#as well as...maya miki

[richea]

Character Biography: Primula Rosso

The following information has been pulled from the Tales Channel official site's page on Tales of Fandom Vol. 1. Typed below is a transcript of its English translated entry on Primula.

Story synopsis

"Craymel Detective: The Keele Zeibel Affair" In this Tales of Eternia spin-off, Keele is arrested on suspicion of leaking Mintche University's exam questions. Primula, who leads the school's detective club and has unilaterally drafted her classmate Keele as a member, opens an investigation to clear his name. But having already earned a reputation as a bumbling investigator, Primula has a tough road ahead.

Primula Rosso

A deeply inquisitive scholar, Primula majors in Aurora Artes at Mintche University. She's love detective novels since she was a child, and has established an unofficial detective club at the university, with herself as its self-declared president.

The following information has been pulled from the official Bandai Namco site page on Tales of Fandom Vol. 1. The site is in Japanese.

A character introduced in Fandom. She's a girl brimming with curiosity who is currently studying at Mintche University. She works as a "detective" in the school (in actuality, she's a handyman). She gets wrapped up in an incident with Keele in the Faceventure story...

Name: Primula Rosso (プリムラ・ロッソ) CV: Miki Nagasawa Character designer: Daigo Okumura Gender: Female Height: 159cm Weight: 45kg Hometown: Inferia City Occupation: Scholar at Mintche University Social standing: Commoner. Her family runs a business in the capital and they're fairly well off. Family: Father, mother and four younger brothers. She's the eldest daughter. Personality:

For the most part she's well intended

She's cheerful and doesn't have a bad side

She's brimming with curiosity

She's prone to simplistic thinking

She's quite the dreamer

She has (surprisingly) good grades. She excels at courses requiring memorization skills

She's decently athletic

She loves to cook, to the point that she makes her own lunches every morning before school She excels at eggbear dishes and has the skills to make just about anything. She doesn't have any disliked food

Hobby: Reading mystery novels Future dream: Operate a detective agency (in collaboration with Keele) Current goal: Promote the detective club to the university officials Treasured things: A book she bought with her childhood savings called "Introduction to Becoming a Great Detective". She's read it to the point she can recite it from heart Other things: After an incident revolving leaked examination questions, she became good friends with Lunaria Barnes of the newspaper club. They went out to a cafe they had heard about and enjoy their student life together to the fullest. Lunaria is from Chambard, and her future dream is to become a newspaper reporter and make the Barnes family the richest in all of Inferia.

Primula's character design

Okumura-san's comment:

During early conceptions, I had considered removing Primula's "detective antenna" (the cowlicks) but I ended up leaving them for the sake of their capabilities in expressing emotion. They can form into heart shapes and stars, and if she's feeling so strongly, she can even form them to replicate Keele's face. Quite fanciful, isn't she. *There's not scene in the game where this happens.

"A slightly long interview"

Miki Nagasawa

[PROFILE]

Agency: Atomic Monkey Birthday: July 11th Notable works: Maya Ibuki (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Maki Izumi (Kidou Senkan Nadesico), etc.

Interviewer: Namco's Tanaka-san

The interview took place in the studio where "Craymel Detective: The Keele Zeibel Incident," which is the story Primula appears in, was recorded.

Tanaka-san, who is a publicity clerk, awaited recordings to be finished in order to request an interview with actress Miki Nagasawa. You can probably feel how nervous Tanaka-san was when talking in front of a lady as beautiful as her...

Interview, start!

Tanaka: Nagasawa-san, were you n-nervous at your first time voicing for the Tales series? (*person who is nervous himself) Nagasawa: Let me think. It's a well-known series, so the pressure was definitely on... Tanaka: Is that to say you knew about the series prior? Nagasawa: Yes, I hadn't actually played the games myself, but I'd seen it in commercials and popularity rankings. I'd heard of it plenty. Tanaka: Thank you. (*a bit relieved) Nagasawa: I was really happy when I heard I got the job, given it's such a great series. I wouldn't say I was stressed, but having a role that was alongside the most famous character Keele-kun was a bit nerve wracking. Tanaka: Keele is quite popular, isn't he! Hahaha! (*proud laughter) Nagasawa: Yes! Primula is the character that Keele-kun lovers can project onto the most. I did my best to portray Primula's emotions and how she loves the things she loves even if it isn't reciprocated. Tanaka: I see! The development staff actually chose to create Primula because they believed fans would feel closer to Keele by controlling a character who interacts with Keele closely rather than controlling Keele himself. That said, what is it about Primula that you want the players to pay close attention to? Nagasawa: Let's see, I would say the fact that Primula has a robust imagination... (laughs) There's this one scene that's really funny... So enjoy it! (laughs) It's the part where me and Hoshi-kun (Keele's actor) talk over each other! Tanaka: Oh man, overhearing the recording to that was an absolute blast! I laughed so hard. (*during recording, Tanaka-san burst out laughing to the point the other staff glared daggers into him to stop) Nagasawa: Hahaha, thank you. (laughs) There's also a scene where Primula lies when going around investigating all the rooms trying to find hints, and I tried to make that bit more lively too. (laughs) That was a lot of fun. Tanaka: You sure had a lot of fun voicing her, huh? That's great! (laughs) Could you give a message to the fans who are all eagerly awaiting the release of the game? Nagasawa: Of course. I'm very proud to have been casted for such a wonderful game. I did my best to voice Primula, to be worthy of the love all of the fans who love the Tales series and Keele-kun have. I hope you can all play the game and feel your love for Keele-kun reflected properly in it. Primula doesn't profess her love or anything, but I did my best in voicing her more romantic dialogue, so I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on my efforts in that regard. Tanaka: Hearing how passionately you voiced her for the sake of all the fans and Primula herself has me emotional! (*teary eyed) I could really feel that passion as I listened to your recording. Everyone, you better pay good attention to her work! (*doing his job as a PR clerk) To close things, could you talk a bit about your future work plans? Nagasawa: It's a while from now, but in March of 2002, I'll be producing my own public appearance. Tanaka: That's incredible! Nagasawa: This is actually my second time... (laughs) Tanaka: Ahahaha... (sweat) Have you decided on a location? Nagasawa: Yes! On March 22nd to the 24th of 2002, I'll be on stage at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro, so please come watch me! Tanaka: I'll be there for sure! Nagasawa: Be my guest. (laughs) Tanaka: Thank you so much for today! I'll definitely see your performance! Nagasawa: Thank you as well.

Comment from Tanaka:

During the recording, I kept thinking to myself how incredible Nagasawa-san was. When I interviewed her, it felt so obvious to me how much she understood both her character as well as the series as a whole. And she had so much fun with it to boot! I'm so moved! I witnessed most of the recording, and all of the other voice actors involved in this game seem to really hold a lot of love for the Tales series and had such a blast recording for it. This game will be such a joy to all the fans, so please try it for yourself. Phew! Talking to pretty people sure is nerve-wracking!

[hubristicassholefight]

Automatically Included contestants

These are contestants who have automatically made it into the bracket due to getting 3+ submissions, as well as planned preliminary polls

Alanna of Trebond (Tortall)

Peko Pekoyama (Super Dangan Ronpa 2)

Sayaka Miki (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Eowyn (Lord of the Rings)

Olivier Mira Armstrong (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Adora (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

Brienne of Tarth (A Song Of Ice and Fire)

Juri Arisugawa (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Lady Oscar (Rose of Versailles)

Sabre Artoria (Fate franchise)

Nobunaga (Dragalia Lost)

Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail)

Lady Maria (Bloodbourne)

Baiken (Guilty Gear)

Morgana (BBC Merlin)

Casca (Berserk)

Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 3)

Windblade (Transformers)

Talia (DC Comics)

Fa Mulan (Disney's Mulan)

Akame (Akame ga Kill!)

Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)

Maggie One-Eye (Clover and Cutlass)

Keladry of Mindelan

Kagumi Tsurugi (Miraculous Ladybug)

Youmu Konpaku (Touhou)

Preliminary Polls

One Piece Slot 1 (between Kikunojo, Tashigi, Rebecca, Kuina, Charlotte Amande and Lola)

One Piece Slot 2 (Second place of the same)

The Locked Tomb Slot 2 (Between Camilla Hect, Alecto, and Coronabeth Tridentarius)

Fate slot 2 (Between Mordred, Mysterious Heroine X, and Miyamoto Musashi)

Legend of Zelda slot 1 (Between Urbosa. Impa and Twilight Princess Zelda)

Fire Emblem Slot 1 (Between Lucina, Eirika, Lyn, Byleth Eisner, Lucina and Altina)

Revue Starlight Slot 1 (Between Hikari, Karen, Daiba, Maya and Claudine)

Final Fantasy (Between Alisae, Lucia, Mylla, Lightning, Terra, Celes, Agrias, and Paine)

[kittychan-sings-enka]

made this while working on the economics project from hell

you’re welcome

i might fine-tune it a bit and reupload later but right now it’s 4 am and i want validation ;A;

(music: ‘Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru’ metal cover by Kamijo)

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: ‘Together Again’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 3)

Airdate: May 20, 2021

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang, Hanna K. Nyström, Christina Catucci, Jesse Moynihan, Adam Muto

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Maya Petersen, Serena Wu

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Across Adventure Time’s ten season run, the show explored a bevy of “mature” themes and story ideas—topics, like love, sexuality, depression, and grieving. The show also touched upon death, but the emphasis was usually placed on the emotional toll of a loved one dying, not really what happens when you die. We knew there were Dead Worlds and Death. We knew that there was reincarnation. But how does it all fit together? What does it mean? How does it work?

With “Together Again,” we finally have many of the answers.

This special opens with a marvelous fake-out episode simply called “Finn & Jake,” that sees the two steal a magical cartoon of 50-flavor ice cream before rescuing Turtle Princess and LSP from the clutches of the villainous Ice King. This is all deliberately anachronistic and over the top. Ice King is back to his season one ways, Finn has both arms, and he is still wielding his golden sword that he lost in season two’s “The Real You.” There’s lolrandom dialogue and silly monsters; it’s like a parody of seasons 1-2. But then, this adventure starts to get all wonky, and in time Finn realizes that he is in a some sort of trance or illusion: one that ends with Jake being buried in the ground. Suddenly, Finn awakens from his reverie. He’s an old man. And he’s dead. We’re then presented with a new title card that lets us know the episode is actually called “Finn & Jake Are Dead.”

Holy Glob! They actually went there.

Turns out Jake died years before Finn, so naturally Finn is super excited to see his best bud. But something’s wrong—he cannot find Jake!! They planned to spend eternity together. But all that Finn can find is his very own psychopomp, Mr. Fox (voiced by Tom Herpich, whose purposefully stilted line readings are the epitome of delightful). Finn rightfully assumes that Jake is in a different Dead World, and so, being the ball of spunk and energy that he is, he demands to meet with Death, only to discover that there’s a New Death in town (voiced by Chris Fleming). The episode eventually explains that New Death was the son of Death and Life, and after New Death killed his father, he became the sovereign of the afterlife. New Death hates his job and decides to just blow up all the Dead Worlds so he doesn’t have to deal with it all. (I won’t get too much into the details here, because there would be a lot of story to parse out.)

Finn soon learns that Jake has reached nirvana in the 50th Dead World, where there is nothing but peace and serenity. Finn nevertheless tracks down Jake, pulls him from paradise, but in doing so, accidentally lets New Death in, who promptly obliterates Elysium, sending all the enlightened souls—including those from different levels of the afterlife—to the 1st Dead World. This gronks up the afterlife, temporarily halting the reincarnation process.

