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local-triggerhead · 4 years ago

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[Theory/Analysis] The Motives of Each Eugenicist

Wow, look at me rising from the graves and dusting off this account after 800 years like it's nothing. Your Trigger hype beast is back baby, if any of you still remember me.

This post contains spoilers for both Gridman and Dynazenon.

Ahem. I want to make this post to gather my thoughts and better understand the antagonists of the show, as they aren't heavily featured and explored like Akane. It's just my own analysis based on what I can observe in the show, so some parts would be more vague and generate different interpretations. This analysis may seem obvious to some and not so much to others, but I hope it'll offer some clarity regardless. Tl;dr at the bottom.

The General Motive

It's pretty much given in the show. The Kaiju Eugenicists wanted to destroy humanity and create a world where themselves and kaiju can live and be accepted. They believe that the world is a better place as you're no longer being tied down by human bonds, granting you unrestricted freedom beyond even the laws of physics. This is their shared goal. However, each of them have separated purposes and things they want to achieve along with this.

Onija

Let's start with the 2 more obvious cases. Onija clearly stated what he wanted to do - kill all humans. How many times did he yell this out? It's kind of shoved-in-your-face. No other Eugenicists expressed this desire as strongly as he did. At the base level, he simply wanted to live. He was brutally killed once and was determined to not let it happen again no matter what. This is why "I thought I was dead" was a constant running joke. It's also why Onija had a deep personal grudge towards Gauma and humans, who were the cause of his death 5000 years ago.

Juuga

Juuga had a deep admiration for Gauma and looked up to him. Unlike Onija, he didn't wish to oppose Gauma, but to make an alliance instead. When the Eugenicists first appeared, Juuga said:

It's clear from this line that he wanted things to be the way it was 5000 years ago, where they were a group of friends working towards the same goal. He missed and yearned for that carefree time. The original Eugenicist group was the most important thing to him. You can see that he never fought with any other Eugenicists, but remained calm and passive towards them at all times. This attitude only extended towards the Eugenicists, as he had no qualms about killing anyone else for his goal, including the Dynazenon crew.

Even when Mujina stole Dyna Striker, the first thing that came to his mind was using it to negotiate with Gauma and get him back.

Mujina

These last 2 Eugenicists are slightly more complicated to pick apart, as they process things more internally.

At first, Mujina was very indecisive and didn't buy much into this kaiju thing. All she wanted was to finish it quickly so she could leave. She was lost in life and just followed the other Eugenicists around because she had no directions of her own. Then Mujina found Koyomi, someone who also didn't have anything going for himself and just plainly a loser in his life. He was someone she could feel related to. Mujina's attitude supposedly changed after she was tackled by Koyomi, but I believe this just pissed her off and only played a part in her personality shift. The other cause, I think, was Sizumu's encouragement, where she "realized that kaiju is all [she has] got" and that she had to take responsibility for her actions.

Koyomi came to play a major role in episode 11, when Mujina witnessed him starting to look for a job. The only person who she could feel related to was unaffected by the aftermath of the kaiju and moving forward with ease. Meanwhile, Mujina, who had just found her purpose in life, lost it once again and was now completely stuck, as the future where the Eugenicists could live and be accepted was destroyed. When facing such a crisis, one would seek to put the blame on something for all of their problems, and Koyomi just happened to be the perfect target.

Sizumu

Toughest one to crack here, but I'll shoot my best shot. In the beginning, he opposed the Dynazenon crew the least among the Eugenicists. He suggested against killing them, had the most interaction with Yomogi and Yume, and suggested Mujina to return Dyna Striker for seemingly no reasons at all. His main reason for not killing Team Dynazenon was to see more kaiju, and getting close to Yomogi and Yume was for his kaiju to absorb their emotions. However, I believe there was another underlying reason that tied his actions together. He was looking for an alliance.

Contrary to Juuga, the alliance he was looking for didn't only include Gauma, but Team Dynazenon as a whole. To understand why he searched for this, we must first look at what he was. He had an ability that allowed him to hear kaiju voices, which gave him a much deeper understanding of kaiju compared to the other Eugenicists. Due to this, while the others more or less thought of kaiju as a mean to create a world where they can live and be accepted, Sizumu would consider kaiju as his own kind, so much so that he had a severe disconnection with humans. He distanced himself away from even the Eugenicists, almost as if he only tagged along because they shared the same basic goal.

He didn't seek to understand humans, but instead for humans to understand kaiju. His goal was to create a world where not only the Eugenicists were accepted, but kaiju themselves were accepted. He believed that the world was better off like this, because, from his perspective, kaiju could liberate people from human bonds and offer them unlimited freedom. To me, this is rather hypocritical as he never understood why people tied themselves to these bonds in the first place, so he wasn't in a position to say what was better and what wasn't.

Sizumu was the only Eugenicist to mention this kaiju power and express his distaste towards human bonds. He explained this very early on to Yomogi and Yume, and why did he do this, you may ask? Why, to help them understand his views and create an opening for a potential alliance, of course. If his only purpose was to absorb their emotions, then that's quite a lot of unnecessary effort to make himself look friendly and approachable to an uncanny degree, especially when being "friendly and approachable" wasn't his forte. No, he was testing the water to see if he could get them on his side.

Then came an unexpected opportunity for him to determine once and for all if Team Dynazenon can understand and accept kaiju. He let a failed kaiju run free and distracted the Eugenicists away from it (with a tactic he learned from Chise) to see what the Dynazenon crew would do. Some people said that it's to test if any of them were kaiju user, and while that's possible, I think it's a little unlikely. Sizumu only observed them at 2 instances, first was when they started the search for the kaiju, the second was when their beam destroyed the kaiju. Unless the kaiju voices could tell him, there would be no way for Sizumu to know if any of them used Instance Domination, until the very end when Yomogi used it on him. The likelier hypothesis would be: he saw them searching for the kaiju > he saw the kaiju being killed > he surmised that kaiju couldn't exist peacefully with Team Dynazenon, and didn't seem to be particularly happy about it.

From then on, Sizumu decided that they couldn't be his allies thus no longer approached Yomogi or Yume. It seems that he arrived to this final conclusion:

And this is where the series itself left off. Kaiju simply can't co-exist with humans. They are irregulars to the human society. Furthermore, the freedom that they offer can't be allowed to exist as running away from society and real human connections is wrong, even if reality is ugly and difficult to face. This is what make the series similar to Gridman. However, unlike Akane, the antagonists of Dynazenon failed to realized this and didn't get their happy ending.

(A detail that I'd like to mention is that Sizumu was silent during the entire final battle in contrast to the other Eugenicists who were pumping themselves up. It was like he was saying, "Didn't want to do this but I guess you left me with no choice". Though silence can mean anything so it's not a concrete evidence.)

