ANGEL

of course you do

you little monster

You spent the entire first hour of class absolutely gnawing on Lucifer's ankle and you could tell he was really holding back from kicking you

And then you had a brilliant idea!!

TEETH BITE

TEETH SHARP

BITE WITH SHARP TEETH

AQUIRE FREEDOM

and thus your chomp chomp mission began, you began tearing at that leash, and eventually your efforts paid off

You were free!!!

MC IS A FREE HUMAN!!!

And so you ran

You ran like your heart depended on it

Luke

Sobbing

Screaming

Crying

Get away from him you tiny psychopath

You came running at him down the hallway and what was he even supposed to do???

HE LITERALLY CRAWLED UP A RANDOM DEMON IN FEAR, THEN JUMPED ONTO THE LOCKERS AND COWERED

of course, you tried climbing up to befriend him

...yeah

he didn't like that

He called Simeon sobbing in a panic while smacking you away with a broom handle

then you stole the broom handle...

THEN YOU STARTED BEATING PEOPLE WITH IT SIMEON

P L E A S E

S E N D

H E L P

Simeon

Hahaha aw

what a sweet little thing you are

you're just a baby human!

awwwe come here sweet ange- AHHHH

WHY ARE YOU BITING

NO BAD HUMAN

NO BITING

He is flailing his hand trying to get you to release your pirannah jaws

This does fucking nothing you are LATCHED ON

YOU ARE GAINING FRIENDS

FRIENDSHIP

LIL BITE

Simeon

had to use his foot

He put his foot on your forehead and just had to kick you off before climbing up with Luke in fear

You were scampering around like a fucking shark

The angels were holding each other, reading off their wills

Barbatos and Diavolo

of course they had to walk down the hallway

right when you started climbing the lockers

causing the angels to scream at the top of their lungs

Diavolo

he

he couldn't keep it together

LISTEN OKAY DONT GET ME WRONG

HE FEELS BAD THAT THEY ARE AFRAID

BUT ALSO

YOU ARE SO SM A L L

WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING THEY ARE TINY

SOMETIMES THEY BITE THATS NORMAL PROBABLY

ITS CALLED TEETHING

DUMBASSES /affectionate

Barbatos doesn't quite know how to break it to him that...children your age are far past teething age

Nonetheless, Barbatos dealt with Diavolo as a child, how much worse could you be?

...

......

.........

No one

Not a single soul

Will ever bring up this day

if they want to live

He doesn't even know where you got shoelaces

YOUR SHOES ARE VELCRO

MORE THAN THAT HOW DID YOU GET ON HIS SHOULDERS

WHAT FUCKING MOVIES HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THAT TAUGHT YOU HOW TO PROPERLY CHOKE SOMEONE OUT???

SOMEONE NEEDS TO RESTRICT YOUR FUCKING INTERNET ACCESS

YOUR HIGHNESS, PLEASE STOP FUCKING LAUGHING I AM DYING FRFR

Solomon

dying frfr

wheezing

crying on the floor

he filmed it all

no more than that

he's live streaming

Lucifer is trying to call him

Lmao blocked

He snatched you up and fucking ran

You are his little buddy now

You are taking cover deep in a place where Solomon knows Lucifer would never look for him...

...

......

Kid don't you dare comment that we're in the gym right now

LISTEN

HE IS A NERD

A BOOK NERD

A MAGIC NERD

HE DOESNT REALLY NEED TO GO TO GYM CLASS NOW STFU BEFORE HE LEAVES YOU FOR DEAD

you know how like

in jail you make toilet wine?

well he made toilet teleportation potion

Just in time the two of you crawled in the bowl and flushed, disappearing as the brothers broke in

they'll never find you now

mwahahahaha

time to watch every season of breaking bad

watch and learn kid

watch

and

learn

Previous Feral MC Post:

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

ari, could you potentially give me advice as to what i should watch next? i finished 'jujutsu kaisen' a couple of months ago, but i can't find myself anything to watch...

i tried getting into delicious in dungeon but i didn't really enjoy it all that much and found it to be a little boring... (i watched three episodes.)

i started watching frieren and while it's entertaining and there are aspects that i enjoy, it doesn't grip me as much as 'jujutsu kaisen' did.

on the other hand, i don't want to watch anything that it too dark and distressing, you know?

i was just wondering if you have found something fun since you have finished 'jujutsu kaisen'.

SLAMS FIST ON TABLE.

you have come to the right place :3333

ANON I’M SO HAPPY SOBS!!!!!!! i’ve been wanting to rant about the anime i like/the ones i’ve been watching recently for a while now………….

not liking dungeon meshi is totally fine, i will say that it only gets better the further you get!! :3 if you have the time i’d at least watch the first cour and see what you think!! it does . a bit of a genre swap….. 👀👀 frieren is one i put on hold too, so i can’t say much about that… i’ll probably watch it at some point though. anyway.

OKAY SOOOO . i do have some general recs for you first, before i get to anime that are currently airing/just finished airing!! if you’re looking for something similar to jjk then the obvious answer is chainsaw man, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s my favorite manga next to jjk so. yk!! personally i think it’s better than jjk writing wise but s1 doesn’t get to the Really good parts…..

buuuut i know you didn’t want anything too dark and gritty, which csm most definitely is, so 😭 i’m gonna tell you abt my favorite favorite little anime. kind of. which is fate/stay night: unlimited bladeworks <333 EXTREMELY important that you watch the ufotable version. the fate series is my favorite ever and the anime means so much to me…. lots of good writing and characters and more than anything it’s very hopeful. in a really heartfelt way!!! the heaven’s feel movies are super good but also adapted from the darkest route of the fate visual novel lmao, so maybe… stay away from those. they’re insanely good though!!

another fate work that recently got adapted is fate/strange fake!! :3 only one episode is out rn as a kind of teaser for the series to come, but PLEASE do check it out because it’s… so good. i have a feeling you’ll love it, anon!! fate and jjk are similar in a lot of important ways i think….

i also want to give you some recs if you’re just looking for fluffy slice of life/romcom stuff!!!! romantic killer, gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun, and a sign of affection are all super feel-good and comfy <3333 just really funny and cute…

WITH THAT BEING SAID . i’m gonna recommend some anime that i’m currently watching/just recently finished!!!! i have two in mind :33

first: oshi no ko!!! i’m mentioning this one first since it is… a pretty dark show. not in the same way jjk is, but i’d call it a kind of psychological horror/it deals with some really sensitive topics!! the whole point of the show is to dissect the entertainment industry, including/especially the darker parts, which i think says enough. it’s so much fun to watch and i feel like i learn a lot from it too :3 from what i’ve heard the portrayal is very accurate!! it’s also just… a gorgeous show with such an interesting premise and fun cast?? the first episode is movie length and made me sob like a baby, so i’d watch that one and see how you feel afterwards!! season 2 is currently airing :333

then!!! we have my arguably biggest rec for you anon: wind breaker!! it just recently finished at 13 episodes, and it’s a very action heavy shounen :3 super cool fight scenes, GREAT characters, and really lovely writing but in a way that’s easy to digest. this is the perfect anime for binging i think, and also really pulled me in (though eps 7-9 are my absolute favorites!!) <333 if you’re looking for something to feed your shounen brain with characters you can latch onto for comfort, wind breaker is your guy. i am in Love with togame jo.

………. also. anon. you asked for anime specifically but i want nothing but the best for you so 😔 i’m also gonna go ahead and recommend this…… interactive murder mystery music series? on youtube. it’s… basically anime!! just mostly mvs and audio dramas….. i’ll link the playlist so you can watch it in order, the first video will hopefully explain everything you need to know :33 milgram means . the universe to me and the characters/song are soso lovely. please tell me if you watch this one i would literally kill to have someone to talk about it with…..

ANYWAYYYY this got very long but i hope that’s okay!!!! more than anything i hope this helps you find your way to a new obsession 🫂🫂 all these anime are super good and precious to me, i’m sure you’ll love them all a lot!!!! hopefully!!!!!!!

[httplovecraft1890]

Spy x Family AU Fic Idea

I finally managed to catch up with cour two of Spy x Family's season one. While watching episode 14, I specifically wondered how things might've ended up had Anya and Bond been unable to save Loid from Keith Kepler's bomb. Story idea? Maybe... It would probably be hard to understate how devastated Anya would be from the loss of Loid in her life. After all, she really thought she could turn things around for Papa, but came up short when trying to do so. Any goodwill she felt from getting her first Stella Star probably evaporates overnight. The mission, after all, is now meaningless - or at least appears to be. I do wonder if she'd actively avoid watching Spy Wars from that point on (since it's a potential traumatic trigger) or if she'd sink deeper into her obsession given that it provides her a safe, child-friendly version of spycraft to live vicariously through. I don't think she'd blame Bond; she knows what it feels like to be abandoned so she'd probably still ask Yor if they can adopt him.

For Yor… she blamed herself for Loid going off to the bathroom, even in canon, due to her cooking and she might very well swear it off entirely if she perceived it as having resulted in his accidental death. I suspect she'd still come to the realization that she loved (loves?) him in hindsight but who knows when that would be. At this point, I don't think there's a doubt she would go all in on being Anya's mom since she'd probably feel obligated to do so, besides the fact she also clearly wants to be hers anyway. Does Anya tell Yor about her telepathy and about Operation Strix? I think she very well might. I can't imagine a scenario where she lets Yor wallow in self-hatred, even if she's terrified that her mom might blame her for not saying something earlier and return her back to the orphanage. The war that was speculated to erupt does, I think, and that makes them both needing to be safe paramount. WISE is almost certainly operating in a reduced capacity after it just lost its best agent, not to mention that the border is no longer as porous as it used to be. What happens between Nightfall, Yor, and Anya could be quite interesting but I"m not really sure how that'd play out (though maybe this could lead to a Fiona/Yor ship since the main obstacle for both is now, uh, not around). No doubt Fiona, if she encountered Yor, would hate her here even more than she does in canon. Maybe she'd even end up taking the Twilight moniker to honor him as well as not let it slip he was KIA? There are certain things that frustratingly unclear. For example: is Ostania able to engage in a war successfully or did Kepler jump starting it mean that it's doing so with more limited resources? The National Unity Party would seize on it and I'm assuming Donovan Desmond ends up as prime minister in the event of some snap election but who knows how it would pan out for them. The SSS might be able to suppress internal dissent but that might not matter depending on how things go militarily. All of that said, I do still think Anya would try to proceed with Operation Strix in some form or fashion. She wanted it to succeed before so Loid would keep her around after it was finished if she proved herself useful but it'd be even more pressing now to do it in his memory. I'd also assume that Yor would probably try to involve herself as well, with perhaps Franky and Fiona doing so too somewhere along the way. I had a bit of fun with a plot bunny on an older post with the idea of Yor posing as a secretary for Desmond to secretly act as a bodyguard and that could very well be applicable here - only the intent being to assassinate him instead rather than imagining the Garden as a secret tool of his to eliminate opposition (or who knows, maybe they still are, but Yor ends up breaking with them over Loid's death and their potential unwillingness to help her). Not gonna be a good time for poor Damian in this scenario. Yuri's a bit of a cipher. He might want to do everything in his power to keep his sister safe, but would that include betraying his position and country to do so here? Once he finds out she's doing it for Loid, of all people, he might not be so keen but she is his primary obsession in life. Regardless, definitely leaves the possibility of fun cat-and-mouse games between the two Briar siblings as they try to tiptoe around their secret identities with one another. Then again, without Loid in Yor's life, it's possible he might soften to Anya's presence a bit; he'd be a weird as hell paternal replacement, but she might cling to him because he's a familiarity in a now very unfamiliar world.