Well, Finn and Jake are rightfully ticked, and so they haunt the material plane looking for Princess Bubblegum. She’s not home (more on that later), but Peppermint Butler is! After Ghost Finn and Ghost Jake explain the situation, Peppermint Butler tells them what to do: They need to find Life and explain the situation. The duo manage just that, and Life is rightfully angry that her kid has stopped the transmigration of souls. After Life gives Finn a McGuffin sword that can hurt Death, Finn and Jake return to his abode. A brawl ensues wherein we learn that New Death has been possessed… by none other than that spirit of the Lich.

That’s right, it’s the Lich! He’s back, and boy is he evil.

The Lich explains that by possessing Death, he can destroy the afterlife, thereby destroying a key aspect of reality. Naturally, Finn and Jake are not cool with this, and they engage in combat. After Mr. Fox grabs the McGuffin sword and uses it to annihilate the Lich and New Death, he is proclaimed the New New Death and sets everything right. Finn is slated to be reincarnated, and Jake is slated to return to the 50th Dead World where he and Finn will one day be reunited. As Finn is pulled into the wheel of souls, Jake suddenly decides to go back with Finn, too, “Just for fun.” The episode ends with a card letting us know that the episode is neither called “Finn & Jake” nor “Finn & Jake Are Dead.” Instead, it is “Finn and Jake Are Together Again.”

As they say, “And there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

If you were to tell me several years ago that the last episode to star Finn and Jake would revolve around them dying, I think I would’ve been upset. Not simply sad, but rather frustrated because “they all died” can feel like a cheap ending. But with “Together Again,” it all works. And a large reason that it works is because the show goes all in with their ideas. Finn and Jake don’t magically leap back into their old life (no, no, they very much do bite the dust). Instead, the special emphasizes the cyclical nature of life through the transmigration of souls. The episode ends with a beautiful scene of Finn and Jake, bound together as soul-brothers, being reborn into a new, mysterious (possibly Ooo 1000+?) world. It’s both aesthetically and emotionally pleasing; it doesn’t feel off the way over finales might. This is right. This is the way life works. “Round and round as nature goes,” and all that jazz.

I loved the series explanation of how death works. It seems that souls land in a specific Dead World, where they ‘marinate’ for a bit, presumably being rewarded or punished based on their life in our meat reality. After a time, they are then reborn. This process repeats, with each soul reaching higher and higher levels of enlightenment until they hit nirvana, which is the 50th Dead World. So in a sense, Adventure Time has a roughly Buddhist cosmology with a dash of Greco-Roman mythos thrown in for flavor. (As to what happens after a soul stays in the 50th Dead World for a long period is anyone’s guess, but I’d speculate that when all the souls in the multiverse have been purified and land in the 50th Dead World, they will all collapse into one another and form one perfect Monad. Perhaps this is the sphere of perfection that the beings who merged into Matthew thought they were connecting to? Who knows! It’s anyone’s guess!) I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see who Death, Prismo, Life, etc.’s boss was, but perhaps that’s a mystery better left up to the imagination!

One minor thing that I loved about this special was the number of characters who made cameos as well as all the callbacks that were made to previous episodes. Regarding the former: Finn and Jake’s canine family show up (including the oft-forgotten Jermaine!), as do Tree Trunks and her myriad husbands. Tiffany plays a major role in all these shenanigans as a “death cop” of all things. There is a delightful rogues gallery stuck in the 1st Dead World (including, among others, Maja, Sharon from “The Gut Grinder,” and Wyatt). In the 50th we find Ghost Princess and Clarence happily at peace next to Booshy, the weird spirit mentioned in the Pen Ward classic “High Strangeness.” As far as callbacks go, perhaps my favorite is the clap (from “James Baxter the Horse”) that Jake taught to Finn in case they ever do get separated in the afterlife. And of course, there are myriad references made to “Death in Bloom,” the episode that planted the seed for what this would grow into.

Going into the special suspecting that it would involve Death, I was curious how they were going to handle Miguel Ferrer’s character. (In case a reader is not aware, Ferrer played Death in episodes like “Death in Bloom” and “Betty,” but he sadly passed away a few years ago). The producers’ choice to feature him in a non-speaking cameo—despite playing a relatively significant role in the story—was wise; I’m not sure if I can articulate the exact reasons, but something about his role felt appropriate and not gross, as some post-mortem memorials can be. Speaking of which, the wonderful, lovely Polly Lou Livingston was featured for the last time in this episode as Tree Trunks, happily in heaven with her literal harem of husbands. It was funny, it really was, and I’m sure that Polly Lou would’ve gotten a kick out of seeing it on screen. (Also, this is a pro-Tree Trunks safe space. Any Tree Trunks haters will be chucked into the 1st Dead World with Wyatt.)

The biggest mystery in this whole thing, for me at least, is the question of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Several years ago, I wrote an essay about what could’ve happened to them in the Ooo 1000+ universe. I speculated that they peaced out and left Ooo behind. In this special, neither Bubblegum nor Marceline are to be found in the Candy Kingdom—Peppermint Butler seems to be the one in charge, given that he is now wearing Bubblegum’s crown. Likewise, the duo aren’t anywhere in the Dead Worlds either. Maybe the two of them skipped town and got a duplex in the Nightosphere? Who knows… I just want my favorite gals to be OK!

All things considered, “Together Again” was a marvel: An episode that managed to feel like a series finale even more than “Come Along with Me” already did without taking away from the series itself. An episode that managed to make the idea of dying funny. An episode that brought back the Lich in a way that wasn’t forced. An episode that made Mr. Fox the New New Death. An episode that gave us a beautiful ending to Finn and Jake’s story… as well as the beautiful beginning to a new one. I said it on Twitter, and I’ll say it again here: “Together Again” was the end of a sentence in a book with infinite pages. Truly, the fun will never end.

Mushroom War evidence: Everything takes place in the Dead Worlds, so not really. Perhaps a more eagle-eyed viewer can inform us...

Final Grade: That’s right, I’m gonna do it...

Post-script, I actually messaged Jesse Moynihan to ask about his writing credit. He told me that it was for an unused story idea that he had developed. I’m not certain, but I’ll bet it was a part of the cancelled TV movie they were trying to make during season 5, since that would’ve seen Finn and Orgalorg journey to the various Dead Worlds.

[lovelyllamasblog]

EAH VA/Seiyuus

You know where this is going. For @sayuricorner's TW x EAH AU.

So, this was inspired by these two videos:

Can Twisted Wonderland Character VAs Sing? Part 1

Can Twisted Wonderland Character VAs Sing? Part 2

And that got the gears in my head turning and I just went with it, so here it is!

A few key things:

There are three VA/Seiyuus per character because I didn't want to overwhelm myself.

Some of the characters will have the same VAs because I thought the voice suited more than one character as well as to get a feel for their characters and because I was lazy about looking at every single VAs filmography.

I also included some of the roles those actors played so that there's some sort of building block for them.

I won't be including their English or Latin America VAs because you can find those on the EAH wikia, but I'll include a link.

(It's looooong so it's under the cut.)

Enjoy my usual insanity.

Lizzie Hearts

Sora Amamiya: Asseylum Vers Allusia (Aldnoah.Zero), Aqua (Konosoba), Elizabeth Liones (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Nana Mizuki: Tsubasa Kazanari (Symphogear), Hinata Hyuga (Naruto), Rue/Princess Kraehe (Princess Tutu)

Omi Minami: Euphemia li Britannia (Code Geass), Megumi Hanajima (Fruits Basket (2001)), Tama (Gintama)

Maddie Hatter

Aoi Yuki: Hibiki Tachibana (Symphogear), Diane (The Seven Deadly Sins), Kumoko/Shiraori (So I’m a Spider, So What?)

Yui Horie: Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket (2001)), Naru Narusegawa (Love Hina), Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)

Miki Nagasawa: Kyoko Mogami (Skip Beat!), Maya Ibuki (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Momiji Sohma (Fruits Basket (Drama CDs))

Cerise Badwolf-Hood

Maaya Sakamoto: Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club), Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)

Haruka Tomatsu: Piña Co Lada (GATE), Asuna (SAO), Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune (Happiness Charge PreCure!), Zero Two (Darling in the Franxx)

Ami Koshimizu: Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon Crystal), Kouyou Ozaki (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kallen Kozuki (Code Geass)

Ramona Badwolf-Hood

Megumi Ogata: Princess Emeraude (Magic Knight Rayearth), Haruka Tenoj/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon), Satoru Takishima (S · A: Special A)

Junko Minagawa: Cornelia li Britannia (Code Geass), Ayaka Yukihiro (Negima), Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon Crystal)

Emi Shinohara: Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon Crystal), Kaho Mizuki (Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc), Kushina Uzumaki (Naruto)

Coral Witch (since she wasn't introduced in the show, I think she would definitely have a younger sounding voice, appropriate for her age)

Maaya Uchida: Alluka Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter), Katarina Claes (Next Life Villainess), Rikka Takanashi (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions)

Akari Kitou: Yashiro Nene (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun), Kana Yajima (Wolf Girl and Black Prince), Kaho Hinata (Blend S)

Yui Horie: Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket), Naru Narusegawa (Love Hina), Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)

Holly O'Hair

Yui Makino: Sakura (Tsubasa Chronicle), Yusa (Angel Beats!), Mayu Sakuma (THE iDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS)

Yui Horie: Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket), Naru Narusegawa (Love Hina), Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)

Haruka Tomatsu: Piña Co Lada (GATE), Asuna (SAO), Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune (Happiness Charge PreCure!), Zero Two (Darling in the Franxx)

Hunter Huntsman

Masakazu Morita: Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach), Maeda Keiji (Sengoku Basara), Tidus (Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts)

Yuki Kaji: Todoroki Shouto (MHA/BNHA), Meliodas (The Seven Deadly Sins), Eren Jaeger (Attack on Titan)

Tatsuhisa Suzuki: Makoto Tachibana (Free!), Tsubaki (Servamp), Ban (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Ashlynn Ella

Ayana Taketatsu: Latifa Fleuranza (Amagi Brilliant Park), Azusa Nakano (K-On!), Miria Marigold Mackenzie (Jewelpet Twinkle)

Yui Makino: Sakura (Tsubasa Chronicle), Yusa (Angel Beats!), Mayu Sakuma (THE iDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS)

Megumi Ogata: Princess Emeraude (Magic Knight Rayearth), Haruka Tenoj/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon), Satoru Takishima (S · A: Special A)

Blondie Lockes

Miyuki Sawahiro: Kurapika (Hunter x Hunter), Sinon (Sword Art Online II), Haruka Nanami (Uta no Prince-sama)

Asumi Nakata: Lucia Nanami (Mermaid Melody), Yusura (Himawari!)

Yoko Hikasa: Maria Cadenza Eve (Symphogear), Elza Forte (Aikatsu Stars!), Pitohui/Kanzaki Elsa (SAO Alt. Gun Gale Online)

Raven Queen

Nana Mizuki: Tsubasa Kazanari (Symphogear), Hinata Hyuga (Naruto), Rue/Princess Kraehe (Princess Tutu)

Junko Minagawa: Cornelia li Britannia (Code Geass), Ayaka Yukihiro (Negima), Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon Crystal)

Emi Shinohara: Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon Crystal), Kaho Mizuki (Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc), Kushina Uzumaki (Naruto)

Poppy O'Hair

Haruka Tomatsu: Piña Co Lada (GATE), Asuna (SAO), Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune (Happiness Charge PreCure!), Zero Two (Darling in the Franxx)

Chiwa Saito: Yona (Yona of the Dawn), Chloe von Eizenbern (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya), Caster (Tamamo-no-Mae and her variants) (FGO)

Ami Koshimizu: Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon Crystal), Kouyou Ozaki (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kallen Kozuki (Code Geass)

C.A. Cupid

Asumi Nakata: Lucia Nanami (Mermaid Melody), Yusura (Himawari!)