TL;DR and Final Words

This is so much longer than I thought and I really apologize for it. I just don't want to make anyone do logical leaps when reading this post.

Tl;dr:

- Onija wanted to live and had a grudge towards Gauma and humans for causing his death.

- Juuga wanted Gauma to join them again and for things to be back the way it was 5000 years ago. He cared for nothing outside of the Eugenicists group.

- Munija wanted a purpose, found one, then lost it again. She envied Koyomi for regaining his sense of purpose and moving forward with his life.

- Sizumu wanted humans to understand kaiju and a world where kaiju can set humans free from their bonds. Initially considered an alliance with Team Dynazenon, but concluded that them (and people in general) couldn't understand kaiju after all.

- Final message of the show: Go touch some grass and talk to humans you fucking weebs.

Misc

When using Instance Domination, the palms of the Eugenicists always face towards the kaiju. The only exception is the last battle where Sizumu's palm faced towards himself, indicating that the kaiju was inside him. I believe that it was located at the center of his chest, where he shot out that weird magical light beam. Just a small thing I find interesting.

If we want to take it a step further, I believe the seed inside him had already grown into a kaiju, but it was still relatively small until he used Instance Domination on it. Eerie, huh?

And this is more of the theory territory and leaving the analysis, but this could possibly be why he was able to hear kaiju voices. Chise was able to understand Goldburn and translated for him at the end, so maybe having a kaiju inside of you would allow you to understand other kaiju somehow? If this is the case, he would probably have had the kaiju inside of him since 5000 years ago.

There's also this big brain moment from a 4chan user. The resemblance between Yume and Juuga is kinda uncanny considering they're both obsessed with the past.

That's it boys. I'm gonna crawl back into my hole until next century, or until Trigger drops Edgerunners. 8/10 show, VERY underrated gem. Trigger won't stop saving anime.

This post but on Reddit:

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inviberu · 4 years ago

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slowly, into your heart

Taku had never experienced heartbreak before. But when she does, it turns a little bit more than just a simple problem.

Note: I think I forget to mention but I'm a hopeless yumejo! If you're uncomfortable with that, please scroll past this or unfollow me. Chloe isn't really the one I yume with but my friends wanted to see what it would be like if it was with Chloe instead of Shylock, thus this was the result. I never really introduced my yumesona but for archive purposes I'm posting this here anyways.

Taku wondered how many days it has been since she shut herself out from the world inside her room. Sadness, anger, grief, and pain—for once, she wanted to rip her own heart out. Was this her divine punishment from the heavens? What a cruel joke. To have her know the heavy burden of a heart was something that made her want to live without one.

Countless times, she felt as if it was finally the time the fire was consuming the last bit of her. With tears falling from her eyes, she hoped that she was taken away—to let herself walk into fire and yet a single shred of her convinced her to stay. To endure everything as there shall come a rainbow after the heavy rain. She wanted nothing to do with this world anymore, but perhaps she could find something or rather, someone worth living for.

But, alas, her heart still needs time to mend itself. She thought about that one time someone mentioned to her that first loves never work out—she could only let out a tired sigh as she silently agreed. Had it not been for her eavesdropping on a certain conversation, she might've continued to hope that he felt the same way about her.

'Die,' she silently wished. Quickly taking it back the moment she realized she didn't really want anything ill to fall upon him, perhaps the softness of her behaviour towards him was the reason why she's still unable to face the others head on. Showing weakness in front of others felt like she was showing herself bare, and she hated it with a burning passion.

Perhaps it was time to let go? If the curse was to take her soon anyways, why not do it a favour and have it take her faster? Her eyes dulled. She finally convinced herself this is exactly what that witch had wanted from the very start since she cursed her—to have her feel what a broken heart is.

"Taku... Are you there?" Her thoughts stopped immediately. The gentle knocks on the door could barely be heard had it not been for the fact that she was dead silent. It was Chloe. She hugged her knees tighter to her chest, not wanting to give him a reply.

'He must be worried, I haven't gone out of the room once since I stormed inside here. Poor Chloe, being shut out here by miserable me.' She thought. Among the Western Wizards, he was the one she was closest to—her dearest friend, Chloe Collins.

For a mere second, she thought about opening the door to let him in.

She quickly shut down the idea. Hoping that he would go away soon if she doesn't respond to his calls. Surely, his heart will be broken by this, right?

"It's me, Chloe." He started, voice careful. "I don't know if you don't want anyone to bother you but—"

He hesitated.

"I really wanted to try and cheer you up! So I got a gift for you... You don't have to open the door though! I'll just leave them here in case... You decide to receive them."

She held her breath. A gift? Curious, she waited to hear footsteps fade away to the distance and the outline of shadow disappear from the small gaps on the door. She urged herself to not open the door—but perhaps she was so desperate for something that made her feel herself again to the point where she couldn't listen to her rationality any longer.

Hesitant, she slowly opened the door and looked at the item placed down.

Flowers.

A few flowers laid in front of her door. Pink ones—the one that reminded her of her old hair color. She picked them up and inspected them closer, its sweet scent immediately intoxicating her as she wondered just how long has she stayed inside her room for her to feel like crying after smelling a bunch of flowers.

"How sweet of him..." She murmured, bringing the flowers with her as she closed the door to her room. She placed them in a vase where she could admire them, the once gloomy room suddenly brightening up by a little. Giving her a little bit more meaning.

"My dearest Chloe," it rolled off her tongue. "I wonder if you can help me from this heartache."

The next day, Chloe was beyond happy to see that the flowers he left in front of her door wasn't there anymore—that could only mean she took it, right? Day after day after day after day... He kept on leaving flowers in front of her door. Hoping that one day she would open up the door for him, even if it's just a little.

To let him into her heart.

Who would've thought such a simple act would work on her? She could only let out a sigh. She must be more of a simpleton than she thought—to let a bunch of flowers make her waver. Or maybe Chloe knew her a little bit too well and knows what gets to her and what doesn't.

One day, she finally opened her door for him when he was leaving her flowers. His eyes widening as he stopped in his tracks, jaw almost falling to the floor.

"I-Is that really you...?" She could almost hear him start to cry.

"...? Do you want me to close the door again, stranger?"

"W-W-Wait! No! Hold it!" He leapt forward into her arms, wrapping his arms around her figure as he let the flowers he brought fall to the floor. Tears welling up in the corner of his eyes.

"Ah—! Hey, I was only joking! Why are you crying?" She asks as if she didn't know she was the reason why Chloe was crying in her arms. With much reluctance, she wrapped one arm around him and ruffled his hair with the other as a measly attempt to comfort him.

"You were gone for so long! Did you know how worried I was!? I almost started to doubt you were taking the flowers and someone else was stealing them."

"There, there. There's no more need to cry, I'm no longer hiding now, am I? Don't let me become a reason for staining your lovely face, it doesn't suit you."