Melinda could also totally factor in, but I dunno how.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (20/08/23)

aight some things I wanted to mentioned in this week's post

no zom ep since something else aired in it's timeslot so the ep got pushed to next week

watched this week's bleach episode, kenpachi's since he's my fav guy (fav out of everyone is yoruichi), and while I was sad there was no sakuga it was still very cool

black clover is close to ending but is moving from WSJ to Jump Giga which means it'll take a billion years to end now (1 to 2 years according to my buddy mega) so now I'm not in a rush to catch up to it anymore yay

Anime

Pokemon Horizons Ep18

extremely good episode, one of the best so far easily even. even if I'm still not very on board with having pikachu around again, just cause he's so marketeable, it was still very good and a nice change of pace

Atelier Ryza Ep8

that was a nice episode, pay off for ryza helping out various people in the previous episodes and getting to show the assholes of the village that she isn't all talk. only 4 eps left so they're absolutely not gonna finish the game's story so I wonder if they'll announce a cour 2 or it'll just be a "hey check out the game if you want to see more ;)" type of thing

Manga

Blooming Love Ch11

yoooooo so true brother go off anyway cute chap, as usual, not a lot happened but it had some good scenes

Dandadan Ch118

it was quite the long battle but it's finally over. it was a really good arc overall, with vamola's backstory and everyone getting power ups and getting their time to shine in battle, the end with reiko leaving cause of okarun's love was nice too. no chap next week but that's ok, yukinobu deserves the rest

Kaiju 8 Ch92

this is the fight I was looking forward to the most and it was everything I wanted and even more. there's still gonna be one more chap but it's just gonna be the final blow and it wrapping up so counting it as basically over already

Tokyo Underworld Ch50

that was pretty bad, they finally had the director do something instead of just being that worm thing, only for her to be this super powerful executioner and healing all of the good guys, only for her to get 1 shot and die right away anyway. p bad deus ex machina moment

Blue Box Ch113

excellent chap, they'd always teased that kyo had like someone before and made it seem like it was hina and I was certain it was too, but it's nice to see it was someone completely unrelated. also very good to see hina getting over this, this fast instead of it becoming a thing that keeps coming back for a billion chaps, good job miura

Sakamoto Days Ch131

that was a fun chap, p sure it was the first one focusing on sakamoto's daughter? it was p sure seeing her dragging the deer along for shenanigans. a nice cooldown chapter after all the recent tension

Akane-banashi Ch74

in true sports manga style we're getting a couple of comedy chapters to release some of the tension that built up from the competition, it'll be nice to see akane get back in her groove and get over her loss

Ayakashi Triangle Ch140

it turns out that the big power up for matsuri that's been teased for all this chapters was... her going back to wearing a fundoshi??? I mean it makes sense cause if you remember earlier in the series when she switched to girl panties it took a while to get used to and she was less effective and stuff but I still didn't see this coming at all lol

[nanjokei]

how do you even say you like 90s, 00s anime without either sounding like a teenager with an animecore blog who doesn't actually watch anything and just mines the internet for pictures or some kind of reddit nerd ass elitist. those are just the anime that were dubbed in arabic when i was a kid (and were arguably still contemporary and pretty new anyway) so i like the conventions, and ofc the anime dvd era was also heavily nostalgic for me, the reason i love vobsub (you know those ugly ass image based yellow subtitles). i love the era where most studios had no idea how to deal with digipaint and some had much more success than others with it, other times the product was so crude the modern sense in you would make you wonder "how the fuck did they put this out on tv, then home markets". i'm not a fool that goes "it was better back then" because a lot of the shit coming out then was pure junk that was never gonna age well, and time has done those things great kindness by leaving them in that era.

i also like the stuff that came out any time. i'm not really gonna put myself in a box here. i love the early 10s, that was the last era where i feel like the anime community was watching things as a COMMUNITY. last season was great cause with g-witch and bocchi the rock and whatever else, it felt like people were watching things they wouldn't usually touch (mecha and CGDCT SoL) and they did it at the same time so there was a sense of camraderie and people actually discussed things.

i feel like the industry is in shambles after streaming companies came in with their investments and publishing companies like kadokawa got too brave. ironically i think a lot of anime is still really good, not really my issue here. it's more like because there's so much anime airing all the time the sense of community is lost, and with the crisis of overwork to meet the demands of sniveling brats who only want """sakuga""" and manga compositions being copy and pasted onto the screen in color for 20 minutes has rendered that most anime are either one cour ir they're a split cour. i really do not like split cours, even when studios try to avoid it there's always the need to have the 13th episode have a feeling of finality despite the story being ongoing... it's jarring.

honestly i just miss the most random fucking anime having like 50 episodes unprovoked. i want nature(the people who make anime and its ecosystem) to heal and i want netflix and crunchyroll and petulant little nerd boys who don't understand how animation and anime adaptations work to DIE.

[malicerewatchesdoctorwho]

The Mind Robber - Episode One

Written by - Peter Ling Director - David Maloney Producer - Peter Bryant

Episode One

("It moves the TARDIS out of the space time dimension.  Out of reality!" - The Doctor to Jamie and Zoe about using the emergency unit.)

Likes

- I love how utterly geeky Zoe and the Doctor are being.  Jamie's like "We're gonna die!  Move us, Doctor!" And the Doctor and Zoe are like "Have you ever seen anything so beautiful as a rolling red river of death coming straight for us?  Wonderful!  Fantastic!"  Jamie is just so done with these idiot geniuses XD

- Oh my god, Jamie's "Reality's getting too hot anyway" to the Doctor saying using the emergency unit will take them out of space time. 

- The look Zoe gives the Doctor when he orders her to stay in the TARDIS.  Like hell she's going to follow that order, Doctor XD

- The Doctor fighting someone trying to get into, or is in, his mind.  I always like the little scenes with the Doctor where you know they have got telepathic ability. 

- I like that it is shown that while the audience can see these robot things, Jamie and Zoe can't, even though they are surrounded and definitely being watched.  I do like that they are both freaked out by it. 

- Boom, suddenly visible robot things.  Nice.  And they have the power to give you headaches by using the power of circles. 

- The Doctor losing his fight with his battle and stepping outside even though he didn't want to.

- The introduction of The Master...or IS IT?!  Dun Dun Duuuuun.

Dislikes

- As much as I understand it, Zoe running off and outside without actually seeing her home city when the doors are opened, and by now she should know she would if that is what was outside.  So impatient she ran outside without using her logic, which is her strong trait.  Well, all companions have to make at least one reckless and stupid decision at one point.  Here is Zoe's first.  An explanation comes up later but honestly Zoe didn't need to be nudged out, she would have left out of plain curiosity regardless.

- When did Zoe become such a screamer?  I don't remember this about her character at all.  Victoria is supposed to be the screamer, not Zoe. 

Awesome

- Gotta be put in here somewhere.  It's like a requirement.  Zoe's outfit. 

- The whole Jamie's face over Scotland scenery with bagpipes playing scene belongs here.  Such a nice Jamie scene, him getting to see home again.  But it's the actual way they shot it that makes it special.

- Yes, I love model cities in early Doctor Who.  The model team for Doctor Who are so creative when it comes to cities and sometimes spaceships.

- I like how they use just endless white to depict nothingness.  Usually it is endless black, but nope, Doctor Who goes the opposite route to begin with.

Shitty

- This one could be my imagination, or something I heard outside the actual show, but I swear I heard a door being opened or closed halfway through the Zoe seeing her home and Jamie telling her she isn't scene while they are outside.  Am I imagining things or is it really there? 

In Conclusion

I haven't watched this one in so long I have forgotten how much I enjoy it when I do watch it.  This is one of my ultimate faves, people.  I love The Mind Robber.

This first episode introduces us to Unreality.  A place outside the time space dimension, where nothingness is inhabited by a mystery voice and robots.  Yes.

No, seriously, nothing much happens in this episode, but what does happen is interesting and grabs you.  How can Unreality be inhabited? Who is this mystery The Master whose voice is all we hear in this first episode?  Can anything truly stop Zoe when she is interested in it, compulsion or no?  Why is Jamie dreaming of being skewered by a unicorn?  Was it planted, or just something that jumped into his mind naturally?

On the non companion side, we have the Doctor fighting with the voice and losing the battle, but then using his own mind and voice to get Jamie and Zoe back to what he thinks is the safety of the TARDIS.  Until, of course, she blows up.

Now, that is an ending. 

Body count - 0. 

[mysterylover123]

Mysterylover Watches MHA Episode 99 “That’s a Wrap (Get it, cause binding cloth”

1. OK now we’re at the conclusion! The Joint training Arc is wrapping up with a big brawl scene.

2. Deku vs Shinsou: The Rematch. Aizawa of course is all like “Gotta let my son fight and beat his rival”

3. Interesting that they animated Deku as looking back at Uraraka when he says he’s gonna fight quirkless; he’s looking forward in the Manga, focused on his goal. Which again maks me think they read my post.