Miyuki Sawahiro: Kurapika (Hunter x Hunter), Sinon (Sword Art Online II), Haruka Nanami (Uta no Prince-sama)

Chiwa Saito: Yona (Yona of the Dawn), Chloe von Eizenbern (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya), Caster (Tamamo-no-Mae and her variants/FGO)

Melody Piper

Nana Mizuki: Tsubasa Kazanari (Symphogear), Hinata Hyuga (Naruto), Rue/Princess Kraehe (Princess Tutu)

Yoko Hikasa: Maria Cadenza Eve (Symphogear), Elza Forte (Aikatsu Stars!), Pitohui/Kanzaki Elsa (SAO Alt. Gun Gale Online)

Kana Hanazawa: Kanade Tachibana (Angel Beats!), Akane Tsunemori (Psycho-Pass), Rize Kamishiro (Tokyo Ghoul)

Briar Beauty

Megumi Hayashibara: Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Musashi/Jessie (Pokemon), Faye Valentine (Cowboy BeBop)

Kae Araki: Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon), Sayaka (Mysterious Thief Saint Tail), Miaka Yuuki (Fushigi Yuugi)

Kotono Mitsuishi: Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon), Misato Katsuragi (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Hiromi Shiota (Assassination Classroom)

Faybelle Thorn

Ayako Kawasumi: Hime/Lillianne von Phoenix (Princess Resurrection), Saber/Arturia Pendragon (Fate/Stay Night), Queen Victoria (Black Butler)

Kana Hanazawa: Kanade Tachibana (Angel Beats!), Akane Tsunemori (Psycho-Pass), Rize Kamishiro (Tokyo Ghoul)

Yui Horie: Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket), Naru Narusegawa (Love Hina), Yuuki Cross (Vampire Knight)

Daring Charming

Mamoru Miyano: Light Yagami (Death Note), Rin Matsuoka (Free!!), Tamaki Suoh (Ouran High School Host Club)

Ryohei Kimura: Bokuto Koutarou (Haikyuu!!), Ryouta Kise (Kuroko no Basket), Hinata (Angel Beats!)

Kenichi Suzumura: Hikaru Hitachiin (Ouran High School Host Club), Atsushi Murasakibara (Kuroko no Basuke), Lavi (D.Gray-Man)

Darling Charming

Nanae Kato: Ahiru/Duck (Princess Tutu), Miki (Shugo Chara!), Kakeru Megane (Inazuma Eleven)

Masako Katsuki: Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon), Akira Kotuchiya (Phantom Thief Jeanne), Zria Gagarik (Shaman King)

Sayaka Ohara: Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune (Sailor Moon Crystal), Yūko Ichihara (xxxHolic/Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle), Irisviel (Fate series)

Dexter Charming

Hiroshi Kamiya: Yato (Noragami), Izaya Orihara (Durarara!), Levi Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

Daisuke Ono: Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler), Jotaro Kujo (JBA: Stardust Crusaders), Erwin Smith (Attack on Titan)

Jun Fukuyama: Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass), Koro-sensei (Assassination Classroom), Kimihiro Watanuki (xxxHolic)

Duchess Swan

Rie Kugimiya “Queen of Tsundere”: Taiga Aisaka (Toradora), 001 (Darling in the FranXX), Louise (The Familiar of Zero)

Ayumi Fujimura: Misaki Ayuzawa (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!), Azuki Tachibana (Yumeiro Patissiere), Neferpitou (Hunter x Hunter (2011))

Yoko Hikasa: Maria Cadenza Eve (Symphogear), Elza Forte (Aikatsu Stars!), Pitohui/Kanzaki Elsa (SAO Alt. Gun Gale Online)

Apple White

Mari Iijima: Lynn Minmay (Macross) (purely for her singing voice)

Omi Minami: Euphemia li Britannia (Code Geass), Megumi Hanajima (Fruits Basket (2001)), Tama (Gintama)

Yoko Hikasa: Maria Cadenza Eve (Symphogear), Elza Forte (Aikatsu Stars!), Pitohui/Kanzaki Elsa (SAO Alt. Gun Gale Online)

Nanae Kato: Ahiru/Duck (Princess Tutu), Miki (Shugo Chara!), Kakeru Megane (Inazuma Eleven)

And that's it! Thanks for reading this far down! This was a trip.

As always, thanks to the wonderful Sayuri for the mess that has taken over my life. I still love it.

[danganronpaheadcanons]

what are ur fav characters n pairings from the fandoms you listed?

Oh boy, thinking how I sometimes like the more hated characters and stuff do I REALLY want to answer this?

Well, why not lol This is really long so the rest is under the cut

Final Fantasy (Especially 7 and 9, but also 8, 10 and 12): Characters: Vincent Valentine (7), Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt (8), Kuja, Zidane Tribal, Garnet til Alexandros, Vivi Orunitier (9) though I could probably list ALL characters from 9, Rikku (10), Larsa Ferrinas Solidor (12) Pairings: Tifa x Cloud, Aerith x Zack (7), Rinoa x Squall, Selphie x Irvine, Edea x Cid (8), Zidane x Garnet, Steiner x Beatrix (9), Tidus x Yuna, Lulu x Wakka (10), Fran x Balthier (12)

Kingdom Hearts: Characters: Terra, Xemnas, Vanitas, Ienzo Pairings: Terra x Aqua, Sora x Kairi, Vanitas x Namine (don’t ask... writing rps makes you ship interesting stuff), Ienzo x Lea (again... same reason) The World Ends With You Characters: Joshua Kiryu Pairings: Neku x Joshua, Neku x Shiki Madoka Magica Characters: Sayaka Miki Pairings: Sayaka x Kyoko, Madoka x Homura Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Characters: Envy, Roy Mustang, Ling Yao, Greed Pairings: Envy x Kimblee, Roy x Riza, Ling x Lan Fan, Ling x Greed, Alphonse x Mei

Fruits Basket Characters: I probably could list almost all, but yeah Kyo Sohma, Momiji Sohma, Akito Sohma Pairings: Kyo x Tohru, Akito x Shigure, Yuki x Machi, Hanajima x Uotani Inuyasha Characters: Kagome Higurashi, Rin, Miroku, Naraku Pairings: Kagome x Inuyasha, Miroku x Sango The Evil Within Characters: Ruben Victoriano, Laura Victoriano Pairings: None Undertale Sans, Asriel Dreemurr, Chara Dreemurr, Undyne, Mettaton Pairings: Undyne x Alphys Fire Emblem (Mostly Awakening, Fates and Three Houses) Characters: Henry, Inigo, Robin, Cherche (Awakeing), Corrin (Yes, I actually like Corrin), Subaki, Takumi, Leo, Xander, Keaton (Fates), Claude, Lysithea, Ashe, Felix (Three Houses) Pairings: Henry x Olivia (Awakeing), Corrin x Shura, Subaki x Oboro (Fates), Dimitri x Dedue, Linhard x Caspar, Felix x Annette (Three Houses) Golden Sun (is there even a Fandom lol. I don’t know a single person irl who actually knows this game) Characters: Piers Pairings: None Yu-Gi-Oh! (only the first series) Characters: Ryou Bakura, Thief King Bakura, Marik Ishtar Pairings: Ryou x Marik Hetalia Characters: China, Iceland Pairings: China x Roman Empire, China x Russia, China x England, Finland x Sweden,  Persona 5 Characters: Joker, Futaba Sakura Pairings: Joker x Ann, Futaba x Yusuke Zelda Characters: Link, Zelda, Mipha Pairings: None Pokemon Characters: Gladion, Steven Stone Pairings: None Ace Attorney Characters: Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Maya Fey Pairings: Phoenix x Miles Code Geass Characters: Rolo Lamperoughe, Suzaku Kururugi,  Pairings: Lelouch x C.C., Suzaku x Euphemia, Lloyd x Cecil, Milly x Rival Avatar Characters: Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Toph Pairings: Aang x Katara, Zuko x Mai, Sokka x Suki Percy Jackson Characters: Nico di Angelo, Octavian Pairings: None

[an0nymousghost]

uh so i got a request for some hairs to be recolored in sorbet :) all hairs are by marsosims some of the recolors by other recolorest haven't updated them so i was wondering if you can do them :( well here MIKI,IBA,OLIVIA,KATARINA,AMAYA,NARRA,ORAS,MAYA,BELEN,SAYA,MOIRA,

oh yeah you’re right, she updated her meshes!

miki - done by xvampiresimmerx

iba

olivia

katarina

amaya

narra + oras - here by me (may need updating)

maya

belen

saya

moira

[pinktatertots99]

an unplanned plan IV

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part five

dating ensues with movies, fanclub and more!

synopsis: while in his travels to prevent her death ukyo ends up in a situation he really didn’t think he’d get into. he went down a route he never thought he’d go down…and entranced to go further down the spaded hole

the pop corn crackled in the glass container of the movie theatre's snack bar as the inside bustled busily. ukyo was a bit out of it as he stared all over the theatre almost lost looking. he was brought back to earth however with a pat on his shoulder.

"hey." ikki started calmly, loud enough to hear over the busy people. "I'm gonna go to the restrooms real quick alright?"

ukyo nodded as the other walked away. this was their second date and he really couldn't believe it was. it was almost insane really that he invited him to come watch a movie with.

as he stood in line he felt someone brush by him rather harshly almost knocking him off his feet. he looked up to see who it was and eyes widened at who it was. a woman with blonde hair, fanciful attire and piercing yellow eyes glaring at him. they stared for a good few minutes as she 'hmph!'ed and left into the crowd of lines and he could see ikkyu coming back.

...just what was that all about?

"my apologies." ikkyu said as the two exited the theatre to the front doors. "maybe I should've asked before considering a romance movie." as they opened ukyo blew his nose into the tissue and lightly rubbed his puffy eyes. how embarrassing. crying in the theatres over a dramatic romantic movie.

"eh. it's fine." he mumbled. "I uh, eheh, didn't think that'd happen." he shielded his eyes from the blindingly bright sunset and feeling ikkyu's hand lightly gripping his arm and moving forward away from any exiting cars. "well still maybe next time I should." ikkyu chuckled lightheartedly as they walked. ukyo was able to calm himself as they continued walking. something was distracting him still but he didn't know what.

"hmph!"

oh right. that woman. what was her deal? she seemed...familiar. he's been through so many of these universes it was getting a bit hard to remember some of the events that happened to them besides the deaths. she was apart of that fanclub he remembered that much. the leader perhaps? yeah that sounded bout right.

"oh? you live around here too?" ukyo looked up, finding himself in front of a front door of a building. oh god he wasn't noticing what was going on and followed him on accident! even more embarrassing then the crying!

"ah! well, uhm, I mean, n-, well I uhm, uh just uh..." what was he gonna say? he couldn't go home cause otherwise his, basically Mr. Hyde persona would pop out and cause havoc?! yeah that'd be some way to end a first date. before he could come up with an excuse however ikkyu chuckled.

"well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. many people can't help but follow me I guess." he takes his arm as he unlocks the door. "it's getting late too. I'm fine with you staying for the night~."

he flustered a bit but complied as he walked inside.

"damnit!" maya exclaimed as herself along with miki and taeko took cover nearby one of the bushes closest to ikkyu's residence. she bended and curled the rope she had in hand as the other two scowled with her.

"we were so close! now that ikkyu-stealing-fraud's in his house!" she stated her teeth gritting.

"maybe it would've been a bit easier if someone didn't have blue hair." taeoko commented, gaining a growl from maya. "hey atleast I wasn't peaking my damn head out every five seconds! it's probably your fault!"

"man, we brought these hammers and ropes and cinderblock for nothing." miki pouted unbeknowest to the drama of the other two. "now what do we do? do we stay hiding out?"

"it's getting too cold out." taeko shuddered. "and to think it's fucking august."

"lets go home. miss rika wouldn't be pleased if we got sick while on our mission." maya stated as the two nodded picking up their bag of materials and walking off into the night.