"It's all your fault! Stupid, stupid! You idiot...!"

"Yes, yes. I'm the idiot." She took all the punches Chloe gave her without complaining. "Feel free to curse me all you like, I deserve it."

"Hmph! At least look a little remorseful to make me feel better."

"... I'm sorry." The sudden shift in her tone surprised Chloe, he felt her grip around him tighten only by a small bit. "I guess you could say I was self-destructing? I'm... I'm just really drained lately."

"..." He fell silent.

"At first I wanted to ignore you, but I couldn't. I guess that's what they were talking about when they said 'let the heart want what it wants', huh? I really liked the flowers, Chloe. I really, really do."

Her voice almost faded into a small whisper as she slumped her head against his shoulder, almost as if she was drifting off to sleep under the comfort of his warm embrace.

"... If you want me to, I'll promise to get them for you everyday." He declared.

"Everyday's a bit too much," she let out a weak chuckle.

"It's just as long as you promise not to shut me out again like this, okay?" Sternness laced his voice.

"Haha, I can't promise you that but....Thank you, Chloe... My dearest, Chloe."

#taku's yume #my writing #mhyk chloe #that's all im tagging this as JFJDKDJ

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quinintheclouds · 4 years ago

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Hey, I just read your post on ADHD/EFDD and was just wondering if you have read any research articles on this and if you have, could you tell me which ones because it all sounds super interesting and I need to choose a topic for my psych lit review and I’m thinking about doing something to do with all the stigma around and misconceptions about different mental health disorders.. it’s totally okay if not tho, I know it’s a big ask, but thanks anyway

That sounds like such a great topic!!! I would be HONORED to help :D

The first person I think of when discussing the term EFDD is Dr. Russell Barkley. He’s one of the leading ADHD experts, and has been a spearhead for studying executive dysfunction in people with ADHD for decades. Very much ahead of his time compared to the DSM. I’ve had his book “Taking Charge of Adult ADHD” recommended to me so many times, but have yet to read it.

Here’s some free stuff, though!

[reblogs appreciated because Tumblr hates posts with links and I wanna make sure this anon sees it!]

I tried to include some short stuff and longer stuff, some articles, images, videos, and comic recs, so you can choose based on your current energy and focus level :) I’ve also bolded links and key points of each source if you like skimming. Let’s go!

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Here’s an interesting article/study on EFDD! They found that “ADHD [is] associated with deficits in inhibition, managing one’s attention, self-directed speech and rule-following, self-motivation, and even self-awareness [...] ADHD therefore involves deficits in self-restraint, [...] selfsensing and imagery, self-control of emotion, and self-directed play for problem-solving.”

Thank you for motivating me to look up some articles, because I learned some new things, too! For instance, they assert that ADHD could also be called SRDD (Self-Regulation Deficit Disorder), but conclude the article by saying either SRDD or EFDD fits better than ADHD, and that the terms could be used interchangeably, because SR (self-regulation) and EF (executive function) are effectively talking about the same things. So his assertion is that even if the name ADHD never changes, it can still be scientifically classified as either of the other terms. I believe in recent years he’s preferred EFDD more and more.

[note that the above article/study is from 2011, back when we were on the DSM-IV, so a lot of research has been done since then]

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If that article’s a bit wordy or you want something more visual and up-to-date, here’s a really detailed PowerPoint presentation used during the 2018 ADHD Symposium! It’s long but well-organized so you can just read the big headers or you can read all the bullet points explaining it. Keep in mind this was a lecture, so some of it probably made more sense in person. I’m glad I read this, because I realize the terminology I’ve used is slightly off: according to the Symposium, there aren’t “subtypes” of ADHD, but the different names (ADHD-PI, ADHD-PH, and ADHD-C) are really just used to show the prevalence of certain symptoms in that individual. So they’re all terms for ADHD, but “subtype” was poor word choice on my part.

Oh! I just found a video of him giving a lecture in 2012 using many of the same PowerPoint slides! Here ya go! It’s a bit longer than the other videos I’ve linked below (13min), but it might make the slides easier to interpret :)

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If you want a really short and basic overview, here’s a video explaining 5 main ways executive functions affect the brain and how they work differently in people with ADHD. [I put the video below as well if you wanna stay on tumblr] It’s from 2010, but it holds up. It only covers 5 big ones, so remember (if you can) that executive function affects EVERYTHING and the symptoms will affect everyone differently and at different levels.

This is just the most basic overview and a good place to start:

youtube

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Here’s one where he talks about our Time-Blindness! (below) I was going to pick a couple favorite quotes to give you an idea, but that’d wind up being a transcript of the whole video because HE GETS IT. This is from 2014, but I CANNOT recommend it enough!!! He mentions that ADHD doesn’t have a deficit of attention, but rather a deficit of intention. He describes us as having a near-sighted sense of time, and talks about deadlines, “laziness,” etc.

ALSO he talks about how our brains DON’T CONNECT our knowledge to our performance (back of brain to front) like everyone else’s, so we have the same level of knowledge and intelligence, but can’t access and use it the way others can. This is why teaching skills and organization/memory/time-management tips isn’t helpful -- we can learn them, but our knowledge and action centers are separated, so actually doing them/sticking with them is just as hard as before.

If you don’t watch the whole thing, at least skip to 3:29 cause that part’s really funny and relatable (ok the whole thing is relatable):

youtube

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And of course, I highly recommend the YouTube channel How to ADHD! I have a couple friends who work on it, and they REALLY know their stuff! (They’re the ones who taught me during a game night that RSD isn’t a real term and it should be called “rejection-sensitivity” as part of the emotional dysregulation umbrella)

I went looking and found this video (below) has the BEST explanation of it that I’ve seen in such a concise, entertaining way. I hadn’t seen this one before, but it even covers some of the things I mentioned in that post your ask is about! Especially the Internal Restlessness that I mentioned as the true “hyperactivity” we all share; even though some of us also express outward hyperactivity, both presentations come from the same restlessness in our brains.

youtube

^^^This has some great examples, visuals, animations, and different ways of explaining and thinking about our symptoms! If you want more about this, the description has a bunch of links to their sources! Jessica and everyone else who works on this channel is great at making the videos watchable for people with ADHD (even if we have to rewind sometimes)

Here's Jessica's official Twitter @HowtoADHD! (I was today years old when I found out that she follows me)

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And if you want something REALLY short and simple, here’s a 2 minute animation comparing living with ADHD to trying to film a movie with a director who keeps falling asleep [below]

youtube

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If you like comics:

My favorite ADHD comic artists are: ADHD Alien [@ADHD_Alien on Twitter and @adhd-alien on Tumblr]; Dani Donovan [@danidonovan on Twitter and @danidonovan on Tumblr -- we’re somehow twitter mutuals and she is such a sweetheart. She has some really good infographics, too!!]; ADHD Bri [@AdhdBri on Twitter and @adhdbri on Tumblr]; and dreamadept [@yume_dango on Twitter and @yume-dango on Tumblr]

They’re all well-researched, funny, genuine, intelligent, insightful, talented artists who depict ADHD in a very accurate and relatable way. Go check ‘em out and support them! :D

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I’m gonna stop there for now, but PLEASE feel free to add on to this with other sources, questions, videos, thoughts, comic artists, etc.!!! Hope this helps someone out there!