4. I can hear a new remix of YSR on the soundtrack!!!! It’s an Epic Badass Fight Version. Not quite as good as the “Epic Musical Love Protection Song” version that was Might U but still, nice to have a new remix!

5. Mineta almost has a cool moment but ruins it with perversion. But at least we get some KiriMina fanboying in the bargain. And in the SAME SCENE we get Bakugou’s long pensive worried look at Deku. 

6. Monoma gets lots of epic lines here. And they actually animate The Trinity as the Protagonists in his speech, because of coures they are.

7. You know if Deku would just team up with Ochako more, they’d be a pretty unstoppable team. Anyway, Deku vs Shinsou Part 2. It’s on.

8. OOH and the YSR mix also has a remix of Bakugou’s theme?! ARe they combined in one again! The new remix of Deku and Kacchan’s theme songs? And it’s playing while Deku fights Shinsou again?!

9. Deku gets all inspired by All Might once more and uses Blackwhip, yay! (ooh boy, only the tip of the iceberg, Deku powers wise.) 

10. GOOD GOD this music is epic. Ooh, it’s ALL MIGHT’S THEME. OK This was a combo of all three. The main cast. And we get an insert shot of Bakugou watching this bit? Hm, interesting.

11. Monoma and Ochako have a history of fighting - Monoma was the one who narrated her plan during her fight with Bakugou, he thinks she’s a worthy opponent. I need this crackship to somehow become a thing. I mean, Ochako already has one power-copying blonde love interest...

12. We get a recap of Deku’s plan and Uraraka dumps helping him as per instructions to go help the others. It’s interesting that Deku often splits apart from her when they team up. In fact, thinking back I think Deku has only teamed up 2 v1 directly with three other characters: Todoroki (Hero Killer Arc), Bakugou (to fight All Might and later Shigaraki), and Eri (kind of, vs Overhaul). 

13. Ochako and Mina get an epic fight and some truly epic music to go with it. And then dvS. Also, I’m wondering - which ARc in MHA has the most badass Lady Fighter Moments? I’d say it’s a draw between this, the Sports Festival, and the PLF arc. 

14. Deku and Kacchan were the only 1A leaders to COMPLETELY DOMINATE. Best Duo, no contest. Literally.

15. SHINSOU FEELS. + Triumphant music I am ON CLOUD 9 RIGHT NOW. Anyway Deku gives his usual lame excuse for his powers and everyone buys it. Anyway we get Bakugou close-ups and All Might close-ups while he talks to remind us of who ACTUALLY knows. 

16. So many Deku and Shinsou feels rn. Anyway Uraraka gets her teachers’ approval for her hard work, which would be a lot more fun if Mina didn’t decide to make it about her and Deku. Dammit can’t Uraaka do something cool without the ladies around her forcing it to be about dating?!

17. Anyway AIZAWA flashes back to her “I want to save people” moment, so we refocus things then. Anyway, more Shinsou feels. 

[shadowed-dancer]

My Thoughts on the New MHA Opening and Ending

I have thoughts, and I will share them because oh boy if I don’t get this out I’m gonna explode

Vague Spoilers for the manga (up to chapter 258 and vigilantes) because I discuss the upcoming arcs, but I don’t discuss any major plot points in detail. Still, proceed with caution if you’re anime only

Keep in mind, this OP and ED will cover the Endeavour Agency Arc and the MVA Arc, so I will be judging them accordingly.

First, the OP

This is a good OP... in theory (that’s going to become my catchphrase for this post). It’s nice to look at and flows pretty well, but my biggest problem is that it doesn’t do it’s job. An OP is supposed to be a sort of... summary (?) of the Cour it plays for. That means any cool plot points, emotional beats, and important characters should be featured in some way, shape, or form. We’ll talk about that more later, but first let’s discuss the music.

The song is really good. I have a feeling it will continue to grow on me as I listen to it more often, but yeah my first impression is that the song sounds great. My only complaint about the music itself is that it ends kind of abruptly (I noticed this is the JT opening too). The previous openings used to have a bit of instrumental to “play us out” and lead us to the end card, but this one feels like it ends very suddenly and unnaturally.

As for the visuals...

Yeah alright I’ll admit, the visuals are stunning... in theory. I appreciate the variety in backgrounds and colours, it makes the OP really interesting to look at. This was actually one of my biggest problems with the JT Opening, it all took place on the training grounds, so there was no variety (everything was metal tubes with a blue sky, with only 3 shots set somewhere different). I appreciate the style of this OP.

But like I said, that’s only in theory, as in, through screenshots these are all pleasing to look at. The pacing of this OP is wild, and I truly don’t know who to blame for this.

That sunset shot above? It lasts approximately 12 seconds, zooming in every few to make it seem like something is happening (when in reality it’s still the same poses, angles, etc). While there’s nothing wrong with a nice, drawn out shot, it becomes irritating when compared to the pacing of the rest of this op.

At the 41 second mark, we are given the shot above. It has flowed directly from the previous sunset scene. We still have not moved away from the image of the trio (aside from the opening shot and the title card) yet we’re approaching the halfway mark of the OP.

The next shot is the MLA, which lasts about 5 seconds. Ok, perfect. Not too long, but also not short enough to be confusing. It cuts away a little fast once the dude on the far left appears, but does anyone actually know who that is? No, seriously, I’m asking. I don’t remember his name and he’s not on the wiki, so I can only assume he’s not important. Therefore, it’s not all that bad if the shot cuts away shortly after he comes into frame. The audience is able to take in the scene without having to pause...

... And then the problems start

While this shot is fine in theory, it pans up fast and  cuts away quickly. You know how hard it was for me to get this screenshot? Really hard. You want to know why I struggled so much? Because, due to the timing of the cut and the way it pans upwards, it’s almost impossible to pause on Dabi’s face. I literally had to go frame by frame to get it, because he’s in shot for so little time that naturally pausing is guaranteed to miss him.

When watching this in real time (without pausing) the cut away makes you feel as if you missed something because “something was there, I just couldn’t register what because now it’s gone”. Unlike Compress, who wears a very colourful coat you can recognize the entire time, Dabi’s pants are more blended into the background.

It also doesn’t help that this shot is literally composed to draw your attention away from Dabi until the last possible second. Due to framing, your eye is naturally drawn to the brightly coloured Toga in the foreground, making it super easy to miss Dabi in the back (until, of course, his bright face appears and contrasts against the background, drawing your eye just in time for the scene to change, leaving you to wonder who or what you missed).

I know this sounds like nitpicking, but this shot is the only group shot we get of the League, and is also the start of a seriously weird trend for the villains in this OP getting the short end of the stick.

Anyways, then we get what I’ll call “The Carousel Shot” in which every Class 1A kid shows up and poses dramatically, as if they were on a carousel. It’s a lovely sequence and I really enjoy watching it but... why is it in this OP?

Seriously, this is a genuine question. Class 1A barely shows up in the Endeavour Agency Arc, and NONE of the students are in MVA. This sequence (not counting the three boys at the end) lasts 8 seconds. Why is this much time dedicated to characters who are barely in the arc? (Unless Studio Bones extends their work studies into fuller plot lines which oh my gosh please don’t do that, or if they do, do it quick).

We then get what I call the “Oh God I Blinked And Missed Everything” sequence, which lasts 3 seconds (not including the longer, moving shot of Shigaraki at the end) and features NINE INDIVIDUAL IMAGES, none of which are related to each other. Not only is this 3 images per second, but the fact that they are all unrelated means you can’t even use previous information to fill in the blanks.

What do I mean by that? Well, imagine if I show you 9 images of various pro heroes posing. If I play that in 3 seconds you’ll absolutely miss some of them, but as long as you catch some you’ll still get an idea of what I’m trying to show to you. Your brain is able to fill in the gaps that “I recognized 4 pro heroes, therefore the rest must have also been pros” even if you didn’t register every single frame.

That doesn’t work if every frame features a completely different subject. The shots in this sequence vary so widely that it’s impossible to find a through line. Some feature multiple characters, some feature one, some are closeups, some are super far away, some are character’s we know, others are characters we don’t. It’s impossible to get a solid read on what you’re being shown.

Now, again, there’s nothing wrong with these super quick shots... in theory. The problem comes from the fact that these shots are the only indicators for some of the major themes that will be explored during this Cour (like Twice’s growth and young Shigaraki).

That being said, let’s move away from criticism and talk about speculation, because hidden amongst this sequence are two... interesting images.

This All Might one is very reminiscent of the shot in Chapter 257, where Aizawa and All Might have a conversation while staring up at the stars. However, this is technically the start of the “War Arc” (or the “prologue”, if that’s what you want to call it), so this might indicate that we’re going to get farther into the series than a lot of us guessed.

(Many people suspected we’d get to that cliffhanger at the start of the season (if you read the manga you know the one), but after seeing the pacing for JT a lot of us assumed we’d be lucky to even finish Endeavour Agency. It seems we’re back to the cliffhanger now though lol). 

This is another really interesting shot because it’s indicative of Shirakumo, meaning we might get to see Aizawa and Mic confront him some time this Cour (this also makes sense, since this confrontation technically happens before that All Might scene I mentioned in the previous paragraph).

But the cat specifically is a really strange addition. That cat is named Sushi and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Sushi is ever mentioned in the main series. I think he’s only in Vigilantes.

This might just be a little Easter Egg for Vigilante readers, but I’m personally hoping that they’ll add at least a few Vigilante shots in there to really tug at the heart strings. I’d say I want a whole Vigilante episode but I don’t think they have the time (unless they really cram MVA, which I do NOT want).

I don’t have much to say about the last bit of the OP. The action shot between the 3 boys was nice, and it follows the sort of narrative through line they established from the early shot of them sitting at the sunset. I also like the shot of Endeavour fading in to replace All Might, even if it’s very simple.

But I want to talk about an overarching problem I touched upon earlier in that villain shot: the way the villains are handled in this OP.

This is a good OP... in theory. The problem is, it doesn’t represent half the arcs in the cour! Every shot of the League is so rushed that you can barely register that they were on screen before they’re gone.

I have no idea how many Episodes Endeavour Agency will take, but I’d assume 3 (4 if you count the Christmas episode). 12 episodes for this Cour minus 3 for Endeavour Agency = 9 episodes left. If we truly do get the prologue for the War Arc (and if we assume it’s only 1 episode) that leaves us with 8 villains episodes.