[theheartsofheroes]

[ @shoutaimu and I finally finished watching all of the Bandai Sera Myus. And since I don’t feel like sharing the document, here are our rankings for the Senshi actresses (plus Kakyuu) as well as ranking the roles of several recurring cast members. For double castings of Chibi Moon we put them in the same slot. I might come back and make another post with our explanations for the rankings but for now. Just have this list]

Senshi

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon

Anza Ooyama

Marina Kuroki

Miyuki Kanbe

Fumina Hara

Mizuno Ami/Sailor Mercury

Ayako Morino

Chieko Kawabe

Minami Wakayama

Hisano Akamine

Yuikiko Miyagawa

Mariya Izawa

Rei Hino/Sailor Mars

Misako Kotani

Eri Kanda

Megumi Yoshida

Risa Honma

Aiko Kawasaki

Asuka Umemiya

Horoko Nakayama

Hiromi Sakai

Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter

Emi Kuriyama

Kanoko

Yuriko Hayashi

Akari Tonegawa

Emika Satou

Mai Watanabe

Ayano Sugimoto

Chiho Ooyama

Kaori Sakata

Takako Inayoshi

Marie Sada

Karina Okada

Minako Aino/Sailor Venus

Ayumi Murata

Nao Inada

Mizuki Watanabe

Nana Suzuki

Erica

Akiko Miyazawa

Momoko Shibuya

Kanatsu Nakaya

Yuki Nakamura

Miyu Otani

Chizuru Soya

Sakae Tamashita

Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus

Nao Takagi

Sanae Kimura

Akiko Nakayama

Asako Uchida

Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune

Yuuka Asami

Hiroko Tahara

Tomoko Inami

Sara Shimada

Takayo Ooyama

Miyuki Fuji

Kahoru Sakamoto

Chikage Tomita

Setsuna Meioh/Sailor Pluto

Rei Saito

Yuuko Hosaka

Seiko Nakazawa

Yukiko Nakae

Miho Yokoi

Teruyo Watanabe

Yuki Kamiya

Miwa Hosoki

Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn

Ruria Nakamura

Keiko Takeda

Ayami Kakiuchi

Mao Mita

Chihiro Imai

Mario Tomioka

Eriko Funakoshi

Yui Iizuka

Asami Sanpei

Chibiusa Tsukino/Sailor Chibi Moon

Ayano Gunji

Tamaki Dai Shirai/Natsumi Takenaka

Mao Kawasaki/Ai Miyakawa

Noel Miyazaki

Kasumi Takabatake

Nanami Ohta

Moe Oosaki

Mao Ohno/Mina Horita

Arisu Izawa

Aisha Yamamoto

Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Kamen

Yuuta Mochizuki

Hironari Amano

Hidemasa Edo

Kenji Urai

Yuu Shirota

Yuuta Enomoto

Gyo Miyamoto

Mizuki Sano

Seiya Kou/Sailor Star Fighter

Sayuri Katayama

Chinatsu Akiyama

Taiki Kou/Sailor Star Maker

Hikari Ono

Akiko Nakayama

Yaten Kou/Sailor Star Healer

Momoko Okuyama

Mikako Tabe

Sailor Galaxia

Tamami Matsumoto

Yumie Sakaguchi

Saori Sara

Takemi

Princess Kakyuu

Sakoto Yoshioka

Ai Toyama

Recurring Cast Members

Ryuuji Kasahara

Tiger's Eye

Gilles de Rai

Kyaos/Chaos

MC Fly

Death Ra

Dark Nibiru

Prof. Tomoe/Undead Berserk

Kunzite [only at the bottom because we didn’t get to see this performance]

Ado Endou

Centi/Hanako Hoshino

Selkie

Sailor Lead Crow/Manila Karasu

Calaveras

Dark Menorah

Demon Lillith

Roi Malkuth

White Crow Ado/Dark Maya

Ensemble Roles ~ Death Nightmare ~ Lemures ~ Shadow Bug ~ Sailor Theta ~ Dark Moon

Miki Kawasaki

Esmeraude

Kaolinite

Kunzite

Le Fay/Olam Tiphareth

Dark Mirror

Zilpah Sapphire

Dark Sumer

(Death) Nightmare

Yoshiya Yukimura

Damask/Shintarou Hoshino

Mandrake

Kern

Hemachirou Taitou/Hematite

Death Pe

Nobitarou Oki (Crooked Ref)

Akiko Miyazawa

Elizabeth Bathory

Queen Beryl

Bilhah Emerald

Minako Aino/Sailor Venus

Hikari Ono

Taiki Kou/Sailor Star Fighter

(Prince) Demande

Bloody Dracul Vampir

Roof Merrow

Hawk's Eye

[hotarutranslations]

UpFront Group Remote Work Chorus!

Evening Its Ishida Ayumi

 Just now,

(9:00PM) an upload

 UpFront Group Remote Work Chorus

  #lovewins #thankyouessentialworkers #thankyoutoeveryonedoingtheirbest

#itsoktocry #dontgiveup #STAYHOME #timeathome

 The power of song, the power of words, the power of music, the power of dance,

 What we can send out now,

Also wanting to send out our feelings of thanks,

 It includes that power

   This video was created

All Hello! Project Members,

Horiuchi Takao-san,

Banba Hirofumi-san, Sugita Jirou-san,

Inaba Akira-san,

Makoto-san, Hayashi Maya-san,

Moritaka Chisato-san, Aida Shoko-san, Nakazawa Yuko-san, Iida Kaori-san, Yaguchi Mari-san, Tsuji Nozomi-san, Takahashi Ai-san, Tanaka Reina-san,

Suzuki Airi-san, Natsuyaki Miyabi-san, Kobayashi Hikaru-san, Nihei Yuka-san, Okada Robin Shoko-san,

Hashimoto Aina-san, Goto Yuki-san, Morozuka Kanam-san, Tasaki Asahi-san, Hasegawa Moemi-san,

Sawayaka Goro-san,

Suzuki Keita-san, Watase Maki-san, Abe Natsumi-san, Satoda Mai-san, Omata Masako-san, Shinoda Junko-san, Takayama Gen-san, KAN-san,

Matsubara Takeshi-san, Nakajima Takui-san, Taisei-san, Kato Noriko-san,

Yasuda Kei-san, Ishikawa Rika-san, Fujimoto Miki-san, Niigaki Risa-san,

Iikubo Haruna-chan ❤

Kudo Haruka-chan ❤

Shimizu Saki-san,

Sudo Maasa-san, Kumai Yurina-san, Yajima Maimi-san, Nakajima Saki-san, Miyazaki Yuka-chan, Katsuta Rina-san, Mano Erina-san, Miyazaki Rio-san, Yagi Saki-san, Miyoshi Erika-san, Tanaka Yoshitake-san, Furukawa Konatsu-san, Mori Saki-san, Saho Akari-san, Sekine Azusa-san, Arai Manami-san, Sengoku Minami-san, Kikkawa Yuu-san, Wada Ayaka-san, Michishige Sayumi-san, Ozeki Mai-san, Tokunaga Chinami-san, Kagawa Ryo-san, Yanagisawa Junko-san,

 Also, Tsunku-san

 Watching this video that connects so many people, what shooting alone in your home by yourself,

 ……(>_<)

 It felt lonely but,

 To see it become one like this!!

 Like this!!

 This!!

 Definitely watch the video,

I want you to feel it

  The power of music is really amazing

 The uneasy situation continues on now,

In that way everyone,

Because we are here,

 Let’s overcome this together

 When you’re not feeling well,

It seems like it would be fun to sing along

 During time when you want to relax, definitely

 Also again,

 Now during this situation,

There are people that are still working

 Thanks to those people,

We’re able to spend time at home now

 Thank you very much!!!

 Sending this out!

 Sending--!

  (Surely the Hello! jersey doesn’t feel out of place already……)

   (although in this selfie I’m not wearing a Hello! jersey……)

 Um, today is,

 Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan-kun’s

Birthday ❤

 And so,

 Finally,

 Um, this para para!

  Since I was able to dance to it,

 Its fine to watch it on YouTube after,

Since its fine,

 Please definitely watch a lot of people doing it

 But parapara is really difficult… I couldn’t get a hold on the nuance of the 2-step… Yaguchi Mari-san appeared in,

 “Gal Circle”

 I loved it!!!

 I really remember watching it,

Certainly from when I was in elementary school,

 I want to ask Yaguchi-san about it someday lol

 Furthermore tomorrow is,

 J Fest App JAPAN JAM

On the official app “J Fest”

 In a previous festival video where Morning Musume ’20 and Angermer were to perform, it will be available for a limited time from May 5th (Tue, Holiday) from noon to midnight!

 With the hashtag “#JAPANJAMathome” lets all enjoy JAPAN JAM together online ❤

 Official Site is here

 I hope that you’ll have a wonderful day tomorrow as well

 See you ayumin ❤

 https://ameblo.jp/morningmusume-10ki/entry-12594659327.html

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: ‘Obsidian’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 2)

Airdate: November 19, 2020

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, and Kate Tsang, Adam Muto, & Hanna K. Nyström

Storyboarded by: Hanna K Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Mickey Quinn, Maya Petersen, James Campbell, & Ashlyn Anstee

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Of all the many colorful characters in Adventure Time perhaps none has a more elaborate backstory than Marceline the Vampire Queen. In many ways, Marceline really was the writers’ gold goose, engendering complex story after complex story. By the time the series ended, the vampire’s life had in more ways than one been woven into the very fabric of the show’s mythology.

But because I am a Marceline fanboy—whose zeal for her majesty is rivaled perhaps only by Glassboy himself—I always felt like the show could have done even more with her backstory; I mean, when the series finale aired, there were still plenty of questions that had yet to be answered (What happened to her mom? What is Simon going to do now that he’s “cured”? How did Marcy and Bubblegum meet? Were they romantically involved before the events of the main series? How did it all go south?). Nevertheless, when "Island Song” played for the last time at the end of “Come Along with Me,” I forced myself to push aside this minor, fannish grievance and applaud the show for writing such an excellent character. I didn’t need for every last detail of her life to be explicitly shown on screen. I was happy.

But then, about a year ago, news dropped that one of the Distant Lands specials would really delve into the history of Marceline and Bubblegum’s relationship. In an instant, I tossed my stoic “I-am-satisified-with-what-I-received” mentality right out the window. We were going to get another Marceline episode, and it was going to dive back into her elaborate backstory!?! I could barely contain my excitement as I waited for the episode to drop.

Well, was my excitement worth it? Or was “Obsidian” a big ol’ let down—a tragic victim to grandiose expectations that were never meant to be fulfilled?

I’m quite happy to say that not only was “Obsidian” a remarkable special in its own right, but it is arguably one of the strongest episodes of Adventure Time, period.

The plot of this episode is fairly standard, as far as Adventure Time episodes go: Glassboy (a new character voiced by Michaela Dietz, the voice of Amethyst from Steven Universe) accidentally sets a giant fire monster named Molto Larvo loose on the Glass Kingdom, and Marceline and Bubblegum—who we learn have been living their best cottagecore life together in Marcy’s cavehouse—are forced to save the day. But the series’ writers take this otherwise quotidian adventure idea—a story which, at least on paper, could have easily fit in during any of the show’s many seasons—and employ it as something of a Trojan Horse, using it as a pretense to delve into both Marcy’s traumatic childhood and her and Bubblegum’s romantic history. And, boy, is it a ride!