#adhd #actuallyadhd #efdd #executive function deficit disorder #how to adhd #dr. russell barkley #I hope you see this in time for your essay!!!#tried to give you a variety of sources and places to start #quinpost #quinanswer #oof I'm sure I forgot some adhd comic artists I love but maybe I'll remember later lol #Anonymous

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chikkou · 4 years ago

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I'd ask this on your Lisa sideblog but you don't have anon on and I'm shy lol, but do you have any headcanons relating to Lisa the First? Like Lisa's views on religion, her relationship with her mother, if any of the various worlds we see mean anything?

hoh man i didnt even know anon wasnt on LMAO... ill turn it on after i post this!

also fuck YEAH i do holy shit i fucking LOVE lisa the first!! i know its sort of the black sheep of the lisa series, since it is a completely different type of game and was clearly austins first game, but i fucking ADORE it dude. the music - which he made ENTIRELY IN THE FREE TRIAL OF FL STUDIO BY THE WAY - is FANTASTIC, the art direction is actually pretty fucking incredible for an rpgmaker game that uses a good deal of basic assets, and the gameplay.... ok yeah that part is a bit lacking but its a yume nikki-style game be nice it was his first time LMAO

ANYWAY back to ur question. first and foremost, i think this is not even a headcanon so much as straight up canon, but lisa DESPISES christianity. marty is christian, probably catholic given the golden crosses everywhere, and he is a fucking scumbag hypocrite. lisa likely associates all of christianity with this line of thinking, as there is one room in the bile area where the melted martys (although i suppose we can just call them joy mutants now LMAO) simply stand in a circle surrounding one big cross. the role of the melted martys is up for interpretation of course, as is everything, but after playing the painful and seeing them described as “mindless sheep,” i think this is how lisa viewed them. so they likely represent other people that, to lisa, are probably just as sick and disgusting as marty

lisas relationship with her mother... i go back and forth on this one a lot. i can never decide if i prefer the headcanon that lisas mom died in childbirth, and so lisa never met her, or if i prefer that lisas mom was around for a very short time and then either left or died. the fact that she says “i didnt want to leave” at the end of the first leads me to believe that she most likely died. in either case, the memory of her mother was clearly important to lisa, as she wears her pendant through the entire game and its explicitly noted as being a gift from her. in either case, i think that the death/absence of the mother is heavily implied to be the primary cause behind martys descent into alcoholism and lisas abuse, since the white room strongly implies that marty did at one time sincerely love and care for her as a father properly should

as for the meaning of each of the rooms, i think most of them are fairly self explanatory, but some of them are a bit more vague, so ill break it down in terms of how i see it (and ill put them under the cut because its long as hell):

martys house - this is the most literal one. pretty self-explanatory. the dark, yet vibrant colors and the ear-bleedingly loud tv are pure sensory overload, something lisa probably deals with on a regular basis. when lisa goes outside and it turns into a sky of marty faces, i think this is the transition into the psychological part of the game

the lobby - this is honestly just pure yume nikki ripoff LMAO... but if i had to ascribe a symbolic meaning to it, i think its probably a quiet and safe area for lisa to retreat to in her mind when she needs it, but even that eventually gets sullied as tricky rick makes his way there, too (and tells her hes “just waiting” when she talks to him). the majority of gameplay is lisa searching for items with which to kill tricky rick, who always abuses and disparages her whenever she talks to him, telling her she’ll never forget. as for the reason why... well, take one look at him and its pretty clear whats going on there. (the name is also a reference to richard nixon, whose nickname was... well, you can figure it out!)

the town - the bar area is 100% my favorite from this world; lisa clearly hates alcohol and anyone who drinks it, associating them all with marty, and that music... all i can say is YUCK. the entire section also consists of lisa having to give up something in exchange for what she needs to move on, and usually getting the raw end of the deal out of it (she gives one marty a banana, he gives her a banana peel in return). she does all that while avoiding a marty following her outside who repeatedly tells her “you cant escape,” and upon reaching tricky rick (who is atop a narrow, columnar, PINK mountain), it becomes pretty clear whats happening to her.

the sea room - fucking marty spiders man. im assuming they represent the sickly feeling of crawling skin she gets when she looks at him or is anywhere near him, but holy GOD they are annoying to deal with. she kills tricky rick with pills here - we dont know what kind of pills these are, but i interpret them as sleeping pills, and given the rumbling music and the rapid cycling marty background, i wonder if he forced her to take these. marty is everywhere here, but the only one she can speak to is seen chilling on a raft of some kind. marty likely spent much of his time recreationally, i.e. drinking, so it makes sense why this would be here

the rope room - theres no symbolism here this is just pure comedy (LMAO). if i HAD to assign some meaning to this area, it would be that lisa likely is so despondent at this point that putting in effort to do anything feels utterly pointless, much like climbing this long-ass rope was

the white room - as i mentioned earlier, i personally believe that this area depicts the previous relationship between marty and lisa (and also has one of my favorite songs in the game). he is shown doing traditional fatherly things - he is no longer wearing sunglasses and is wearing a suit, meaning he was likely employed, and is actually smiling. he also spends time with her in a completely platonic, familial way. when she interacts with him, there is a little heart over his head. after lisa walks through the golden statues (which will reappear later), the entire world becomes filled with bile, and martys appearance returns to that of the other martys, but with an extremely warped, grotesque face. the item she needs in this area to kill tricky rick is found between two golden crosses.

notice that all of the items she kills tricky rick with - a razor, pills, and now a plastic bag - are things that a child could plausibly get their hands on; none of them are explicitly weapons. i think this shows both her age and how often she must have considered using those things against him.

the bile room - probably my favorite area in the game, and also features what i consider the quintessential lisa song. this area really drives home lisas disgust with marty and with christianity as a whole - it almost certainly has the highest concentration of crosses, and it is also quite literally covered in wall-to-wall bile, dirty water, and disgusting houses. a lot of the most graphic sights, like the melting martys and the pond martys (no idea what to call them LMAO) are here, so i think this is pretty much the lowest circle of hell for lisa. marty gives lisa a freshly cut finger in exchange for a napkin here; im not necessarily sure what that represents, but i think the napkin was used by marty to masturbate (as he says “i needed that” after he takes it), so perhaps the finger is martys?