8/12 episodes (aka two thirds of the Cour) will likely be about the villains. And yet they’re pushed to the background so hard in this OP.

I want to dream, and I want to believe that this OP is going to magically change when MVA starts. The song fits super well, and I can imagine like an inversion of the OP but from the Villain side! Wouldn’t that be neat? Imagine right after the “it’s alright” part Shigaraki just freaking decays the title card... oh man that would be so cool. But, alas, I highly doubt they’d do that.

Side rant, but you know what was so fun about MVA in the manga? It’s that, for 21 chapters, we leave the kids behind and the villains become our protagonists. Suddenly Shigaraki is the one we’re rooting for, suddenly we’re learning backstories for everyone, and suddenly we find ourselves just as attached to the villains as we are to the kids. It’s an inversion that’s SO RARE to find, and I think many people (myself included) were hoping it would be reflected in the OP.

A big part of being the protagonist means featuring heavily in the OP, and a lot of us just wanted the villains to get that honour, even if only once. As is, the OP still treats them as the antagonists when... really they aren’t. Not right now, at least.

So yeah, final thoughts on the OP are that it’s good, it’s just not very representative of the arcs it’s supposed to cover. If this was just for Endeavour Agency, I’d say it’s actually really cool, but if we assume that this is what will play for the Villain Arc, then it simply doesn’t do it’s job. And it makes me sad to say that because, again, this OP is really well done.

If I had to rate it? Hmmm

If Studio Bones actually grants my wish and creates a different visual for the Villain Arc (while using the same song) and then this version only plays for the Endeavour Agency Arc and the War Prologue? I’d give it an 8/10. It’s really good, but it could use a few more elements that are clearly derived from the Agency Arc (ahem, Todoroki siblings).

But if this is the OP that will play for the entire Cour? a 6.5/10. It’s nice, but it’s not representative of one of the arcs it’s going to cover. And, unlike other arcs like Pro Hero or Summer Exams, the villain Arc is so important and takes up so much time that it honestly feels like a bit of a disservice.

Now for the Ending

I want to say that I appreciate how soft this ending starts. This cour will likely feature a lot of episodes that end on... heavier themes, and I think the sight of peaceful, falling raindrops is the perfect way to let the audience process their emotions before starting the ending in earnest.

The song itself is very nice, and I like that it’s a bit slower than the more recent endings.

(Side note, but the FUNNIEST moment in the entire series is when Sir Nighteye dies because it’s so emotional and everyone is standing around his bed in his heartwrentching silence, only for the ending to come BLARING IN out of no where. If you forgot how jarringly hilarious it was, go listen to the Eri ending and tell me that’s not the funniest thing this series ever did. Anyways yeah I’m glad that’s not gonna happen this Cour).

This ending is a bit all over the place in terms of it’s visuals, but honestly I think it works. Most endings usually have a theme tying them together (all the Class 1A girls, a fantasy AU, old photographs, planning a party, etc) but this ending’s theme is a bit harder to identify.

That being said, I think it’s just supposed to show everyone going about their day. It’s calm, it’s peaceful, and it’s just very sweet to think about

I like this shot. Actually, scratch that, I like this whole sequence. I enjoy anything that allows Class 1A to chill and have fun.

Hawks is featured quite heavily in this ending which, fair. He’s pretty important in this arc.

I really love the shot where Endeavour immediately switches to Hawks, I thought that was a lot of fun, and very good symbolism on how Hawks wants to be like Endeavour. I also love all the shots of Baby Hawks, because it’s adorable.

Something about this shot is just so cute. It’s the little domestic things like waiting for a bus that make this ending feel... idk the word, real? It shows a side of the characters that we’ll never see in the episodes, but we know have to exist.

Like yes, of course the kids have to wait for the bus. We never see it, but of course there are those moments of quiet. Agh, I love it.

The villains also make an appearance and I’m very happy about that (I’d love to see more of the villains just chilling around, I think they deserve it). I kind of wish they weren’t sitting in a dark room for the sake of being edgy, since I think it would be nice to see the villains just... sort of existing, but honestly it’s still a nice shot. I also like how this shot sort of mirrors the first one with Class 1A (someone coming in while everyone else is sitting and waiting for them).

That being said, as much as I love looking at Dabi and his stupid face (affectionate)... why is Dabi the one getting the closeup?

Mind you, endings don’t need to be connected to their Cours (they can be, like the Eri one, but they don’t have to be). But this ending does seem to be connected to the arcs it intends to cover, given all the Hawks appearances, the boys wearing their work study scarves, etc.

So, I ask again, why Dabi? Out of the six League members, we learn the backstory for four of them in this arc (Shigaraki, Toga, Twice, and we very briefly learn about Spinner). The only two left out are Dabi and Compress.

I can only assume they chose Dabi because he’s constantly in contact with Hawks, and therefore that makes him important? If the OP told us anything, it’s that Bones values the Endeavour Agency Arc over the Villain Arc lol...

... Oh my gosh please tell me that’s not actually the reason Dabi is focused on here BONES WAI-

Anyways, the ending comes to a close with Hawks watching over the kids and Endeavour. The relaxing time is done, it’s time for work studies.

Overall impression? It’s great. It’s hard to screw up an ending, so as long as you have something pretty on screen, it’s wonderful.

I’ll give this a 9/10

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep11

Studio Passione: “We paid good money to animate Rika’s festival dance, and by god you’re gonna ENJOY IT!”

Anyway, thoughts under the cut, plus Umineko spoilers.

I know I talked about my theories for how this episode would be paced out last week, but I’m genuinely amazed that they managed to stretch the rest of this loop out into the entire episode, lol. It’s almost impressive how they managed to pad out half an episode or less worth of content into a full episode.

It kinda doesn’t even give me that much to talk about, yet again, which is kinda awkward, but either way this basically proves that I was totally right about my interpretation of the whole Keiichi scene, so I feel kinda pleased about that.

Long story short, the scene we saw in Gou was just an illusion depicting the story that Satoko told Ooishi about what happened, after she set the crime scene up to make it fit her version of events. I guess there’s still a non-zero chance that there’s some extra layer of mystery going on there, but at this point I really doubt it. I think that’s basically all that was going on.

I think this is going to be one of the more polarizing parts of Sotsu for people, depending on how they feel about the way that this is tying itself in to Umineko. This is the sort of storytelling device that’s basically never been used before in Higurashi, but is integral to how Umineko is set up, so it’s one of those times where it becomes undeniable that this is meant to bridge the two series, and is drawing inspiration and ideas from both of them, instead of this just staying within the boundaries of Higurashi alone.

With how this arc feels like a point of no return in the transition between the two stories, I really like how the first thing Satoko does when she accepts that she’s a witch is to start bringing Umineko-style narrative trickery into Higurashi for the first time. I think it’s a neat way to show how she’s starting to ascend beyond the game-board itself and is operating with a different set of rules. Obviously people aren’t gonna like that if they don’t like the idea of this being tied to Umineko, but I think that ship has long since sailed at this point, lol.

And honestly, even without relying on knowledge from Umineko, I think they did a fine job of having that scene in Gou seem weird and suspicious right from the get-go. For one thing, we were also told in Gou that Keiichi had no memory of what happened, and everyone else in that scene was dead, so it’s not that hard to start guessing that we were shown a false version of events.

I think I said this last week, but the confirmation that this is literally just Umineko Logic 101 really makes me wonder if Ryukishi is doing it this way in part to ‘prepare’ people for what to expect from Umineko. There’s still the possibility that we’ll get a full on remake after this, but even if it’s as simple as this basically ending on the note of ‘go back and read the Umineko VN’, he might still be trying to give people an idea of what to expect from it so they don’t get turned off by ep2.

This is getting more into theory territory, but if we keep going down this rabbit hole of transitioning into Umineko logic and narrative structure, I wonder if the entirety of Gou/Sotsu is going to end up being contextualized as a set of forgeries, in the same way as it worked in Umineko. Something along the lines of Satoko ‘seeing Rika’s loops’ being a metaphor for her being given manuscripts to read by Featherine based on Rika’s account of events, and then the Gou/Sotsu loops being forgeries made in collaboration between Featherine and Satoko, and presented to Rika as a new mystery to read and solve. At the very least, this could arguably justify stuff like how everything seems to go in the way Satoko wants, regardless of how reckless she gets.

I’m not 100% confident in that, but it’d definitely continue the trend of this being a blend of Higurashi and Umineko’s writing styles. I think it’d also provide a more comprehensive non-magical interpretation for what’s going on than just ‘Satoko fell asleep in the shrine and just dreamed all of this’, or whatever.

I also don’t really think that’d contradict the whole idea of Satoko being Lambda, though. Looking at it through this whole lens, it’d be sorta like how Ange goes through her own whole character arc in the process of reading Featherine’s forgeries, and basically ends up becoming a witch by the end of it. So the whole narrative arc of Satoko venting out her anger at Rika by trapping her in a new set of loops and slowly becoming a witch would still be intact, and still for all intents and purposes lead to her becoming Lambda.

There’s also various ways this could be tied into the whole deal with Lambda being Takano’s benefactor in Higurashi. Considering how Lambda never actually plays a part in Higurashi itself and is never mentioned by Takano, it could be as simple as ‘Satoko reads Featherine’s manuscript version of Higurashi and ends up relating a lot to Takano and wants her to succeed’, which gets morphed into her granting Takano her blessing of certainty. Either way I think that the whole timeline of events is weird and nebulous and isn’t really intended to make logical sense.

Anyway, probably the most surprising part of the episode was the reveal at the very end that the next arc won’t be called something like Nekoakashi, but instead it’ll be Kagurashi. I’m not really sure how much to read into that, though. It could just be as simple as them speeding through the Nekodamashi stuff, and most of Kagurashi will be the aftermath of that, so they gave it a unique name. Or it could be a completely new arc that does something totally different. Lots of people have suggested the idea of it being an arc all about Eua and Hanyuu and their backstory, which would be one way of doing something entirely different to a Nekodamashi answer arc, but who knows. I don’t think the final scene of this episode necessarily proves that the next arc will be about those two, though.

But on the topic of those two, at this point I think it’s probably safe to say that Hanyuu is effectively meant to be Eua’s piece in this game, and that they probably have a similar relationship to Bern and Erika, going by how much Eua seems to look down on Hanyuu. Although it’s not exactly clear if this Hanyuu is the same person as the Hanyuu from the VN, or if she’s like a clone of her that Eua created after Hanyuu disappeared or whatever after Matsuribayashi. 