With regard to the former story thread, the audience learns that sometime after the Mushroom Bomb detonated, Marceline and her mother, Elise (voiced this time not by Rebecca Sugar, but by actress Erica Luttrell, who played Sapphire in Steven Universe), roamed the wastelands in search of shelter; after Marceline’s mother came down with some sort of sickness, she sent Marceline to be on her own. Elise was hoping that this would spare Marcy the trauma of seeing her mother die before her very eyes, but due to some communication issues, Marceline never learned what became of her mother. As such, Marceline began blaming herself for “leaving” her mom to die in the wreckage of the world. This plot thread is perhaps one of the bleakest that Adventure Time has ever explored, and the show does it masterfully, balancing the darkness (e.g., Marceline’s mother coughing up blood) with bright spots of comedy (e.g., the "wazzup” dog) that never feel distasteful.

Likewise, when it comes to the story thread about Marcy and Bubblegum’s romantic history, the special does not hold back. We get to see “Bubbline” at its best and its worst. I have a feeling that the word “fan service” is going to be used by a lot of folks when talking about this episode. As the AV Club writer William Hughes notes, this word is usually hurled around like a pejorative, but it aptly describes the appeal of “Obsidian”. After all, this episode really is “fan service at its finest”—not only does it give the ravenous shippers the story tidbits that they have so long to see (e.g., the moment Marcy gave Bubblegum her rock shirt, Bubbline’s epic break-up), but—and this is very important—it does so in a way that is fundamentally meaningful. “Obsidian” does not feel self-indulgent, unnecessary, or pandering. On the contrary, it is overflowing with deep emotion that allows us to better understand how Bubblegum and Marceline really feel about one another. Sure, over the centuries that the two gals have bummed around Ooo, they have bickered and fought, but deep down, their love is passionate. In many ways, it is like the titular obsidian, which means that nothing short of an enchanted diamond pickax is strong enough to break Bubbline apart for good.

(It’s also quite nice that after seasons and seasons of tip-toeing around the question of Marceline and Bubblegum’s sexuality, “Obsidian” can explicitly focus on their life together, showing the two characters cuddling, kissing, and dancing. In terms of LGBTQ+ representation, it’s a huge leap forward, and I’m so happy that Adventure Time has had a part to play in normalizing queer relationships!)

Marceline episodes almost always featured a catchy diddy, but "Obsidian” really cranks things up to 11 by featuring a whole bevy of catchy songs, several of which are perhaps among the show’s strongest. The first right banger, “It’s Funny,” is the song that plays over the special’s credits. With a grunge-meets-riot grrrl feels, this track really sets the tone for the episode, signaling to the audience that we’re in for, as Lumpy Space Princess once put it, some “drama bombs.” The next standout is “Woke Up,” a brutally honest diss track that Marceline used both to contain Molto Larvo and break up with Princess Bubblegum centuries prior to the start of this episode. This song was written by pop rocker Zuzu, and it—as the kids say—slaps. Layers of fuzzed-out guitar and digitally processed vocals are used expertly to sell Marceline’s emotions and convey how, on the surface, she’s delighted to no longer be under Bubblegum’s romantic spell... even if her heart may not be so sure.

But arguably, the musical jewel of the entire special is “Monster,” a somber ballad that Marceline sings to Bubblegum when they find themselves trapped in the collapsing furnace and are facing what they believe is certain death. Written by indie pop artist Half Shy, this song is, in many ways, something of the inverse of “Woke Up”: soft, happy, and filled to the brim with a sort of love that few are lucky to receive and even fewer can honestly express. Not only does “Monster” finally cement Marceline’s real, visceral love for Bubblegum in song form (remember: almost every prior Bubbline song was either indirect or delivered by an angsty, heartbroken Marceline), but it also “tames” Molto Larvo, allowing him to metamorphose into a strange but harmless cat-butterfly critter. Just like “Come Along with Me,” “Obsidian” proves that the power of love and music will save us in the end—if not physically, then at least emotionally.

Regarding the production-side of things, there’s a lot of praise to doll out. First off, the look and style of “Obsidian” is gorgeous. While “BMO” opted to experiment somewhat with the classic Adventure Time art style, trading cel shading for an almost watercolor feel, “Obsidian” echoes the aesthetic of the original series. That said, there’s an undeniable animation bump—likely courtesy of that sweet, sweet HBO money—that lets Ooo and its denizens shine in all their glory. You can tell that Adam Muto, art director Sandra Lee, supervising director Miki Brewster, and all the members of the production staff really went above and beyond the call of duty. The episode's soundtrack, composed by Amanda Jones, as deserves a shout-out. Jones did an excellent job mixing the chiptune style of the original series with a bass-heavy rock sound that highlights Marceline’s starring role. Bravo!

As another production aside, I should point out that CN/HBO’s decision to make these specials each 44 minutes was the right call. The 11 minute format of the original series often left something to be desired when it came to plot development, as many an important episode was forced to end somewhat prematurely due to time constraints; conversely, the 8-episode miniseries format that the show experimented with during its latter days sometimes felt like too much time (Stakes, Islands, and Elements all had whole episodes that felt like nothing more than the show treading water). The length of “Obsidian”, however, was just right, giving us plenty of time to take in what was happening without ever feeling like it was dragging.

A final aspect of this episode that is worth mention is its many call-backs to previous episodes and characters. “BMO” was mostly a self-contained story that, due to its nature as a prequel in space, really couldn’t reference the Land of Ooo without feeling forced. “Obsidian,” however, throws in everything and the kitchen sink (Adventure Time superfan and all-around cool person Jagm has collected most of them here for those of you who want to see everything laid out nicely). Stand-outs for me include Choose Goose (someone who we really haven’t seen since season five) smuggling sketchy products into the Candy Kingdom, post-Ice King Simon trying his hand at open mic nights, Bronwyn as an adventurous hero, and Finn the (Adult!) Human complete with beard and scars! Of note, Jake does not appear in this episode, except as a tattoo on Finn’s chest. Many in the fandom are now speculating that the events of “Obsidian” take place after our beloved shapeshifting dog’s death. Oh say it ain’t so! Perhaps we’ll learn more in “Together Again.”

Mushroom War Evidence: Unlike “BMO,” which directly referenced the Mushroom War and its fallout (both literally and figuratively), this episode returned to the show’s roots by featuring gobs of explicit hints in throw-away lines or elaborate background pieces. Honestly, there is far too many to list here in a pithy paragraph, but some major references include: the reveal that the Glass Kingdom, like the Fire Kingdom, was created by ‘magic’ blaze from the heavens (almost certainly a nuke); the fact that Marceline and her mother wandered for a time in the debris-filled wastelands following the apocalypse; and the reveal that Marceline spent at least part of her childhood holed up in a bomb shelter surrounded by the bones of myriad dead humans. Honestly, while references to the Mushroom War have always been sad footnotes to an otherwise cheery show; in this episode, however, the references are very graphic, illustrating the sorrow and horror of mutagenic war.

Final Grade: As I said earlier, I’m a Marcy fanboy, so I’m horrible biased, but I don’t care. This episode rocked. Q.E.D.

[pellicano-sanguino]

I got Memories of Barcelona / Nice Guy yesterday. I have to admit I’m a bit frustrated that zuka shows no longer come on DVDs except the grand theater shows. Everything else only gets a blu-ray. Blu-rays are so expensive, with customs added in their cost it’s even worse. Also, my laptop is so old that I can’t connect HDMI to it, which means I can’t connect my blu-ray player to it in order to take screenshots and rip the shows for safekeeping and streaming purposes. 

Anyway, Nice Guy had a rather nice (heh) number, this one:

Couldn’t take screenshots so I had to just take a photo of my TV screen. 

Back when Vampire Succession was announced I felt like it was freaking birthday. I love vampires, I love zuka, I love Makaze. This was going to be the best thing ever. Well, it did turn out to be quite entertaining and fun show (though a bit confusing, I swear I only get like 30-40% of the plot). However, (spoilers incoming) I was disappointed that Makaze didn’t get to drink blood. Blood drinking kinda is what vampires do and I don’t appreciate it when people chicken out of showing it (the most annoying thing is when there is blood drinking, but it’s done off-screen. That makes me angry when people do that.). Don’t get me wrong, I like Vampire Succession. It’s a fun show. But I felt robbed, because I got my hopes up for seeing Makaze drink people as a pretty vampire and the musical didn’t deliver it. Zuka vampires hadn’t failed me before (well, I think Maya Miki once had a revue number where she was an unsuccessful vampire, but at least she was trying to get the job done) so I was sad that the one time zuka decided to go “our vampires are different and they don’t drink blood” they did it to Makaze. Just my luck.

Well, someone has heard my whining about the subject and gave me this:

Damn, I wish I could take a proper screenshot of this. I’d screenshot this whole number all over. But no, I’m stuck with taking photos of TV screen because blu-rays are replacing DVDs.

YES! DELICIOUS!

Now do the hand thing! Please! Do it! Do it do it do it do it! For the love of gods do the hand thing!

Thankyou. I love you.

Makaze has tasted blood. My life is complete.

[kittychan-sings-enka]

Manga review: Oh Rose, Bloom Beautifully

(Or: when you leave Ueda Shinji unattended, this happens. Judge for yourselves whether that's a bad thing or not)

(More art samples follow at the end of the review.)

This odd little manga is a compilation of four Takarazuka star biographies published in Margaret (the home magazine of Rose of Versailles) in the mid-1970s. The four featured otokoyaku stars are the 'Four Lords of Berubara': Haruna Yuri (whose chapter became the title for the compilation volume), Anna Jun, Ootori Ran, and Migiwa Natsuko. All of them were still current performers when it was published.

The manga was written (to some unclear extent, as he is not listed as 'author' but 'author of original work') by Ueda Shinji, and drawn as well as potentially adapted by Nagumo Keiko, an obscure artist who I unfortunately struggled to find any further information about. Her art is very beautiful and full of detail, but also highly expressive.

Each chapter features various interview and photo features (differing for each person) for several pages, before transitioning into manga stories about how they entered Takarazuka and achieved stardom. Despite all of them being most famous for Rose of Versailles, most of the stories say little about it at all. Generally, the main focus is on their younger days, presumably to make them the most relateable to young girl readers of Margaret.

The four otokoyaku stars are also clearly presented as 'girls' both visually and within the stories. Obviously these biographies are highly fictionalized, but having read first-person accounts from all of the subjects elsewhere, the main points are there, just with heightened drama and romance added to fit the shojo manga aesthetic.

In the interview features Ueda asks more than one of them about whether they plan to get married, although they manage to skillfully sidestep that issue. Ootori Ran's chapter heavily focuses on her having a romance with a man while still in Takarazuka, and eventually deciding to break things off with him since he wants her to retire and marry him. (Knowing she did eventually give in to pressure from her parents and retire to marry, and immediately regret it, makes this chapter rather hard to read in hindsight.)

While obviously the content of this manga can't be considered factually reliable, the stories are told well—something that makes me wonder how much of the script Ueda actually wrote and how much was adapted by Nagumo—and the art is extremely attractive, in a signature 70s style reminiscent of things like Glass Mask (and obviously, Rose of Versailles). The interview features also contain a lot of interesting information.

It's also fascinating in a meta-fictional sense, as here Ueda Shinji, who writes fiction for these actresses to perform, is writing fiction about these actresses...performing fiction he has written for them to perform (to his credit, he doesn't ever portray himself as a character except possibly in one shadowed panel, nor does he unduly emphasize works of his over other performances). This manga came out around 20 years before he wrote an entirely fictionalized play about Takarazuka starring Maya Miki, in somewhat of an inverse of this scenario.

This is a bit of a strange read (especially as it features such shocking things for a modern Takarazuka fan as the entire real names of current performers), but it's a fascinating perspective on how Takarazuka and Takarasiennes were seen and presented to young fans at the time.  

I would recommend it to those who enjoy the meta of the Takarazuka Revue company, fans of Showa era stars and shows, or fans of 1970s shojo manga art.