lisa kills tricky rick here in a cave that is not-so-subtly shaped like a penis, and gets a vhs tape in which he pretty explicitly states what is going on in the game; he even pretends like he doesnt know who lisa is at first, which somehow makes it even more disgusting. the fact that vhs tapes play a role here sort of makes me wonder if marty really WAS filming some of what he was doing, and given that lisa the joyful confirms that brad was forced to somehow participate in lisas abuse, that is.... horrific to think about, honestly

the marty tape - this tape just has the player (as marty) walk up to lisa and suited marty, who are having a tea party with a plastic tea set. they both get hearts over their heads if you talk to them. i think this drives home that he and lisa did once have a normal relationship, and perhaps theres some part of marty who misses that? theres a LOT of ways you can interpret this; having the player become marty really calls a lot into question.

the mansion - the room leading here has a marty staring directly at the player who informs lisa that she needs a sword to progress. unsubtly, the sword must be placed into the crotch of a womans statue. the mansion inside is beautiful and ornate, and easily the most gorgeous area in the game - and it all leads to what appears to be a proto-joy mutant marty, sort of looking like jabba the hutt. i dont doubt that this is intentional, given that jabba the hutt is associated with slave leia, and its not at all a far leap to call lisa martys slave. the golden statues of women, as well as many golden crosses, are everywhere in this area. its actually quite a large space with a lot of thought put into it, so im really upset that i cant figure out more of what it represents LMAO

the final area - lisa seems to go back to her actual house, but upon leaving her room and entering whether the living room would be, the whole area changes. she encounters herself in a blood red room, but when she talks to the other lisa, she turns into marty. i think this represents a clear question - who is lisa without him? IS she anyone? or is she just a vessel for him to do with what he pleases? she encounters a naked marty telling her to give up shortly after, and flees from him, but is followed by voices repeatedly telling her that she must accept her fate. i think this clearly show the mental state of lisas last days. she was tormented, eternally. she truly felt there was no escape from marty. even the background becomes nothing but martys face, over and over again, as the end screen flashes.

at the end text, she finds a video tape, and in the tape sees someone who is ostensibly her mother from behind. she apologizes for not being there for her, but when that figure turns out, its martys face that she sees. the sky turns into marty. the music becomes corrupted and overrun with pretty fucked up laughter. she tries to run, but marty is already everywhere. theres nowhere for her to run. and then the game is over.

note that the video tape comes AFTER the games end screen, which stops not long after the appearance of the naked marty. so i personally believe that the “game over” represents her deciding to take her own life, rather than just give up and accept her fate. by running from him into the blackness, she got away from marty the only way she could have. it is sad and horrible, but that is honestly the best ending that she could have gotten in this game.

the first is definitely not as good as the painful in terms of gameplay, that much i can agree on, but i really think people miss out on a lot by not playing it. i think its really crucial to see lisas life from her own perspective before you can see it from brads - after all, brad may have known more than anyone else about what was going on, but he did not experience it like lisa did. for brad, lisa is a symbol of his own regrets and failures, but lisa was a PERSON (well, in-universe anyway LMAO). she suffered on her own, with pretty much no one to help her, and then she suffered so much that she couldnt take another second of it.

#anya's anons #long post #lisa the first #ok NOW im gonna open my anons on my sideblog LMAO #i got wayyyy too into this #and i had to put it under the cut bc its really hard to not be graphic about the first given the subject matter #rape mention #abuse mention #lisa

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rpgmgames · 6 years ago

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August’s Featured Game: Marinette

DEVELOPER(S): Teal Crown ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Horror, Puzzle, Adventure WARNINGS: Sensitive Themes, Blood/Light Gore SUMMARY: A little girl named Marinette, in the wake of a splitting family and a change of homes, is having a birthday. But this, her eleventh birthday, will present a deadly opportunity to fulfill a special promise. On the night before her birthday, she is drawn into a strange realm; an unnatural dollhouse, populated with dolls who are not quite what they seem. A web of strings lying in wait, and threatening to ensnare the poor marionette; warping her perception, and twisting her every move. Will the strings attach, and force her to become an unwilling puppet, or will she escape this surreal web of strings? What will she have to do to avoid the dangers of the dollhouse, and set herself free?

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Mitty: "Hello, I'm Mitty! Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this interview. I'm the main developer of the game and I'm working with a team of friends to make this game a reality. I work mainly on the visuals and programming, and I'll be representing the team, alongside Third! I've been on the community for around two years, even though I tend to not be active very often." *Third: "Hoi, I’m Third! I appreciate you reaching out to interview us. I’m the main composer and writer of Marinette, and I work under Mitty to make the story and soundtrack what we want it to be. I’ve been in the community for little less than Mitt but am even less active in most of my developer discords."

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Mitty: "The game is essentially about a girl that gets trapped inside a dollhouse. A simple concept really can go far ahaha I've always loved themes related to creepy dolls so I wanted to create something related to that. What pushed me initially to start were obviously the inspiration of seeing other devs creating, seeing how far you could go with these engines and create amazing interactive stories, however the huge support from a friend was what made me actually start past the planning and dreaming!" *Third: "Marinette is a story about a little girl becoming entangled in the complicated family and supernatural landscape she finds herself in on her birthday. I enjoy writing short stories about this kind of thing so it’s fantastic to work on a larger project about one of my favorite subjects. My primary inspiration and introduction to this kind of game in general was Pocket Mirror, and I use it the most as a model for how to do certain things. However, I also draw a lot of inspiration from masterpieces like Aria’s Story, Ib, Witch’s House, and Alice Mare."

How long have you been working on your project? *Mitty: "The project has been in the works for around two years now! The first year was mostly planning and right now we are on the right track with the programming and asset creation for the demo, as well as music and sound design for later development. Planning isn't over yet though, especially for the final game." *Third: "I’ve been working on this for almost two years. The soundtrack possessed most of my earlier attention, but now it’s taken a backseat to writing, now that I’m actively writing the scripts for the game now. "

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Mitty: "Yes! The game has inspirations from plenty of sources, not only strictly RPG Maker Horror games, or games in general for that matter. If I were to mention those, of course games like Ib, The witch's house, Alice Mare, Pocket Mirror, Yume Nikki & .flow, Stray Cat Crossing, Mogeko's games...etc quickly come to mind. When it comes to the aesthetics and visuals, the inspirations come from several different places, including games like Alice Madness Returns, Dofus, Yomawari, The Legend of Mana, Little Nightmares...the list goes on; or other media, like Inu Curry's animation style or video creator nana825763, as well as some anime and music videos. Silent hill is also a huge inspiration for the atmosphere, and hopefully we can pull it off well!" *Third: "My primary inspiration, as I’ve said earlier, is Pocket Mirror, both for its masterful writing and soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is the main reason I still play piano. Whenever I’m feeling musical, my fingers always hunt out the same kind of haunting, mysterious, and sometimes peaceful and playful melodies that Pocket Mirror is rife with. In the end, our soundtrack is probably going to sound like Pocket Mirror and Aria’s Story’s soundtracks were meshed together. Story wise, commonplace elements in this genre like demons, monsters, mean parents and puzzles that tell the story are commonplace for a reason, and certainly find their way into this one, in their own special way. Every other game I’ve mentioned involves them in some form or another. And young, curious protagonists are also a blast to write and do evil things to and put in difficult, dangerous situations. "