Either way, I’m not entirely sure how they’d even approach an arc focused on those two. It’s not like Umineko really explained Featherine’s backstory, unless Sotsu is going to straight up introduce Ikuko/Tohya, which I guess could tie into my above theory about this being a forgery. On the other hand, I guess they could maybe do something like the Hanyuu backstory arc from the Higurashi console ports, but that wouldn’t really feel relevant to Sotsu’s story at this point.

Really the big question is just if the entire story will wrap up in four more episodes, or if there’ll be some sort of third season or whatever to wrap things up. Considering that this entire episode was just about wrapping up this loop, and we haven’t even gotten into anything from Nekodamashi, it at least feels like we’re running out of ways they could pull off an ending with just the next arc. But it’s not impossible. The simplest way to handle it would be to spend one episode at most on skimming through the next set of loops so we can get back to the cliffhanger from Gou, and then continuing from there, but if my theory about the overarching structure of the story is correct, then there might not even be that much to show after the cliffhanger, and the continuation of it might just happen in the meta world [or the ‘real world’], not the world of that loop itself. It’s also possible that, if this does lead into some kind of Umineko remake, the ending won’t even be particularly conclusive, and will just be continued in that series instead.

Even with how the pacing has gone thus far, I’m not really sure how confident I am in the idea that we might get another entire season out of this. Maybe we might get another nine episodes to fill Sotsu out to 24 episodes total, but I don’t know if we really need another full cour or two after the next arc. At the very least it’d feel kinda agonizing to have to wait even longer for ANOTHER full season to see how things actually end, lol.

There’s still the whole question mark of how the OP and the key visual for Sotsu depict Rika and Satoko as teenagers, and the other club members in different outfits to the ones from Satokowashi, but who even knows how that all might play into the story at this point. I still think we might get a Saikoroshi-style arc where Satoko loses her game and is banished to a world where Rika doesn’t exist and her relationship with the club members is totally different, but I’m not even sure what the whole point of that kinda development might be, or how long it’d take to get through.

At this point I think the best thing to do would be to just go all in with the Umineko stuff and have this end with the birth of Bern and Lambda and their whole love-hate relationship of mutual torture, even if it means leaving things kind of inconclusive, and without Satoko getting much punishment for her crimes. I think it’d be much worse if they just drag this out for even longer only to end it on the note of this whole conflict being neatly resolved and everything looping back to square one like nothing ever happened.

I guess we’ll just have to see how the next few episodes go, lol.

[serpenttailedangel]

In a post-Spice world I still don’t want to give Crunchyroll any money, but now that Sony owns it they’re putting a lot more stuff behind a paywall. I’m still making up my mind as to if I want to pay for exactly one month to binge Shield Hero once it’s done airing, or if I might as well just buy DVDs if I’m already doing a one-time payment.

In any case, it sounds like they decided to skip basically all the stuff I liked between the fight with L’Arc and the turtle, and the turtle is one of the story parts I like less anyway, and also I think this whole season is just the turtle. So... maybe I should go with DVDs. I do deeply wish to watch the entire anime, but I feel like I don’t want to be pressured to watch this arc that quickly.

I wonder if Season 3 is just gonna be volumes 8 and 9? I was kinda expecting this season to cover through 9 until I heard it’s a single cour. All the stuff I was really excited to see animates is volumes 10-16 tho -.-

[bruh-haikyuu]

A/N: Iwaizumi domestic AU!! I am here to quench your Iwaizumi Hajime father-of-three thirsts.

On another note: Haikyuu manga ends today :(( Guess who’s gonna fucking DIE. Anyways, this manga has left so much of an impact to me, I feel like it’s already imprinted in my heart. Thank you so much to Furudate for making such a wonderful story, and may their stories flourish! I’ll still make content though, I’m really waiting on that new light novel and the second cour of the anime pspsspsps 👁👁

ménage. | iwaizumi hajime episode 1 – haimish.

summary: in which your oldest son is about to begin elementary school, but your husband misplaces the documents while in a frenzy.

word count: 2215

warnings: manga spoilers!!

(adj.) homey; cozy and unpretentious

At seven and four, Kazuki and Isao were at the age where they couldn’t keep their messy doodles confined into the sketchbooks you’d bought for them.

The first victim to their mischief was the wall in the kitchen beside the door leading to your backyard. It was a small parade of animals, with streamers and party hats. Tiger-san with his jagged crown, the dainty family of rabbits, and the hefty Bear-san (“No, Mommy! That’s Cat-san!” your second oldest had huffed indignantly at the clutter of crayon circles) who was at the very front of the entire crew. Your boys were lucky enough that it had been you who’d walked into their little streak of artistry. An understanding glance had been enough, seeing that you probably weren’t so different back then. You’d clean it up with a secret trick your mother had taught you and everything in the Iwaizumi household was back in business. Easy-peasy.

But had it been Hajime who’d encountered their mess... let’s just say you wouldn’t hear the end of the boys’ shrill wails until the next week.

Unfortunately for you and your trusty washcloth, Kazuki and Isao’s artistic escapades didn’t stop at the kitchen wall. Next, it was the floors, the windows of the entrance and even on the door to your bedroom (with a side of elephant stickers that you’d admit were pretty cute). Thus, it didn’t take very long for your husband to finally be faced by their “little” temperament. And not very long for the boys to be faced by their father’s wrath.

But there was simply a stubborn rock settled somewhere in your sons’ heads—they get it from Hajime, you’d kept telling yourself—and for simply the reason of being boys in their early youths, they kept on drawing. Everywhere. Anywhere.

At least the both of you were thankful enough for Hina-chan. Still a tiny ball of warmth curled up cozily against in your arms, Hina was the youngest and the only daughter in your modest family of five. And the least likely source of your daily hurdles.

“By the time Hina learns to hold a pencil, should we just introduce our home as an art gallery or something?” Hajime had asked you rather comically after seeing the colorful family portrait Isao had drawn in one of his reference books.

Though Kazuki, your first child, was completely aware of his responsibilities as an older brother, it was concerning enough that he still hadn’t let go of his childishness. He was seven now, and in a few months, delving into April, he’d be in first grade. Maybe he was simply rowdy in nature... who knows? With a gruff husband like Iwaizumi Hajime, anything was possible.

Elementary school... you pondered, gazing softly at your family in the living room. Hajime cradling Hina in one arm while he and the boys cheered wildly at the service ace that was displayed on TV. How exciting.

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

“Remember to ask for ‘Ichimura-sensei’, alright? She was the teacher I talked to when Kazuki and I checked the school. She’ll know the details I asked her about in the last meeting so you just have to give her the application form.”

Hajime suppressed a chuckle at your adamant ramble. “You’ve only been telling me this all week. I won’t forget, you know.”

“Sorry,” you sighed, bouncing your sleeping daughter in your arms. “I just want to make sure nothing goes wrong. This is our firstborn we’re talking about.”

“Trust me, Y/N,” he smiled. “It’ll be fine.”

You could only nod quietly. Was it the maternal instinct within you that was acting up? It all felt too soon, too quick. If you blinked, Kazuki would’ve already gotten married already... You weren’t ready for that.

But the least you could do was get used to the changes that were going to happen around the house. Starting with this.

“You’ve brought the form with you, right? You didn’t forget it?”

You felt bad that your husband was being held up at the entrance to your little home, but it couldn’t hurt to be just slightly careful. Unclasping his bag, he scrabbled through it, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, I’ve put it in a folder here last night, so there’s no way it would—Eh?”

More rummaging.

“Hajime, is everything alright?”

He was pulling things out of his bags now. 2000-yen bills, crumpled receipts, his packets of protein shakes, Hina’s diapers. But no application form. Nothing.

“I-It’s not there.”

“Huh?!”

“H-Hold on, I’ll check our bedroom,” his voice was in the least reassuring tone he could muster and you felt your heart drop a million feet into the ground.

Why would this happen now of all times? The document was already filled and sealed with your inkan*, payments documented, crucial information written on that single sheet of paper. Crucial information you couldn’t afford to fill in twice... and it was missing?

You really didn’t want to think about how today was the last day to submit applications—

“Kazuki!!” Hajime’s thunderous voice cut through the silence.

A tiny echo of pattering footsteps and Hina shifted against your chest but did not wake. You were thankful enough; anymore ruckus and your sanity would snap.

Yawning, your eldest scratched his dark bedhead and sauntered over to his father who fisted a sheet of paper in his hand. “Daddy, you’re too loud...”

Putting the paper onto full display, your eyes nearly bulged out of your head at what was on it.

Had the form always been so... colorful? You could barely see any writing on it, covered by the persistent doodles your son had scrawled over. Mixes of hiragana he’d been practicing, completed with small side drawings—Anpanman*, some horses and a purple paddy field. All in all: it was a mess. But it was clearly the form you’d filled in. And it was clearly Kazuki’s mess.

Hajime scowled, the space between his eyebrows wrinkling. “Did you do this?”

“...No.”

“Well it couldn’t be Isao or Hina, couldn’t it?” he seethed. “Don’t take me for an idiot. Isao’s been having playdates all week and Hina can’t draw yet. What did I tell you about drawing outside of the papers and books we gave you, huh?!”

“B-But I was just trying to help!” Kazuki exclaimed. “You and Mommy are always so busy taking care of papers. So I thought if I helped you write in it... you’d come and play with me again.”

Suddenly, a lump rose in your throat. You were always so busy taking care of Hina and Isao and their immeasurable demands, and your husband was either at work or out playing volleyball with the neighborhood team. You wondered how lonely it was for him the entire week you were taking care of the registrations.

How lonely it was, despite being surrounded by so much people.

Your husband, however, was completely unfazed. “Go to your room.”

“But Daddy, it’s not—!”

“Kazuki.” Each syllable he drew out sent a shiver down your spine. In a split second, the Iwaizumi household’s living room grew cold. “Go. To. Your. Room! Put your arms above your head and keep it that way until I come back!”

As if on cue, the waterworks emerged.

“I hate you, Daddy! I hate you! You never listen to me!” and that was the last thing you heard from the tear-streaked boy before he stumbled through the hallway, slamming his bedroom door behind him.