More art excerpts:

(Haruna Yuri performing in West Side Story)

(Ootori Ran vs. A Man)

(Anna Jun accidentally wearing the wrong shoes for her debut kickline)

(A manga synopsis of the plot of ‘My Love Lies Over the Mountains’)

(Migiwa Natsuko in the Takarazuka Music School)

[individuationfic]

Hoping I’ve Got It All Right Chapter 1: Ain’t It A Crime, That?

AO3

Akira doesn’t think he’s stopped shaking since he was arrested.

Dad and Papa are worried about him, he knows. They keep checking in on him in his room and they speak to him in low tones. He’s been expelled from Seven Sisters and only leaves the house to help Papa in the garden. He doesn’t even want to chance working at the flower shop; Papa doesn’t need the bad publicity.

He’d been so sure the trial would be fine. His accuser, the drunken man he’d pushed, didn’t even bother to show up, and the only witness was the woman he’d been trying to help. Akira was a good kid—he had decent grades, was a fair ballroom dancer when he was young, was polite and quiet and the son of a police officer. The only doubtful thing on his record was that he was adopted and no one knew who his birth parents were. Why wouldn’t he be free to go?

But then the woman said he’d attacked the man. Assaulted him.

And Akira’s fate was sealed.

He’s never been so grateful his dad was a cop. Because of his influence and Akira’s nearly spotless record, he was given probation rather than jail time. But because his probation requires him to attend school and the judge ordered he leave Sumaru City, Dad and Papa have to find both a school that will accept a transfer student with an assault charge on very short notice and someone to watch him.

His aunts and uncles are furious. Akira is surprised Uncle Eikichi hasn’t broken into the judge’s house or committed some other strange criminal act yet with all the noise he’s been making, and the last time he’d spoken to Miki, his cousin said Uncle Katsuya and Aunt Maya were already scheming to release a story about corruption in the criminal justice system.

Two weeks have passed since he was arrested, but those two weeks may as well have been twenty years. All he wants is for life to go back to normal.

*

“That didn’t really happen, huh?”

“Astute deduction, Prosecutor-san. Any other gems of wisdom while I have you here?”

“You’re a frustrating suspect, you know that?”

“I try to be.”

*

Papa comes home on his lunch breaks so he can call what seems like every high school in Japan to plead Akira’s case. Akira hates listening to Papa beg for kindness from strangers and being rejected, so he goes outside to tend to his flowerbed.

He’s been enamoured with flowers since the first day he met Dad and Papa. The colors are beautiful and their shapes are varied, and they can say anything you could ever need. Akira thinks he speaks the language of the flowers as well as he can Japanese.

He wonders if his flowers will miss him when he’s gone. He hopes whoever takes him in will let him plant more.

A hand falls on his shoulder. “Are you here, sweetie?” Papa asks, voice soft, and Akira realizes he must have been spaced out again. He nods. Papa says, “Have you taken your pill today?” and Akira shakes his head. Papa sighs. “Come inside and take it, please. I’ll make you a sandwich to eat with it.”

Akira gets up, brushes the dirt off his knees, and follows Papa into the kitchen. It’s small, like the rest of the house, but it’s all they really need. Soon enough, Papa is giving him a plate with a roast beef sandwich, a glass of water, and a small green and white pill. “Thank you, Papa.” He swallows the pill and takes a bite of the sandwich. Then, even though he doesn’t really want to talk about it, he asks, “Did you have any luck today?”

Papa smiles, but his eyes are tired. “I’m on Tokyo now.” Akira perks up a little at that, because Miki is going to Kosei. At his hopeful expression, Papa winces. “Kosei’s a bust,” he admits, “as are most of the other boarding schools. I’m starting on non-boarding ones next, so Tokyo isn’t a definite no yet.”

“Tokyo would be nice,” Akira says.

Papa pats him on the shoulder. “I think so, too. Only an hour away by train, and Maya and Katsuya visit often enough, and you can see Miki.” Papa smiles. “Maybe you can get back in the ballroom again.”

“Not competitively.”

“Of course not. But you always liked dancing with Miki outside of competitions, right?”

Akira smiles. “And I liked dressing up.”

“You took longer to get ready than Miki, sometimes,” Papa recalls. “You decided that if Miki got to wear pretty dresses, all of your outfits had to be colorful, too. I can’t even remember how many stores we went to to find that orange bowtie you insisted on.”

“It didn’t even match the beading on her dress,” Akira laughs.

He’s glad Papa looks a little more relaxed now. His parents are dealing with enough stress as it is.

When he’s done chuckling, Papa lays an arm across Akira’s shoulders. “If you’re feeling better when your dad gets home, you should go for a ride. It’ll do you good to get out of the house.”

That sounds like the last thing he wants to do, but he knows Papa is right, so he says, “Yes, Papa.”

He’s rewarded with a pleased smile and a kiss on the top of his head. “I have to go back to work. I love you, Akira.”

“Love you, too.”

*

Akira usually loves riding on Dad’s motorcycle. Ever since he was a kid, it was their primary bonding activity. Papa had flowers, and Dad had the motorcycle.

But right now, with, well, everything, it’s hard to enjoy.

Dad drives them a little ways outside of the city to a cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun is just setting and the sky is orange. It’s a beautiful view. 

They sit on the soft grass and, for a while, they don’t talk. Dad has always been a man of few words, after all. After spending lunch being gently interrogated by Papa, Akira ccan’t say he minds. Then Dad clears his throat and says, “You know how much your Papa and I love you, right?”

Akira feels his eyes start to go hot. “Yeah,” he says.

“And this probation is only for a year. Then you get to come home.”

“Yeah,” Akira says again.

Dad lays an arm across Akira’s shoulders, and Akira leans into his side. “You did the right thing,” Dad says, “helping that woman. Everyone who matters knows that. If you ever get in trouble for defending someone like that again, I’ll stand by you, even if it breaks your parole.”

Akira starts shaking again. He blinks, but doesn’t comment on the wet trails streaming down his face.

Dad continues, “I never want you to compromise on your morals, Akira. You can’t let one shitty incident deter you from helping people. Your Papa and I will always back you up for doing the right thing, no matter how many people we have to fight.”

Akira burrows into Dad’s side like a little kid and says, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Dad says, and they stay like that until Akira’s tears dry and his breathing evens.

*

They get home and, for all intents and purposes, Papa looks thrilled. “I found a school in Tokyo,” he says.

*

The next few days are a flurry of activity. Aunt Maya knows a café owner willing to put Akira up for some money, and they have to send Akira’s measurements in for his new school uniform, and they have to pack all the essentials into a single cardboard box, unable to guess how large of a room Akira will be given. Even his birthday passes without much notice where it’s usually a bash.

On Saturday, April 9, Papa and Dad drive Akira to the Sumaru City train station. His single cardboard box has been sent ahead to Tokyo, so he just has a day bag (a handsome brown one, courtesy of Aunt Lisa for his last birthday), and he’s wearing the dark material of his new uniform. His parents wait with him on the platform. 

Papa’s wringing his hands. “Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?”

“I’m sure,” Akira says. He has a feeling he won’t be well received and  he doesn’t want them to see that. “I’ll text you when I get settled.”

The platform starts to rattle. His train is close.

Papa squeezes him tight and pecks him on the cheek. “I love you, baby.”

“Love you, too,” Akira says, and then he’s passed from Papa to Dad, who hugs him like it’s the last time he’ll ever get the chance.

“We’re only an hour away,” Dad says.

“Yeah,” Akira says, “I know.”

*

“Oh, right. They did say that was today.”

Akira looks at the man who’s taking him in for the next year and says, “I’m Suou Akira. Please take care of me.”

[artemis-maia]

Tatsuya’s sun arcana (which is normally an optimistic arcana and represents positivity and success) is reversed throughout the duology until Monad Mandala due to his traumatic experiences:

In IS it's due to the truth about the Masked Circle and the Araya shrine incident.

In EP it's that the merging of IS and EP Tatsuya gives him the knowledge about what happened in IS which leaves him introverted and with signs of PTSD.

After Monad Mandala he becomes a more mature character and then leaves way more optimistic. EP Tatsuya is left behind and he is a more outspoken and outgoing person than IS Tatsuya in general which means that both Tatsuyas end up with a positive outlook.

Other examples for reversed arcana:

Jun in IS:

Joker is the Wheel of Fortune totally at the bottom. Jun after meeting his friends again is able to make the wheel go up again/the arcana is upverse then. When the parallel universe is created Jun starts over completely new since he never became Joker. This card is like a rollercoaster anyway since it represents randomness.

Lisa in IS:

Lovers normally means love, harmony, relationships. Reversed it means disharmony, onesidedness, imbalance. To me she was reversed until you see that she is actually a pretty deep character and when she becomes less status oriented it goes upwards.

Ulala in EP:

Star represents hope/renewal/faith. Reversed it’s hopelessness and despair. Her star arcana is reversed since she completely gave up at first regarding success, men and her inferiority complex. She at first is hopeless, uninspired and doesn't know what to do with her life. Both her initial Persona Callisto and her Ultimate Persona Asteria have connection to stars. Callisto as a star constellation (Ursa Major) and Asteria as the Titaness of stars. Over the course of the game she gets more confidence, gets rid of guys who are not good for her etc. which is represented with her Personas as well. It's the same with her star arcana since it also represents her changing her outlook since it is upverse by the end.

Baofu in EP:

Hanged Man normally means self-sacrifice and moving forward/letting go. Baofu is Hanged Man reverse mostly since he is stuck at a place and has a negative outlook/thought pattern due to Miki's death. He finally moves forward during Monad Mandala and as shown in the ending sequence when Ulala becomes his new partner.

Katsuya in EP kinda can be seen as Justice reversed for a long time which means injustice since he often gives up his own ambitions/dreams for Tatsuya and Suou Dad.

Often the reversed meaning of the arcana totally fits with what the Shadows in P2 point out about respective characters.

Eikichi is definitely Death upverse after his childhood since Death can mean change/transformation which fits his new image.

Maya's moon arcana fits in both IS and EP.  With her being stuck in the past in IS and denying her true feelings about the Araya shrine incident. (Moon normally means lies, illusion and delusion, confusion, unreality.) In EP it fits even better though due to the parallel universes and her trying to find out the truth.

The affinities of other arcanas seem to have been really individualized for each character in my opinion:

For example Maya has good for the star arcana, however Ulala is incompatible with the moon arcana.

I always thought that it means that the character is fine with this and this arcana  but it isn’t the main arcana that is influencing his/her story and that there are also some arcana a character can’t use at all/or is bad at using it.

I think that the compatibility for Fool was done of purpose mostly due the card being so rare in both IS and EP (it's even pointed out the the Demon Artist can't draw Fool cards). Also Fool is like a blank paper and often represents the Hero's journey thus it being adaptable for everyone makes sense to me.

[ppgang]

Column Parade vol.1 “BiStory and beyond: gang parade!”

Starting 2019 we are introducing new projects, one of them being columns written by fans! Want to write something about GANG PARADE? Perhaps a review? Send us a message and we’ll post it in our blog!!

First one is a look in the group’s history written by cal (@konchugun), admin behind the jun togawa fansite!

BiStory and beyond: gang parade!

Hello and welcome to another timeline of one of the world’s best idol groups. “Know Your BiStory” talks about BiS so this time, we’re going to talk about what a certain bald member did afterwards.

Where we last left off, the BiS tour final and their breakup. They were performing to a sold out crowd of diehard fans, Brand-new idol Society were leaving their mark. 

And when one door closes, another opens. Manager Watanabe announced the start of Watanabe Artistic Creative Kabushikigaisha (Corporation) and their first act would be an idol duo featuring Saki Kamiya, the ex-cosplayer and all around vocal powerhouse popular with both men and women~ 

Just like BiS started with Pour Lui, this new group would start with Saki.

Watanabe already had the backing of thousands of rabid idol fans who were hungry from more, and Saki was a pretty popular member! Pre BiS she already had a name for herself as a cosplayer and model, apart of the Dolly-Style (or Dolly Kei) fashion community.