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Mitty: "We surely have! Many of them in different areas ahaha Taking away bug hunting, I am primarily an artist, so programming for me is a secondary thing. Because of this it's easy to get carried away and hard to realise what can and can't be done. I don't want the game to be visually boring if I can make things move and seem alive! The way I'm handling it is programming like an artist: I think in my head what cool things I can do with my art by not having it completely still, and then it's a matter of executing it on the engine. However this comes with a downside. I tend to tweak things a lot, and that takes quite some time, but I honestly think it's worth it ahaha Also I find it hard to start writing, but when I do, I can't stop orz. Other challenges are also finding plot holes. This is fixed with a lot of studying the story, gathering inspiration and talking with the team. I also struggle a bit with communicating with the team, but thankfully they are all very nice and understanding." *Third: "Main challenge is overcoming the sheer weight of how much I have to learn about music and writing in order for this game to be what I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist, and when I care about something, I can’t tolerate it being worse than it could’ve been. Also, writing is getting more and more complicated and there’s more things and details to keep track of so as not to create inconsistencies or plot holes, especially as we try to revise it and make major changes to the story (Mitt will know what I’m talking about). "

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Mitty: "It changed a lot, not only in terms of the story and writing, but visually too. The basic concept is close to being the same, though. You can check out old posts in the blog where I consider different styles of mapping and such. Actually, don't, please. It's too old...and my writing...oh god." *Third: "The writing has come a long way, but now that we’ve fleshed out and written down much of the backstory, it’s a much more complicated story than what Mitt first showed me when I joined."

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Mitty: "Initially it was just me, occasionally having Mia to talk about the story and help develop it. Rindre joined as a voice actress very early on and also helped in other aspects of the game. Then I also talked about it with two friends I know in real life, one helped with organization and the other with some concept art, but they aren't that active anymore, even though I still count them as part of the team (Thank you guys btw if you're reading this). Eventually I met Third, an amazing composer and writer, and I asked him to join in! He brought along a friend who is also an amazing composer and writer, Code, and these two are complete madmen of music and writing and I'm super glad to be working with them, as they are super passionate and it makes me really happy ahaha. Bruno is also a really dedicated composer that is helping with a few tracks as well! Miku and Luccinia are two super talented and kind artists that have also been helping a ton with concept art, and their ideas have certainly improved the game as well. We are welcome to more concept artists, though! More heads, more ideas ahaha Recently we got the voice actresses for a few characters in the game, when we did the auditions, and hopefully soon another friend will jump aboard and help with organization and writing! We are a relatively small team, and sometimes progress goes a bit slowly since we can get busy, but we are all doing our best! I’m glad that I’m not alone. Links for their pages and such can be found on the team section on the blog, go support them if you can!"

What is the best part of developing a game? *Mitty: "For me, personally, I love seeing what my team mates come up with, whether it is music or concept art. I also enjoy the love and support we get, and it makes me excited in the development. As for the creation part, I like programming challenging cutscenes and doing cool things with the assets. Progress updates can also be fun to make when I have the time." *Third: "My favorite part is showing Mitt what I’ve written and composed. Making her happy and excited with my work is extremely fulfilling. "

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Mitty: "Oh, yes! Besides being a cool break from programming hell, it helps me make it less of a hell ahaha I like improvising, though, so I think I play RPG Maker games because I enjoy them for the most part." *Third: "Occasionally, not really. I don’t play many games and I’ve played the heck out of the ones I have."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Mitty: "Ah I don't know, honestly. I think I can relate to every character in one way or another, and it's hard picking one, especially since the game isn't out yet and I'd like to keep most characters hidden until the demo. Marinette is definitely one of my favourites, though, I just love how innocent and cute she is. Her cheekiness can be made super interesting ahaha" *Third: "My favorite character is definitely Pierre. He’s a complete blast to write, and gives me lots of cool things to describe and say through him, from his magic tricks to his killer lines and quotes."

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Mitty: "Hm...Having organized things better in the beginning would have saved a lot of time now, but I don't think it's been that big of a deal anymore. I don't have any regrets that I'm aware of at the moment since everything until this point was necessary to learn and get to where we are now."

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Mitty: "I'm not sure yet, it depends on the reception and how willing I'll be to continue the story. Even though I would find it fun to make comics, another game or a different midia, realistically I can't tell how willing I'll be to continue developing content about it after the game is finished. Honestly, I hope I can develop more projects on Marinette, we do have content for that, and I absolutely love it with my heart! But it's also equally important to move on to another story. Only time will tell!" Third: "I hope to, but that day is very far away for me. I’ll be gone for quite some time after Marinette is finished, and I hope I’m not forgotten by the time I return. Perhaps I’ll entertain myself with additional short stories exploring the various aftermaths of the game."

What do you most look forward to upon/after the release of a project? *Mitty: "I honestly just want to get the story out there. I'm hoping people will enjoy it if they play the game, and will have a special place in their hearts to keep it on. This project means a lot to me, and having it making people feel things is what I'm looking forward to. I'd love to see other people playing it, definitely. I imagine I'll eventually be relieved to have finally completed it, it'll be a big moment for me to sigh be proud of creating. I'll be able to move on to work on other fun things while I see how this little child of a game is going to do out there in the wild, and that's always nice!" *Third: "Fan reaction, 100%. Having people ask me questions about my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is my favorite part of writing."

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Mitty: "Yes, I don't want to feel empty with nothing to do when I finish the game. I know it will be great and all, but I've been working on it for so long that it's hard to imagine not working on it ahaha! It's a really fun hobby, but it's also engraved in my heart. I want it to be the best it can be, of course, so I'm scared of bugs, inconsistencies and overall it being clearly a bad game. I'm hoping that people will help with critiques on the demo, so I have a better outside perspective of where we are going. I don't want to drop the game, so I'm scared of having to take a long break from it during the development. I'm worried of being a terrible team leader as well." *Third: "I dread plot holes more than anything, and I dread a dull and overall unimpactful story. I want a tale that will punch the viewer in the gut, hard. I want to make them cry. I want to make them laugh. I want them to draw what I wrote, and explore it further in hopefully-not-too-sexual fanfiction."