“...Mmn,” Hina roused, her tiny button nose flaring, and you instantly knew what was to come. Oh no...

Sighing in defeat, your husband crossed his arms and ambled back towards you and the bawling baby in your embrace. Pressing your lips together, you mumbled to him. “You could’ve been a bit nicer to Kazuki. Now look what happened.”

“He’ll never learn his lesson if I don’t get strict,” he said, the guilt crossing his eyes. Swimming. Settling. “I’m going to go ahead to the school before they close for the day. Ask if they’ve got anymore forms I can fill in there.”

You nodded, hands coming to rub gently against your daughter’s back as your husband kissed your forehead—a daunting ritual you did before whenever he left the house.

Then, he bent down to softly coo at the red-faced infant. “Hina-chan, how about a kiss for Daddy before I go?”

The result: Hina only cried louder. Repelled by the sudden change in volume, Hajime scratched the back of his neck remorsefully.

“I get it, I get it... I’m the bad guy today,” he rustled. “I guess I’ll be off now. I’ll leave the house in your care, Y/N.”

You smiled at him, your hard-working husband with a weak spot for your little family. “Be careful, Hajime-kun.”

As soon as the door clicked shut, you were left to your terror again. A crying seven-year old, a crying baby, and if all the noise were to wake up Isao from his afternoon nap... Geez, what a mess...

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

Hajime really felt like he knew this guy somewhere... High school? A volleyball match? That refreshing aura wasn’t really difficult to tell apart, either...

“You’re number 2 from Karasuno High, ain’tcha?”

“Uwaah... Seijoh’s Iwaizumi Hajime...” Sugawara twinkled, the grey cowlick on his head standing up straight. “The atmosphere of an powerful ace really is hard to miss.”

Hajime blushed. When was the last time someone called him a ‘powerful ace’? He had you to call him that whenever you were feeling nostalgic, but otherwise, that label was a shard of the past.

“Sugawara-san, right?” he recalled. “You work here at this school?”

The man chuckled. “Yep! I’m a teacher now. How about you, Iwaizumi-san? What are you up to here?”

“Oh, I’m looking for Ichimura-sensei. I want to talk to her about the registration for my son.”

Sugawara shook his head for a moment before replying.

“Unfortunately, Ichimura-sensei is out with the flu. That’s why I’m covering the weekend shift for her. You can just give the forms to me, and we can look over the terms and conditions.”

What luck, Hajime thought. But at least having this guy around wasn’t going to be as bad of an experience.

“Ah... about that...” he started. “My kid drew all over the application form and I don’t remember making any copies. So, would it be a problem if I did it again right now? Me and my wife are in a bit of a tough spot at the moment.”

By the grace of God, Sugawara said, “I don’t think it’d be a issue. Let’s go to the office and discuss it together. Before that, can I ask for your ID, Iwaizumi-san?”

“Ah, yeah, sure, let me just get my wallet...” filing through his bag, Hajime rifled through the stacks of paper, looking... searching... And when he got to his wallet: “Huh?”

There it was. The application-payment form he’d filled in last week, in its pristine glory. And with absolutely zero drawings on it. There was his family seal and everything. Down to both of your signatures, in the blue ink you’d insisted on using (Hajime never really bothered to make out the different uses of different inks).

“The form...” he muttered. “It must’ve slipped from the folder or something. Then that means the one at home was probably a copy...”

Freezing, Hajime realized. Crap. What have I done?

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

By the time Hajime got home, the house was already quiet again. Isao and Hina were asleep in your bedroom—Hina in her crib and Isao laid spread-eagle on the limited expanse of your queen-size bed. Taking the opportunity of a silent home, you decided to use the time you had to eat some sweets you’d secretly stashed in the fridge away from your children’s eyes.

“What a ravenous wife,” he’d teased, only for you to smear a dollop of whipped cream across his face in retaliation.

It didn’t take him long to realize the muffled sobbing from Kazuki’s room had subsided too. Curiosity getting the best of him, your husband stepped inside the danger zone.

Hajime always thought that Kazuki was a peaceful sleeper. He could sleep anywhere and still look like he was having the time of his life. During times like this, where Hajime was drained empty at the end of the day, he couldn’t help but feel jealous of his son.

Gingerly picking him up from the carpeted floors, Hajime rested Kazuki’s head on the crook of his broad shoulder, his gentle breathing blowing faint breezes next to his nape. Looking down at the smattering of papers on the ground, he reached down to read one that Kazuki had presumably written right before he was knocked out cold.

I’m really sorree Sorry Daddy :( I promise to never draw on your things ever again. Kazuuki

Below the large lopsided text he’d written in crayon was a smudged drawing of (what seemed) to be him. Well, if Hajime was a stickman with prominent eyebrows that stuck out of his face.

“I’m sorry too, kid. Guess I was being unfair, huh?” he murmured. “I’ll make it up to you once you wake up. We’ll all play together. Me, you, Isao, Hina and your mom. We’ll use as much time as we have left.”

And Hajime never backed down on a promise.

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

Glossary:

inkan - personalized seals used in lieu of signatures in paperwork

anpanman - a Japanese children’s superhero cartoon character, looks like this

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2019 Long Shows

Dear Lord. This is where all the good shows went.

2019 was absolutely awful on a season-by-season basis (except for Summer, anyway), but that’s mostly because most of the best shows ran longer than what has become the industry norm of a single season. And indeed, heading into the new decade, we seem to be seeing a major renaissance for two- or split-cour shows, given the massive success seen by shows like My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Haikyuu!!..particularly in comparison to the new perpetual-runners Black Clover (which, despite running for over two straight years now, is still not the most popular show of Fall 2017 by viewer count on MAL, and sits at a ‘meh’ 7.2), and even worse, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which is faring even worse on both counts even though it premiered two whole seasons earlier and the fact that it is the sequel to Naruto.

As a reminder of my rules, the shows on this list may or may not have premiered in 2019, but they finished airing this year. The split-cour rule (stating that I judge any show that “finishes” and then premieres a “new season” within six months) didn’t come into play for any 2018 shows, but it will for Ascendance of a Bookworm and Food Wars this year, at the very least.

With that being said! 25 shows running longer than thirteen episodes finished airing this year after being simulcast, and of those…

I skipped 6:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part V: Golden Wind, Fairy Tail Final Series, A Certain Magical Index III, Ace Attorney Season 2 and Cardfight Vanguard (2018) because I either dropped or have not finished their previous (also long-running) seasons.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS because the simulcast started late and also it was bad.

I Dropped 8:

Worst Long Show of 2019: The Rising of the Shield Hero

It’s always fun to see that a show you hated from its first episode only gets more and more distasteful afterwards, but it’s less fun when a service you have to promote because they’re the legal option is forced to shove it down your throat because they had a hand in making it and it became a massive hit that your friends don’t see any issue with because the author wrote a story that justifies its hero’s patronage of the slave industry. This is my punishment for watching the whole first season of The Asterisk War before I knew better.

YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world

A confusing mess from the word go, this ill-fated adaptation of a visual novel from the nineties seems like it was mostly made to cash in on the popularity of the Science Adventure series, but failed to present itself in a way that made an ounce of sense or looked remotely interesting.

Fairy Gone

Am I really the only one that saw potential here? I mean yes, it ended up a boring slog that didn’t care to move its plot in a meaningful direction, but the first episode was at least cool. I guess Izetta: The Last Witch should have taught me better.

We Never Learn

I know that I’m in the minority in terms of the male demographic for shows like this, but honestly, how are bland harem shows still this easy to market? A copy-pasted protagonist with copy-pasted waifus drag down what could be an interesting setup for a story. 

Karakuri Circus

The first episode of this one had me excited, the second and third left me bored to tears and wondering if it would continue to look uglier by the minute. I haven’t seen a three-cour show look this janky since Knight in the Area.

Radiant

Having heard good things about this show from my cohorts, I do feel bad for saying I’ll probably never return to Radiant, but when you have a show that’s notably written by a European author...and it turns out to be a frustratingly standard shounen affair with middling production values, well, you can see my earlier annoyance with Cannon Busters.

Ensemble Stars

This one still gets to me. It almost looked like a male-idol show I would finally be able to get behind, what with its rebellious attitude and oddball setting...that is, until the setting got to be too unbelievable and the show began drowning its audience in side-characters because they had to squeeze every husbando from the mobile game into the story, and it all began to resemble UtaPri a little too much...but without the production value.

Boogiepop and Others

This was a hard drop, honestly. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I felt four episodes in, before concluding that I was bored and not particularly invested, two things that should never describe the experience of watching a Madhouse show. The fact that this was the project responsible for ruining One Punch Man only made it worse. There’s a slow burn, and then there’s walking away without turning the stove on.

And I Finished 11 (holy crap that’s like three hundred episodes just on their own).

That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime (5/10 & 1/10)

I’ll be honest, I had forgotten just how livid I was with the ending (and especially the sad excuse of a recap episode) of Slimesekai, and reading back through my write-up of it, it’s certainly coming back to me. While this year had bigger demons to fight (Shield Hero), the bad taste that Slime left me with hasn’t really faded, and the wasted premise bugs me to this day.

Hinomaru Sumo (7/10)

What Hinomaru lacked in production value, it happily made up for in good execution and earnest heart. I can’t believe this came from the same studio as Conception, Try Knights and 7Seeds, but if they can only get out one good show a year, I’m glad that we got one bringing attention to a sport that many will joke about but few understand, respect and appreciate.

Kono Oto Tomare (7/10)

Speaking of giving love to traditional Japanese culture, here’s a decent-if-unoriginal show about a local high school koto club down on their luck, and the troubled teens coming together under a scrappy protagonist to bring it back to life. Kono Oto Tomare doesn’t have much that you haven’t seen before, but a decently-executed club drama with Your Lie In April-inspired musical performances is more than enough to keep me interested, and since Forest of Piano kinda crashed and burned under the weight of its own self-importance this year, it was nice to have an alternative.

MIX: Meisei Story (8/10)

It’s hard to judge MIX next to the other shows on this list because it’s almost too old-school for its own good, revelling in an eighties storytelling style that didn’t end up jiving with a wide audience this year. But at the same time, its fun character dynamics (and a very good dub from Funimation, despite them saying they’d never touch sports anime again) were very entertaining to watch, even if it didn’t focus as much on the sport it was supposedly about as much as I’d have liked.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (8/10)

I fully admit that I’m very salty about the fact that this won Show of the Decade in Funimation’s poll while it was still on and I thought there were hundreds of more deserving shows, but I can’t deny that Demon Slayer was a very enjoyable experience, albeit one that I had notable problems with. That’s not gonna stop me from getting mad when it sweeps the Anime Awards in a few weeks, though.