So… why not combine the two things Saki’s fanbase love her for into one to maximise the profit squeeze? The fusion of idols and otaku, enter… PLANIME/PLA2ME

Dressed like schoolboys at a sporting event in the year 3000, Saki was joined in late august 2014 by her new partner Mari Mizuta!

Mari already had a small but established fanbase as she used to perform as a solo idol under the name Izukoneko. She sound was very… electronic modern style technopop. If you’re familiar with solo idols, think Yufu Terashima (shoutout to leaving BiS!) but with significantly less budget.

They debuted together with the song “Plastic 2 Mercy” at Tokyo Idol Festival, and the music video released with the single was made of footage from that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75uL_YApIU

A far cry from BiS or even Mari’s solo work… Pla2me’s debut was drum machine heavy but with an almost synthpop twist on power-pop. The choreography for the song involved involves a lot of physical activity, unlike BiS songs with relatively simple choreo, Paprika now withstanding. Both girls are clearly using all of their strength and using all of that stage as much as they can.

Tokyo Idol Festival is, as you can guess, an idol festival. Typically for your regular idols (since alternative idols were still peeking through into the mainstream at this time), the kind that don’t headbang or have fans who engage in lunatic behaviour. Saki and Mari RAN from the stage, jumped the barrier and finished their performance in the middle of the crowd with a circle of fans around them pumping their fists and headbanging. Surprisingly there was no huge controversy surrounding this but the organisers weren’t happy. Idols aren’t meant to stage dive and fans aren’t meant to mosh even if you are an ex member of the legendary lineup of BiS. Saki encouraging un-idol like behaviour and fan misbehaviour at TIF would land her in some hot water in the future though, but we’ll get to that later~

So, Pla2me were off to a STRONG start and they were more than living up to their name too. The girls even cosplayed together!

They even performed as Ryuko and Mako!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWKNXspDDog

And if the love of anime and nerd culture wasn’t already enough, Pla2me also appeared in a Digimon game as promo for Plastic 2 Mercy:

See that incredibly blurry poster on the right there? That’s them! the other groups are other acts on T-Palette Records (the people releasing their songs in joint with WACK).

Pla2me started in late 2014 and they had a successful last quarter of the year, closing it with the emotional video to new song “UNIT”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8s4TjEUh94

Still their fresh power-pop inspired sound, UNIT is more of an emotional ballad where they talk about never wanting to leave each other, with the video being the two of them literally being chained together and climbing a mountain. 

In early 2015 the single was released proper, just like they said there’s no meaning if this unit can’t stay together… 

Well… Guess there’s no meaning then! Mari left.

Late into March, Mari was breaking up their unit. “Creative differences” were stated, but remember this isn’t BiS. Saki isn’t Pour Lui and Mari isn’t Yufu. The problem was that Mari lived in Osaka whereas Saki lived in Tokyo and Mari had to travel from Osaka to Tokyo and sleep at Saki’s apartment whenever they performed. Made worse by the fact that Pla2me weren’t getting booked in Osaka.  Saki felt bad about things, Mari had talked about how she was struggling and Saki said on her old blog she didn’t feel like she did enough to help her. But they’re still friends so no need to worry! And she still works as an idol albeit under a different group even to this day.

So, a hunt for new members began! Can’t perform as a solo idol if you only have 4 songs and one of them is about staying together with your friend! Watanabe announced that they’d be holding auditions for both girls AND boys. No boys passed the audition though so feminism wins once again.

Meet the new lineup! from left to right we have Maya Inukai, Miki Yamamachi, Saki Kamiya, Yua Yumeno and Ao Shigusawa! Pla2me was out, POP was in. standing for “Period Of Plastic 2 mercy”

Also spoilers Maya and Ao don’t survive. But they’re here for now!

Since Pla2me never released an album and they needed more promo than just a few solo shows and music videos here and there, POP came out with a full release relatively quickly called… POP!

If you’re an anime fan you’ll recognise this art style instantly: their album cover was drawn by Studio Trigger’s own SUSHIO! Turns out he’s actually a huge wack fan! He posts fanart of Gang Parade and BiSH on twitter too!

The album release was marked with a music video for “pretty pretty good”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K07xAFm7x-Y

How many idol groups debut their album by being hoisted from a crane in the middle of the night and being forced to sing while dangling hundreds of feet off the ground? The tradition of being un-idol like idols continues onwards. And yes the uniforms for this era were actually trash bags with chains.

Saki kind of makes it work honestly.

The above picture is actually from a now infamous event… remember Tokyo Idol Festival from last year? The new unit were performing there this year, three days prior to their album release! Remember how Saki managed to piss off the management with her stage diving and encouraging the fans to mosh? Well, there are more things that are basically forbidden at what would otherwise be a pop (not our kind) festival and Saki managed both herself break and encourage fans to break every last one of them.

“Mosh pits, excessive jumping, crowd surfing, touching audience members, removing shirts and throwing objects.”

If you’ve ever been to a rock show all of this might seem… commonplace! Which let’s be real when your fanbase is made up of fans of the disbanded alt-idol group who basically just said “fuck it” and removed any sense of decorum from being an idol they could, this is going to happen at your shows. The fans not only destroyed the stage but POP, notably Saki, helped them! BiSH were playing at the same festival too and their fans did similar things, which led to both groups getting ousted. Pity the janitor who had to pick up after these wild women~

While it’s a theory that Watanabe orchestrated this, as BiSH and their leader Aina the End encouraged similar behaviour albeit on a smaller scale, Saki acted of her own accord. The fans got rowdy and Saki got rowdier while knowing the consequences of this but did it anyway.

Even if this is a post BiS group, disciplinary action was still taken. Watanabe was probably not actually furious with Saki but she was indefinitely suspended from POP. The more time went on, the more pissed off fans were getting. This was Saki’s kingdom and they demanded an audience with their queen! 

Saki spent her time while barred from performing helping behind the scenes, effectively becoming a staff member. She helped with taking chekis (polaroid selfies) with other members while being unable to take them with fans herself. Fans were getting even more and more annoyed! So, watanabe gave her an ultimatum, she could rejoin POP…

…if she could complete a 24 hour 100km marathon!

Which sounds daunting but let’s be real, Saki is a young athletic woman. The choreography for Plastic 2 Mercy basically incites violence and you need to be in shape to be a model/cosplayer. There’s also the fact that during a BiS marathon in 2013, Saki was the only one that actually finished.

Saki finished her 100km jog with two hours to spare and returned to her royal court. Just in time to conveniently release their new single! The music video and promo shots of which all contained Saki despite the fact they would have had to be filmed and shot when she was “suspended”. Makes you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWOPysoZI2k

“Happy Lucky Kirakira Lucky” was another fast paced aggressive techno-post-power-pop (those are all real genres I promise) bop with a sugary sweet twist. The video shows off the choreography along with… some puppets! Drop some new music Miss Piggy, POP are here.

So, we end 2015 with some destruction, an album and new single! Just as Pla2me went to POP, they also went from strength to strength.

The next major release was another single: Queen of Pop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnkR0oIYWGk 

Another release in their trademark sound which i’m running out of adjectives for, the music video is… I don’t know. There’s morph suits and faux religious symbolism. They had fun with it though!

As was the trend so far, new year, new name! POP were now GANG PARADE. Saki and Watanabe were toying with the idea of a name change and adding new members for a while, and the words that came up the most were “gang” and “parade” so hey let’s just stick them together! Time went by and the name would become more apt but for now: the next single.

“WE ARE the IDOL”

New uniforms, new hair for Saki but… the same sound! WE ARE the IDOL was still typical of a POP era song despite the name change. The music video however was more in tune with the direction they’d be travelling in creatively: it’s very theatrical and heartfelt with some very professional camerawork and cryptic messages written in English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFEIW0k_5u8

Shortly after, Ao’s time with Saki and friends came to a close. She had to withdraw from the group due to a lack of support from her family. We don’t know where she is now, but with or without her family’s support we can hope at least she’s having fun.

The heartbreak doesn’t end here though, Maya had to leave too for family reasons, though hers were more understandable. Her dad’s health had been declining and it was up to her to look after him. Gang Parade had her sisters, but her father needed her more.

Gang Parade as “Gang Parade” really starts here. Between the two members leaving, BiS had reformed and scouted new members. How is this relevant to Gang Parade you ask? Well, the girls who were talented but didn’t make the cut for BiS were placed into a sister group called… SiS. Creative, right? 

And of course everything went as planned and SiS to this day have a long career as BiS’ rivals and- just kidding! They disbanded after one show. They disbanded literally less than a single day after the show. Allegedly for their manager (the other manager, not Watanabe) mismanaging something or other.

The SiS girls didn’t become outright unemployed however, three of them were moved to Gang Parade (the fourth works at a clinic in Tokyo now and also entered a modelling contest. Honestly if my idol group broke up after about 12 hours i’d not want to continue as an idol either) and debuted almost right away!

But before the SiS girls were added, new girl Can Maika came along in early October. during Maika’s debut, moshing and stage diving were banned at Gang Parade lives but recording was 100% okay. If you know anything about Japanese music venues, this is genuinely incredibly rare and as a result basically every gang parade live gets posted on YouTube in about 4K HD where you can see the sweat dripping off of Saki’s head.

They also revealed that Gang Parade fans had their own name! Asobinin, which in English you could call… Players! Like a playboy but there’s no gender associated with it, so think a player of love, sleazy, likes to have fun more than they like to work, a layabout… a kind of immoral name for fans of the kind of immoral idols.

So of course now that we have a large troupe of girls, it should be time for an album right? Absolutely! Gang Parade’s “Barely Last” arrived shortly after:

Though if you can count you might notice that there’s a few girls missing… The album was recorded and the promo material all shot before the SiS girls arrived. That’s Can Maika in the orange there. She didn’t get to wear the new uniform for long because promo for the album basically started and ended in a flash, they couldn’t promo something with three of the members missing! The album didn’t even get any music videos.

If I had to describe the sound, it’s basically a stepping stone between the power-pop of POP to the chaos that would become Gang Parade’s trademark.

So a month later… Gang Parade was finally more in tune with how “Gang Parade” are now. To celebrate, they released Plastic 2 Mercy again in December of 2016 

Let’s meet the new girls! Please ignore Satan on the left there. From the left we have: dear leader Saki Kamiya (sporting the longest her haircut has been in about 3 years), the quirky and curious Yui Ga Dockson (who’s name is apart of the first thing Buddha said upon being born. “ I alone am honoured ”), the rich girl with a heart of gold: Coco Partin Coco (who’s name is a dick joke because tinco means cock), our old friend: Yua Yumeno, the gravure perfectionist who sure can: Can Maika, the adorable sea otter fanatic: Yuka “Yuyu” Terashima and squatting on the floor sporting the green highlights in her hair that haven’t left since: Miki Yamamachi! 

Plastic 2 Mercy even got another music video, featuring the girls making a nuisance of themselves in the streets and being coated in a plastic-like substance while spooning one another. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81rF2jZpB7g

So roll on 2017! Gang Parade are finally the “Gang Parade” they were destined to be and they started performing without a hitch and- just kidding again. This is a group run by an egomaniac remember.

Gang Parade were kicking off 2017 after a long period of touring (which they basically do constantly, GP are genuinely the hardest working WACK group) with a new single! “FOUL”! This also marks a period of… Dockson shaving off her eyebrows and painting new ones on with glitter. For somebody named after the Buddha talking about singularity and serenity she is certainly a deeply chaotic individual.