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Mitty: "Don't be scared to start. You're going to suffer mid-way if it's a long term project, but keep pushing through, you'll learn a lot and it becomes easier with time. Take breaks and take it easy, step by step. LIST STUFF AND MAKE BACKUPS. Learn with short projects first. Ask for advice from people you admire, but never hold them on a pedestal. It’s always helpful to be a jack of all trades! Try to think from an outsider perspective if you're not sure of how it's going, and if you can, tell people you trust about the game and ask for opinions. Always take criticism well, but don't stress too much over harsher or even meaner comments. Have fun and never forget your starts, the people you meet and the reason you're doing the project for. If you're also an artist, writer, musician, remember this is a great opportunity to add something interesting to your portfolio. Cool visuals attract people, but they are not everything that will keep them hooked." *Third: "The best part of making a game is the people you make it with. The story is the most important ingredient of your game. Prioritize it first, and everything else will fall into place around it. Otherwise, everything will serve some other aspect of your game, and that’s rarely a good thing. Always speak your mind; do not every not say something just because it’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Obviously don’t be a tool, but if you ever have to choose between hurting the game and someone’s pride, pick someone’s pride. It’s much kinder in the long run."

Question from last month's featured dev Froach Club: Have you ever had a moment where you got completely stuck or became intensely frustrated while using RPG Maker? *Mitty: "Yes I have, I think everyone has QwQ Despite silly mistakes, I've gotten stuck several times, but honestly it's usually either us doing something stupidly hard that can be done another way, or we are just not skilled enough yet, and it's better to come back later. You can usually do most things you wanna do if you have the advantage of knowing the programming language your RPG Maker Engine uses I think. Google is your friend always, and sleeping about it also helps. I once dreamt of a whole sequence to fix a problem, and it worked! ahaha Always take it easy and don't give up, but know your limits and the limits of the engine!"

We mods would like to thank Teal Crown for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Marinette if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#marinette #rpg maker #rpgmaker #horror game #indie game #gotm #game of the month #gotm 2019 #august #august 2019 #teal crown #interview #horror #cute

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x0401x · 6 years ago

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Reports and Highlights: Yuukei Roadshow in Tokyo

Compilation of info found on Twitter, Togetter and Privatter. Many thanks to ayara-resara for indicating them all.

<< Previous Show || Index >>

Before reading any further, I highly recommend those who haven’t seen the first show’s reports to read them, since one is related to the other. I advice those who have already read the previous reports to take a look at the bottom of the post again too, because I’ve managed to find and translate more info on it.

@kon_noooo

Q.: Is Kano left-handed? A.: Ah~, I kinda feel like I’ve heard something about this from Sidu-san~! But there’s also the possibility that we’re being deceived... There’s a chance that he’s actually a vigorously right-handed right-hand shot! He seems to think of himself as cute. Like, “It’s so cute that I’m left-handed~”. Please wait for an official announcement on that...

I asked about this when I was getting his autograph... I’d wanted to confirm it no matter what...

(T/N: The “right-hand shot” part is a gatcha reference. Scoring a big hit from the right side is called “right-hand shooting”.)

@enehai_hiyori1

LISTEN UP!!!!!!!!! JIN SAID THAT ASAHINA-SAN IS A CUTE GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, y’see, I asked about what she likes.

I’m getting lots of reactions here so lemme tell you about when I got his autograph...

Q.: Does Asahina-san have anything that she likes other than cats? A.: She’s a cute girl who likes normal stuff. (The nuaces are difficult here so I can’t convey the whole idea, sorry.)

This is something that had been decided since the very beginning: she likes pancakes.

Jin-san: She probably wouldn’t make them herself, though. Me: She’d be like, “You do it”? Jin-san: She’d be like, “You do it”.

Jin-san: I wonder what state her bedroom is in... Me: Indeed...

Me: I tried to think of Asahina-san’s way of thinking (preferences), but I couldn’t come up with anything at all... Jin-san: Eh? She’s a girl who surprisingly likes normal stuff, isn’t she? Staff member: She is. I don’t remember the details so well but how much does that staff member know...?? They said something about “24 hours a day 365 days a year”. They did say that.

@takephotos12

Jin-san said, “Actually, just how much of what Kisaragi Shintarou says to his comrades is the truth?” and that’s too much for me; I’m in pain. I remember him saying before and after this that he was “going to kill a Kisaragi Shintarou cluster”, but my memory is kinda flying off the nest, so I hope I wrote this in my memo.

@nagihararion

Me: I like Haruka-senpai, so I dressed up like him today... Jin-san: Uwah~! Amazing! That blue plaid is really Haruka-like! Speaking of Haruka, I wanna make a spin-off with him as protagonist or something... Me: !?!?!?!! My memory is fuzzy from the point he said “spin-off” onward so I don’t remember it very well, but I feel that he talked about how he “wants to write it” and said that he’d “probably publish it”... I recall him telling me to “look forward to it”... probably...

By the way, I was dressed mostly like this back then:

@Tanapi_May

Me: When will Takane-chan’s birthday be revealed? Jin: Hu~m, I have no plans for it right now... but it’s a very important day. Some big incident or something of the sort will happen. Ah, but it might be in the future edition... Me: “Future edition”!? Jin: Yep, Takane-chan maybe being a Mama... Me: “Mama”!? I asked about this when I got his autograph.

@knkd3131

I only took a memo of the colors of the limelights during each song and my impressions on them, in case anyone wants to use it as reference... 🙇‍♀️

1. Imaginary Reload Lights: blue, green. The background guitar was cool. 2. Shissou Word Lights: purple, blue, green. It stopped at the second “watashi wa” (lol). 3. Additional Memory Lights: red. The interlude was long (nice). The last hook was emo. 4. Lost Day Hour Lights: white and peach with a mirror ball. Lights during the last hook: orange, peach, yellow, white and purple flashed on and off. Jin kept raising his right leg and his smile was cute. 5. Yume no Hana I don’t remember this one. It was a request from the last person to ask a question in the Q&A corner. “A song from THE BACK HORN that Jin-san likes.” 6. Remind Blue Lights: purple and blue with a mirror ball. 7. Solitude From the MV. Jin’s first independent album will be released. He wants the album to be like a picture book of short stories that will make us think he wants to create a new self separated from Kagerou. 8. Mermaid Lights: blue, green. A song from the album. It depicts a honeymoon. A song about boarding a plane alone. Jin: It’s a sad song, isn’t it? 9. FREAKS Lights: white, red. Lights during the last hook: peach, white, green, orange and red flashed on and off. Once upon a time, there was a clumsy monster. The song is about him, who entretains the crowd in a circus group today as well. Jin-san was lifting his right leg in this one. It was the one I liked the most, super emo. Parts of the song that I was able to catch: “I cried out of emptiness” (from the hook) “They laughed at me, who couldn’t become anything” (from the first part)

@shiunteen

I was overwhelmed by “FREAKS” and how its lyrics tear your body apart when you catch on Jin’s full-throttle melody and some other bits; the tears poured out of my eyes with pitter-pattering. Even though I don’t know anything about Jin, it left me in tatters, like, “Aah, he has it so hard; he’s suffered so much; must’ve been so painful”, and I saw in it the earnestness of an artist’s story depiction. I wanna listen to it again soon.