Fire Force (8/10)

I was very afraid that David Productions wouldn’t be able to match the energy of Studio Bones’ adaptation of Ohkubo’s previous work, Soul Eater, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Even if the last few episodes contained a bit too much infodumping, it was all sandwiched between jaw-dropping fight scenes that proved that the people who make Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure can still handle the reins of a more traditional action show.

Fruits Basket 1st Season (8/10)

I know that my score for this one is a bit lower than others, but I think that Fruits Basket did pretty well in its first season, considering that it was largely spent setting up future storylines and adapting the part of the manga we’d all seen before, but with much higher production value. I’ve been familiar with this part of the story for over a decade, and the scene with Tohru and Kyo (you know the one) still made me cry. Now, we get the real plot going.

Dr Stone (9/10)

A great start to a totally new spin on shounen, Dr Stone gives me hope for survival in the post-Shokugeki world in which we’ll soon live, as a show that wears its research on its sleeve. A complex plot weaving interesting characters in and out of a narrative surrounding a philosophical battle where both sides actually do have fair points (even if one of them is going about it in a pretty cruel manner). More please.

Vinland Saga (9/10)

Once again, a great start to what will hopefully be years of quality storytelling, Vinland Saga made it seem like it was dragging in the middle only to reveal just what its slow burn had been leading up to, with twist-heavy storytelling and a fantastic cast to match the high visual quality of its brutal battles.

Run With the Wind (9/10)

It’s not often that Production I.G. gets to make a complete, fully-realized show anymore, and this one was a glorious reminder of the potential of the studio in the TV space, and a great rebound for the director of Joker Game. It’s gorgeous to look at, the cast is wonderful, and the story is both realistic and idealistic in a satisfying balance. It’s a miserable process to get to the finish line in real life, but sitting back and watching this was nothing but a treat. At least, until a minor fumble at the end.

Best Long Show of 2019: Dororo (9/10)

Speaking of complete stories, Tezuka Productions and MAPPA teamed up for a breathtaking adaptation of an underappreciated Tezuka classic that expands upon the story in exactly the right way to create a thrilling, savage, beautiful masterpiece that focuses a laser-sharp eye into the relationship between two characters in their journey to, literally and figuratively, become complete people. Also, that opening was killer.

And that’s it! That’s the fun list. Next comes the painful one. Stay tuned for the trash heap.

[amisbro]

If UtaPri had/gets a 5th season...

What would it look like? So this is a question I have thought about for a while because of the fact that I think a lot of people (Myself included) believe there is more of a story to tell in the world of UtaPri.  I think with enough time we could get a very interesting idea for a season and honestly I think WHATEVER this project we got coming up actually IS could be an interesting testing ground for something. Let me explain

So if we think about how Season 4 ended it seemed rather definitive.  Like the way that message was wrote made you believe ,to a degree, that the series had ended as far as an Anime project.  Then we got the end card AFTER that and that kind of made things turn on its head cos no one knew what that was supposed to be until 6th stage happened right? One thing that always stands out to me is the fact that Season 4 was a bit of a mess and I say that in the most objective and neutral way possible because...when you have an Anime that is based on a Manga we typically get a story based around that in some fashion.  It might not be panel for panel and word for word but we get one and that is always fun to see how certain scenes get animated for sure.  When you do an Anime based on an Otome game you almost always do whomever is considered the “true route” or just leave it open ended so people will want to play the games (which is what I think DiaLovers did when it had its run). UtaPri has a very interesting situation because the series DOES have an idol component (and the Anime made sure to really focus on that mostly) but it is also an Otome game so the studio (A-1 Pictures) had that to work off of for the most part.  The problem is that when they were done with the material they DID USE it created a problem because Season 4 was a mess if I am being as objective as possible about it. So here was the problem You had 3 groups in play here STARISH QUARTET NIGHT HEAVENS Forget whom your group was for a second...this was going to be a problem because 2 of the 3 groups had content that was used in the first 3 seasons but Season 4 was going to be a problem.  How this would have been remedied I have no fucking idea!  Like if Broccoli knew they were going to do this season they needed to get something out BEFORE IT so people would have had something to go off of for HEAVENS so we could have had 7 episodes that made sense instead of episodes where it felt like they didn’t know how to have the HEAVENS member that was being featured in it not look like a complete ass!  If we are honest this is what happened and its frustrating to remember One of the biggest issues with the season was that you had a group that HAD been Antags during Season 2.  I said HAD because I genuinely believe that the marching orders for A-1 was to write a season where STARISH was still THE focus but HEAVENS could be rehabbed into a group that was more “likable/marketable” so when the time came to sell CDs and merch that they would fly off the shelves and could be a contender to at least QN if not both them and STARISH.  As we saw during the Oricon charts it was a puzzling time because the duet CDs sold like garbage in the sense that only TWO our the 7 actually charted in the top 10 Ren/Van - Lovely Eyes Syo/Yamato - Justice Impulse This was the most puzzling thing I ever dealt with because I tried to figure out WHY and to this day the best thing I could come up with is the fact that the CD releases were slated to come 10 days after the episode aired which seemed like the dumbest thing to do (IMHO) because when I looked at Season 3 all of the releases charted in the top 10 and a big reason for that was the gap between CD/Episode was only 4 days...well we got to QN and HEAVENS’ CDs they did VERY WELL in Season 4 and its because of how close they released them (I think) to the episodes...funny how that works! What was really weird also was during the “Duet Project” episodes the writers didn’t know WHO to make the focus of the episodes and that was weird BUT ,looking back on it, this whole season was gonna be weird because of how quickly the season was coming in the turnaround vs. its normal time for a season.  Typically a UtaPri season gets a 2 year window and this time they were going under that...about a year and 4 months so this was going to cause a crunch and also a mess of a message as to what the writers wanted to do!  I personally believe that the writers wanted to make HEAVENS all the more sympathetic and they were able to get SOME of the backstories in that they could for certain characters but a few others (Nagi and Eiichi for example) “kind of” tried to show you the “why they were acting the way they were” but it felt (at least Internationally) that the episodes didn’t register or if they did not as well as they hoped.  I do wonder if a big reason that the content is as out of sorts in terms of balance for HEAVENS vs. the other two groups is because of how jacked up that season got.  I genuinely wish I could sit down and discuss that season with someone that was in the room when they were given the orders on how that season was supposed to go vs. what actually happened after the fact! So this brings me back to the “What would a 5th Season look like if we got/get one in the future?” The weird thing is I think A-1 already knows but they have to get the reference materials FIRST before they start writing it.  I genuinely think they saw/heard about what happened Internationally when it came to the “NEXT DOOR” saga and they didn’t want to see that happen again so NOW they want to work on these projects to get the idea other there right now that all the groups are separated as first we have STARISH and then no doubt QN but the big question of course is HEAVENS...can they do a concert with them at some point with hopefully more songs under their belt OR will Broccoli start to really consider them a lost cause and that the fandom just doesn’t want them.  You can only go with the “Round peg/Square Hole” philosophy so much before people get mad and don’t want to deal with the series (or at the very least HEAVENS) anymore. The other big issue is HEAVENS’ role in Dolce Vita because, As of this writing, we still don’t know ANYTHING about that game...like we don’t know if its a straight up VN or is there going to be something similar to the original La Corda back in the day which ,fun fact time, had Kishou and Mamo in it.  Like if anyone would know how a game like that worked it would be them (And they ARE in the new game “Starlight Orchestra” btw) so they HAVE to have had given some input about how the mechanics worked and all that...right?! (Oh and unrelated but Kishou’s original character in Len Tsukimori is a special character in that game.  He was unlocked through a campaign we had in that fandom a bit ago) So again...what would Season 5 look like? Well my guess is that it would have to be a STARISH/HEAVENS season again but with new duets unlike last time.  The other possibility (And I think they were teasing this at the end of Season 4) is that it would somehow be a HEAVENS/QN season which could be interesting especially if they did something like how Season 2 was probably supposed to go...and in a way didn’t because of how the story worked. The thing is its been almost 5 years since we had a proper season...FIVE! Let’s assume that the “Anime Project” as we know it is over alright?  STARISH and QN’s brand is already established so what do you use to help HEAVENS’ get on the same level?  That’s a big reason why I don’t think they could/should end the “Anime Proper” because to do that you literally would be cutting off a way to properly market a group that actually needs it vs. the groups that clearly don’t.  I won’t go so far as to say that the STARISH/QN Animated concerts are going to be “Vanity Projects” because they aren’t.  They are clearly something that Broccoli believed in as far as a project to do for the series BUT I will say that having 7th Stage so close to this project is a bit...weird?! Like okay to be fair this probably was planned well in advance and the Pandemic fucked everything up because it was supposed to be announced at 7th stage in 2020...okay cool fine but let’s say it was right?  What stopped them from revealing it at 10th Anniversary when it would have been a bigger “Holy Shit” moment?  What was really so important that they had to do EVERYTHING ELSE and not that?  Just seemed weird to me. But anyways HOLY SHIT did we go around the block here...I need to stop If you were going to script out a proper 5th season when would you do it and how?  The thing to remember is we have a 3 group scenario and now HEAVENS is trying to become an even better group to finally beat STARISH and QN so do you have QN and HEAVENS do a thing together or do you do a 3 cour season where each is dedicated to a particular group? Love to hear your answers on this and take care

[softlysugar]

Just a break

Pairing: logince

Warnings: small mentions of Patton, forgetting to eat, being overworked

Word count: 2,430

I groan, pushing back my hair and stretching slightly. Rubbing my eyes slightly, I stare at the ceiling, taking another few second mental break before getting back to work.

I’ve been working on this paper for hours, how long exactly? I’m not sure, at least six I believe. I haven’t really done anything besides work and maybe take a mental break a few times for a few moments. Thinking about it, I’m not sure I’ve eaten since breakfast... I mean, Patton offered to get me some food earlier but I just told him I’d eat later. I don’t know how longs it’s been since then, definitely around twelve, maybe one?