But chaos is fitting for Gang Parade! The song is slow but it’s heavier than they’ve done before, stepping from power-pop and fusing that with almost synth rock. The music video is a callback to “pretty pretty good”, starting in the same construction yard three of the girls were suspended from a crane in and ending with Saki shaving her hair off in a Tokyo backstreet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NCSt3dLug

The song is also the source of the phrase “body and 7soul”, which is a huge part of Gang Parade’s identity. Well until they add more girls and they have to rerecord it and change it to “body and 9soul” but that comes later.

If you’ve read “Know Your BiStory” the next part wont come as a surprise, but as a preface 2017 is where WACK as a company starts to get a little… wacky. A temporary rental trade of members was announced! Queen Saki was leaving her kingdom once again to go back to BiS in exchange for Aya Eightprince.

Of course the fans rioted just like when Saki was absent during the POP days and demanded th-I can’t keep pulling these bait and switches. Aya was welcomed to Gang Parade with open arms by both the fans and her new sisters!

In fact, Aya loved being in Gang Parade so much she actually talked about how much she hated being in BiS because of how disrespectful and rude the leader Pour Lui was to everyone - especially her. Gang Parade felt… right for Aya - and the fans felt so too! Of course everyone missed Saki but Aya’s presence in the chaos just worked well. She started touring around with them almost instantly and after a few months, it was time for a new single

Beyond the Mountain! Gang Parade had heartfelt ballads and fast paced songs before but this is #that song. The song that pierces your chest and makes you want to scream the lyrics while crying. About broken promises and broken hearts but, despite being left alone, you should smile. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdsASPb4l4Q

And of course promo for this included new member Miss Aya. That’s her on the bar stool looking curious. 

And what was Saki doing? On a single in her traded group too but also probably kissing Kika.

During the next few months, Gang Parade and BiS went on a joint tour together where it was announced the rental trade would be extended! Then in October, more label clownery happened and the shuffle unit/supergroup “SAiNT SEX” debuted with their only song. SAiNT SEX featured Aya, Saki, Miki and Yua along with various BiS and BiSH girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CbRmVdd-Kk

Even while on a rental trade, the girls from both groups remained close with one another. For the time being.

After this it started to get a little more serious for Gang Parade in terms of promo: they were gearing up for a full album. Gang Parade’s first promo music video for the album was called… GANG PARADE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=100K-pSVWZM

The girls show off their new uniforms in a warehouse while dancing and well… it’s a good thing moshing was made forbidden at their shows because this song was their wildest to date. Aggressive synthy rock with a pre-chorus involving a lot of chanting which turns into an aria of screaming “GANG PARADE EVERYDAY”. Like i said, their most chaotic to date… until “IMINAI UTA” (pointless song) got a music video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQxb88zX2FA

Following in the footsteps of the last song’s harsh sound, this is that but turned up to 11. Electronic screeching mixed with nonsensical lyrics shouted at you and a music video that combines glitch art with vaporwave, their new album was destined to be their most extreme yet. And on stage? It always starts with Coco doing cartwheels.

https://i.gyazo.com/3a8932dd671668b3078ae9be69f584e7

A few days later? “GANG PARADE takes themselves higher!!” arrived

And the name was more than apt, Gang Parade had elevated themselves in sound, image and status. A far cry from the original bubbly drum heavy technopop that Pla2me started with, Gang Parade’s sound can now be described as “sheer chaos”. From Beyond the Mountain to Iminai Uta, they were here to make noise, play with their fanbase of players and just generally revel in anarchy.

They also took themselves higher with their status in the industry - Gang Parade were stepping out of the shadow of “ex BiS group led by Saki Kamiya” and were being written about just as “Gang Parade” - you can even find interviews from the time translated on the English Gang Parade fansite pretty pretty GANG (this advertisement is non-sponsored)!

At the very end of the year, the “Wack and Scrambles” album was released featuring SAiNT SEX. The album also came with voting codes so fans could vote for which members they would want to get a solo debut single. Since BiSH are the most popular wack group, Aina the End placed in first. Our favourite strange siren Yui Ga Dockson placed pretty low, in the band where members would have to eat something called “death sauce curry” - but she didn’t have to do that. Her punishment was a surprise for later~

Roll on 2018 and Gang Parade, now higher than ever, did the only thing you’d expect an idol group to do: new single and music video! Breaking the Road was here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRP-wmdG-fA

A continuation of their aggressive synth rock sound, Breaking the Road is high energy, fast paced… Everything you’d expect at this point! The music video also contains heartfelt messages from members in a serene beach setting~

The b-side to the single also received a video: Sushi Song! No guesses as to what it’s about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRTTvdrugQI

Meanwhile, back over in BiS, the girls were preparing for Pour Lui’s funeral graduation, marking the end of the trade between the two groups. Aya would go back to BiS, Saki would come back to Gang Parade and Lui would vanish into the ether. “WHOLE LOTTA LOVE” marked Aya’s comeback and “DiPROMiSE” heralded Saki’s departure.

So welcome home saki! The eight of clubs switched hands with the queen of hearts and gang parade continued on as their body and 7soul…

C’mon, this is a WACK timeline! Did you really think it would be that simple?

In march, the next WACK audition camp and exhibition took place. Various girls won and were placed into various groups. Gang Parade gained two new members: the gothic ice princess Usagi Tsukino and the 15 year old baby idol with a cute voice Haruna Bad Chiiiin! That’s four i’s in case you lose count!

There was also a contest which Can Maika lost so she’d have to change her stage name so! please welcome “Can GP Maika”. It’s not much of a punishment but hey, maybe cruelty can be matched with unusualness?

Just as they welcomed Aya with open arms, Tsukino and Haruna found their sisters instantly too. But not without a prank first, on their first day Dockson pretended to be an authoritarian leader with an iron fist! Sushio even drew fanart of it!

So what better way to introduce the new girls to their new fans than with a new single? A month later, “GANG 2″ dropped!

So from the bottom left we have Miki, Yuyu, Coco, Dockson, Yua, Haruna, Saki, Maika and Tsukino sitting in the bottom right.

GANG 2′s sound was closer to Beyond the Mountain than any of their more recent singles more aggressive sounds. It’s still got pounding synths and drum machines but it’s the kind of pounding that matches your heart and not your feet dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaEby0Wu2U

The video depicts Saki as a holographic ghost who regains her physical form, rejoining Gang Parade after having been gone for so long.

The b-side recieved a video too: meet the slightly culturally insensitive love-letter known as “Lai Le”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB5hx0hkioE

Next up in June we finally get to Dockson’s “punishment”. While she didn’t win the election for the solo single, she was getting one anyway! “Now how is that a punishment” you ask? Well! It’s a throwback to the 90′s era of Japan’s eurobeat inspired techno-pop but with a twist! The lyrics are about being horny and involve chanting “HUGE COCK”. Also they made her wear ganguro makeup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CytBUpNV-k

Honestly? The song is good. It’s dancey and fun but I think it’s understandable why somebody wouldn’t want to get up on stage and hoot about getting busted in for about 4 minutes. Dockson even had to perform it live a few times, and during one special performance she bought a $1 magician’s wand off of Amazon that turns into a bouquet of flowers when you tug on it. Fans loved it and she hasn’t had to don the questionable makeup since!

The month after, more WACK clownery happened again. A new shuffle unit/supergroup debuted: The HOLY SHiTS! Thankfully the only gang parade girl they managed to torture with this was Maika. Though unluckily for her, the concept was “you have to eat fake excrement from a toilet while singing over a dance track that had a production budget of about $5″.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpxOBB3ma4

It’s awful and we’re just going to pretend it never happened. Thanks.

August comes along, and it’s new single time once again. The anthem for going against the pain and continuing on even in bad circumstances! No, not the BiS song, Gang Parade got their own song with a similar theme: CAN’T STOP!

The music video shows our favourite body and 9soul pushing against a wall with their heads seemingly without any luck before the wall shatters and they all walk together, as friends, as one cohesive unit, as GANG PARADE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0pEQFo3y78

Gang Parade then embarked on their next tour, which ended with a tour final at Zepp Tokyo where they announced that they’d have a new album out in the first weeks of 2019: LAST GANG PARADE 

Of course, this name worried a lot of fans. Were Gang Parade breaking up? What did last mean? Was this Saki’s graduation? What was Watanabe up to? Many other fans pointed out that the “last” could be the “last” in “last night” or “last man standing” which quelled some fears, but fans continued to talk and gossip

And in-between the announcement and album release, the tour final was released as a special blu ray which included re-recordings of old songs with the current lineup. Saki took Aya’s spot on songs from “Gang Parade takes themselves higher!!” and of course the two new girls got their share too. And they finally chant “body and 9soul” instead of 7 in FOUL.

Now for a little detour… instead of Gang Parade we’re going to talk about you!

That’s right! Saki is more than aware that she has asobinin cheering from overseas! The first leader of a WACK group to acknowledge that she has English speaking fans. maybe she reads pretty pretty GANG~

However, she isn’t the first member. International asobinin managed to figure out that Coco uses a third party Twitter application to make private lists and a few lucky fans are more than likely on it, because she keeps liking tweets about her that don’t mention her by name that can be vanity searched and her tweets aren’t tweeted from a standard twitter app.  Coco even speaks a little English too! At a promotional live outside of a giant Gundam statue, Coco tried to engage with tourists by introducing Gang parade to an international audience in English. But, a member of the pretty pretty GANG fan community was there and the tourists… Were Spanish. Whoops! Thank you for thinking about us anyway Coco!

In the runup to Last Gang Parade’s release, a week of promo started with a surprise video drop: Yoru Kurai Yume (Night’s Dark Dream)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts8KnDkrrKI&

Written by Yua and Haruna, even with composition by Haruna, the song and video reference… Edo Period prostitutes! Do Haruna’s parents know what she writes about? The video even ebbs onto the more gravure side of idol, with minimal appearances from the GP girls in lieu of some genuine working girls on their walk around a red light district. A relatively laid back sound in contrast to the high energy they’re known for, the song is a standout on the album and unlike the rest of the promo tracks to come.

Over the course of the week, fast paced aggressive bops like “Jealousy Marionette” dropped in addition to emotional heart-pounders like “Message” on Soundcloud until New Year’s Eve… the video to LAST!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y932g_4QfOE

With motifs taken from primal. by BiS, LAST was set to become Gang Parade’s trademark song next to Plastic 2 Mercy. In a similar vein to Beyond the Mountain and CAN’T STOP, LAST deals with the struggle of moving forward against it all, making it clear that the “last” in “Last Gang Parade” is about how long you’ve lasted and how proud you should be.

With the girls all lifting each other’s spirits when things go wrong and generally playing together, the video is a heartwarming playground culminating in the phrase “making a new chaos” floating above them while they run around a football pitch.

And then a few weeks later in 2019, LAST GANG PARADE finally arrives proper

Gang Parade were closer as a sisterhood than ever, going from taking themselves higher to standing tall on a peak beyond the mountain. They were at the top of their game, one of the hardest working and strongest units under WACK.

But then… the second meaning of “LAST” finally came to light…

Just kidding! Not every surprise on behalf of Watanabe has to be awful!

On the first day of the ggWACK tour, a tour celebrating all of WACK’S major groups, Gang Parade announced that they were getting a MAJOR LABEL DEBUT! A sub label under Universal Japan created just for them: Fuelled by Mentaiko! Who says when you’re at the top the only way is down? Gang Parade were continuing to go higher and higher, they can’t stop. The “last” was also their last indie label release! As a surprise and a goodbye to T-Palette Records and their manager, the album contained a hidden bonus track called “PALET”

And that’s the history of Gang Parade! From a badly behaved cosplay duo stage diving over drum machine beats to a power-pop unit who trash the stage to a ragtag band of sisters here to incite a new form of chaos, the ashes of BiS’ legendary lineup had became something new entirely. 

Gang Parade refuse to stand in the shadow of another group, they cast their own and with their first major label single coming in April, Gang Parade will keep taking themselves higher and higher and HIGHER.