I sighed. I wasn’t even getting work done now, all I was doing was thinking about how I was doing work. I wish for a break... maybe even to be with Roman, haven’t really talked to him at all today, not since this morning anyway, he’s stopped by to see what I was up to, rather disappointed I was doing work. But, I mean, what else should I be doing? Maybe I could possibly hang out with him... I did enjoy spending time around him, don’t get me wrong, we’re just friends, but something about him just...

Ugh! I’m doing it again! I need to stop daydreaming and just do work! Why is this so hard?!.... Maybe I should just get a quick snack, I am rather hungry.. maybe it’ll even clear my head.

I stood up and stretched a bit, before heading out of my room and down the steps, leading myself to the kitchen, only to be greeted by Roman. Well, figuratively this time, he didn’t actually seem to greet me like normal. I know I get annoyed by his big greeting but it just felt.. off, not like him. He didn’t even say a hello, and I knew he saw me, he looked right at me before looking away.

I just shrugged it off and went to get something to eat, I believe there are cheese sticks in the fridge, something quick to eat that doesn't require anytime into making it, perfect. I open the fridge and start searching for them, but I can't help but feel as though I'm being stared at.

But it's not too important, I just found the cheese sticks, god looking at all this food makes me so hungry- no Logan, no distractions.

I grab the cheese stick and close the fridge, turning around I find Roman staring at me. Though, once he noticed that I noticed, he looked away. I tried to just open my cheese stick, throw out the wrapper, and head up back to my room, but every time I looked at him, I caught him staring at me. It's was weird at first, but now it's just flat out annoying.

"Look, Roman, if you are looking to tell me something, then please do. If not, please do not stare at me." I, politely, but sternly told him. I noticed his face was getting a bit red, but decided to brush it off as nothing.

"I- well- I um-" He sputtered out, before coughing a bit.

"Are you alright Roman?" I moved a bit closer to him. Coughing and sputtering? Is he sick? Maybe I shouldn't have brushed off his face getting red so easily...

"I'm... Alright, just... Just wanted to ask you something!" He added a bit of a laugh at the end of it.

"I do not see how anything was funny, but if you'd wish to ask me something, please do quickly, I need to get back to work."

He seemed a bit... Surprised? I believe that's what he expressed... Patton told me that being wide-eyed means that, so I guess he was indeed surprised. But why would he be surprised? I am usually working after all...

"I was... Actually wondering if you'd like to hang out in the imagination with me?" I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off, "I know, I know, you have work and the imagination doesn't seem fun to you but... I know this one cabin that's away from everything, it's very quiet and peaceful, so you can take a break!"

He smiled at me, though it didn't seem like his normal smile... Almost... Weak? I don't know, it's not really the point.

"Roman, please, I have to work, as I had said before, all I needed to do was eat something, now please I need to-"

"Wait, please.." He took my hand, stopping me from moving. Not like I was gonna move.

His voice sounded so, so, I don't know! It's just... It's made me ~want~ to stay. I don't know if that even makes sense... and then his hand on mine! Just... Ugh, I don't understand it.

"You've been working all day... Don't you deserve a break..? Hell, you always work, don't you ever relax?" He was closer to me, his voice just sounded... Soft yet... Warm... It made me just wanna melt... What is going on?!

I just shrugged not really know what to say, trying to ignore how my face feels like it's burning. I wanna leave and make all of.. ~this~ go away. But I don't. At the same time, I want more of it.

"So why don't we go take a break? Just me and you, no other noises or anything else." He smiled, just a genuine smile. His normal smile. And still it just made me melt... I just..

I sigh, "fine... But only for an hour or two" His eyes just seem to shine so brightly at those words, his smile just growing so large, larger then I've ever seen it.

"Great!! Let's go!" and, without any hesitation, he dragged me towards the imagination.

~time skip to when they get to the cabin~

As we walked into the cabin, I noted how we were, in fact, around no one. Well, no people or monsters that lurked in the imagination, only small woodland creatures, which I didn't mind much, I actually like listening to nature, it's rather... Calming.

"Here we are," Roman said, grabbing back my attention, "it's small but very cozy- to me at least, I don't know if you like it or not" he laughed a bit.

"Al.. right.." I said, before brushing off his strange behavior, "may I look around a bit?"

Roman nodded, starting me on my small 'journey' looking around.

It was very quaint and cozy, nothing really eye-catching though. My 'journey' ended in the living room, where Roman sat, staring at the ground.

He seemed to be mumbling something or another. I decided not to question it too much, though my mind always seemed to wander a bit. But I tried my best, instead, I just sat at the opposite end of the couch, seemingly alerting my presence to him.

He blinked a bit, looking at me, before coughing a bit.

"A-anyway, what would you like to do? This is your break so it's really your choice... We could do anything your heart desires!" I paused a bit, I really didn't know what to do. I just kinda came without thinking about anything else...

".. Maybe open a window, I like the sound of nature, it's rather calming." He nodded, getting up and opening the four windows in the room. One seemed difficult but he refused to let me help. I just sighed at this but started letting my mind drift.

What, exactly, happened earlier? I still had no knowledge of what it could have been. Almost everything he did was normal, with few exceptions, yet I was so willing- no, I needed to go. But... Why? I just feel... Like I need to work now. I do need to work now! Why am I even on this stupid-

"Hey, Logan, you there?" I looked at Roman, who was now sitting next to me as he had his hand lightly on my shoulder. He chuckled a bit when I looked at him almost.. Staring.

Fuck, just his hand on my shoulder slightly... A small touch... I just wanted more... No, I need to control myself, I don't want nor need anything.

"Oh, um, yes, yes of course, why wouldn't I be here? You did bring me here and I haven't left since" I tried to, figuratively, collect myself as I spoke. He snickered lightly and quietly, I almost didn't hear it.

His hand left my shoulder as he leaned back in his seat, I almost found myself trying to lean into his moving touch but I stopped myself before I could do anything noticeable. Remember, just gotta control myself.

After that, we were both quiet, the little noise that was heard coming from the open windows. It felt.. Strange, I didn't feel calm, almost tense. This was supposed to be relaxing but I find it does the opposite. I felt like I should say something to him, but what would I even say? I didn't really think this through... Did he even do that?

Well, of course, he did, he had to, was this his plan? To just sit in silence? Cause if it is I may just leave soon, I feel almost as tense as when I was working... Maybe his plan got ruined? That had to be the case, right? This couldn't possibly be his plan! Roman would never plan something like this, he's more loud and immature. But just looking at him laying back, eyes closed...

How is he so calm? Why am so tense? Factually speaking, it'd most likely be the opposite effect. Why isn't it though? I just don't understand any of this, I just-

"Didn't you say not to stare," he laughed, "now here you are, hypocrite." He opened his eyes, laughing a bit more and looking at me.

I felt my face heat up in embarrassment, "Oh, shut up, at least I didn’t stare on purpose every time you looked away like you did”

His face went red as he sputtered random gibberish, I swear I almost laughed, but quickly covered my hand to stifle it. He really is an idiot, a cute idiot at least... Wait no, not a cute one, just an idiot.. just an idiot.

"Hey, are you... Smiling?!" My eyes grow wide at Roman's words.

"Wh-what?! No! Of cour-"

"You totally are! Oh, gosh, I haven't seen you smile since.. Since forever ago!!! Your smile is absolutely adorable!"

I looked at him, it what I can only describe as surprised, at his wording. A-adorable? My smile?? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that can't be right.

He seemed... Surprised as well, to say the least.

"I.. I mean.. Um..." He started but never finished. I looked away from him, covering my mouth.

He... He didn't mean that. He couldn't have meant that. Granted, he didn't seem to know what he meant... But of course, he didn't mean that! Right?!... Right?

After a few moments of silence, I decided to speak up.

"You don't... You don't actually mean my smile is adorable... Right?" My voice came out soft and mean, which I absolutely hated. It was just a stupid question, why did I have to sound so fragile!?

I could practically feel him staring at me.

"Why wouldn't I mean that..?" His voice sounded so soft again... So oddly gentle...

"Why would anyone mean that? Or even say that about me of all people? My smile isn't even ~good~. Let alone 'adorable'" I glared at nothing really, I was just mad at myself for letting part of myself even think about believing his words. It's was just a stupid mistake that he made. That's it.

"Logan." Roman's voice made me tense up a bit he sounded... Mad... Really mad... Definitely not used to that...

He cupped my face with his hands, making me look at him, his face close to mine.

"Don't you dare say anything like that about your smile or anything else about you. Your smile is adorable and gorgeous and if I could I would just look at you smile all day and it would never ever get old. I would do anything, anything to see you smile, even for just a moment."

I stared at him.. Just... No, I refuse to believe it, he couldn't possibly mean that.

"Don't lie to me..."

"I would never do such a thing... Wouldn't even think of it.." I looked at him, he looked so serious, so stern, but his eyes just looked so gentle.

"How do you do this..?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"You just... Make me want to be with you, go with you anywhere, make me believe you even when I don't want to.. You... Had to have done something.. What did you do..?" He stared at me blankly for a moment, before having an almost amused smile, it looked like he was gonna laugh.

"What's so funny? You did something didn't you??" I furrowed my eyebrows trying to push him away from me. He only laughed a bit.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just a bit funny how clueless you are. But no, I didn't do anything, not purposefully anyway." I stopped trying to push him, beginning to be very... Confused.

"What do you mean?"

"It seems you may have a bit of a crush on yours truly."

"Wh-what?! No, no way!" I shook my head.

"So you wanted to hang out with me becausee?"

"I... I don't know! I just.. Fuck.." I do like him, don't I? Oh god, why him? I don't get it. He's just so... So..!.. Amazing isn't he?

"Told you so," He smirked, "you're just lucky I like you back" he poked, or as Patton calls it, 'booped' my nose. I stared at him for a moment.

He likes me. Out of every side he like me?

"thought you had a better taste in men"

"Oh, shut up, anyone would kill to be with you" He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him as he kisses my forehead.

"If you say so" I grumbled a bit, my face heating up for the, figuratively, thousandth time.

"Oh, I know so, literally." I looked at him, very confused.

"How, exactly, do you know tha-"

"AAAAAAanyway, would you like to go out to eat something? It could a be dateee~" I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Fine," I agreed, "I am hungry, besides that cheese stick, I haven't seen since breakfast."

"you haven't seen sINCE BREAKFAST?!" Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that...