@yuzu_cosp

PV of MekaRelo

A funny story (about Jin’s chronically bad health) 🎵 Imaginary Reload

Q&A 🎵 Shissou Word

Q&A 2 🎵 Additional Memory

Break 🎵 Lost Day Hour

Lottery 🎵 [Requested song] Yume no Hana (THE BACK HORN)

Remind Blue Encore

Solitude

Jin’s first solo album will be released! 🎵 Mermaid 🎵 FREAKS

The editor of Mekakucity Talkers, Kuroda-san, was the host this time too.

Jin-san entered the stage with a mask on. “‘Why is that?’ Is what you’re thinking, right?”

He’d fallen into a bad condition at the end of the year. Caught a persistent cold that wouldn’t get better at all, and just when he thought he had finally cured himself from it, it turned into influenza. It got better a week prior to the concert, and when he thought he’d be able to do the live just fine, his molar swelled up two days before. Since his tooth was swollen, he got an edema in his face, and so he put on a mask.

There were cavities doing bad things to the root of his molar. He was told that he had no choice but have the tooth pulled out, but he explained that he had a live concert to do, so he received symptomatic treatment. He got three injections on the spot, in a place that had him going, “You’re gonna inject it there!?” and went home. Next morning (the morning of the day before the concert), he had an incision in addition to the injections, so he was in a lot of pain.

“Loxonin is amazing; it’s the only thing I can rely on.”

“Master, I’ll have the same as always,” he said as if to make his order → Jin-san and Kuroda-san’s drinks were soon delivered to the stage. One of the songs was the theme of the drinks...

🎵 Imaginary Reload

(On the tooth) “Thanks to the Loxonin, I’m not feeling pain, but it’s hard to move my mouth. Like, ‘it won’t go any farther than this point’.”

(Regarding Kuroda-san’s question of, “How’s the Imaginary Reload drink?”) “It’s carbonated, and I can’t be having carbonated drinks. Also, I had an incision yesterday, so all the more...”

Q&A Corner ①

Q.: Where do Hiyori and Hibiya live? A.: This would become a matter of “where is the setting of KagePro?”. There are models for it. I was indecisive as to whether I should reveal the actual place or not. In the series, it gets messed up (by terrorists and the like), so we’d decided not to announce it for the time being. As for the model of where the two live, it’s based on a village from somewhere in Hiroo Town, in the Tokachi District of Hokkaidou (where Jin-san himself used to live in the past). If you go there, you’ll figure that it’s a place where perverts are born (because it’s too full of nothing).

Q.: What’s Tsukihiko’s eye color? A.: Ah, I’m also curious about that (lol). The eye colors are important, so they’re all decided, but I told Sidu-san that “Tsukihiko is a normal human being”. Sidu-san also thinks lots of things out, like, “Won’t it be passed down to his daughter and granddaughter?”. In the Kisaragi family, too, there’s the setting that the father has orange hair and Shintarou takes after him, and the mother has black hair and Momo takes after her.

The comics would be over soon. They were going to end, but will continue.

This time, they’re following the track order of the album...

🎵 Shissou Word Right before the second hook, Jin-san ate the lyrics by the middle. He started singing again as if nothing had happened.

Q&A Corner ②

Q.: What kind of “story that -- the eyes” are Daze, Days and RED? A.: Daze and Days were made to be the theme songs of the anime from the very beginning, so I haven’t decided on that. If I were to give a subtitle to RED, it would be “the story that changes one’s eye color”. It’s a song about how two friends, one who likes to play around and one who is the studious type (memory is faint here), become self-conscious of the fact that the other has grown up. That “their eyes have been dyed into a color that they had never seen before”.

Q.: Please tell us about what you hesitated to say regarding Shintarou in the previous Q&A... A.: Ah, it’s the topic that will come up in this month’s Gene. Shintarou is the protagonist, but I didn’t get to delve into him, and there are more depictions of other people’s viewpoints than of his. Shintarou will be in the continuation of the series and will be a school teacher. Since marriages between characters and things like that are esteemed, I’ll write the continuation story, but this will be in a parallel what-if world. The next protagonist and abilities have been decided too. There are also new characters, characters that remained the way they are and characters that have grown up. It might not happen just in Japan. I wanna hurry and write.

Q.: How did you come up with Benisake-chan? (T/N: For those who don’t remember, that’s the name of the salmon mascot that Momo likes.) A.: I’ve always liked trout salmon ever since my days in Hokkaidou. I couldn’t eat it after coming to the Kantou Region because it’s expensive here, so I had it delivered from my family’s home and when I ate it for the first in a long while, I noticed that it makes you stinky even if you only touch it a little bit, so I was like, “This is it!!” and made her up. Sanrio’s Kirimi-chan was invented immediately after that, and it made me go, “Hey, hey...”. She was cuter and had me like, “This is how a mascot character is supposed to be”, ww.

Q.: What do you create first, tune, lyrics or melody? A.: I started using VOCALOIDs after the band I was in broke up, and when I thought of “doing what I wanted to do”, I considered creating a story through albums and started KagePro. I’d decided from the beginning that the story would include phrases that go “a story that ○○ the eyes”. KagePro was the first thing I made in which I created songs from world-building. Sometimes, songs come out of phrases like “Oh, my dirty!”. And the phrases come from requested themes.

🎵 Additional Memory

(10-minute break)

The song that Jin-san was happy to write out of the ones from this album... 🎵 Lost Day Hour

Lottery (prizes below)

A picture with Jin

A Jin can badge set

A special (signed) ticket holder and two bookmarks of the study books series

Mekakucity Talkers (signed)

A poster of MekaRelo (signed)

A secret present (which would be mailed at a later date, since Jin-san couldn’t look for it in his house due to his poor health condition)

The right to request a song

The request → a song from THE BACK HORN that Jin-san likes.

🎵 Yume no Hana (THE BACK HORN)

“This is the last one...” he said, and a video played after he was done, but then he was like, “I’ll come up and play one more song w” (swinging his body forward).

🎵 Remind Blue

Jin-san leaves the stage. The PV of Solidute plays. At the end of the PV, the confirmation that Jin-san’s first solo album will hit the shelves is announced.

Jin-san reappears on stage. “I’ll release a full album,” he says. He composed Solitude about four years ago and sang it at CDJ before.

“They’re songs I made because I wanted. I’m looking forward to this the most.”

🎵 Mermaid (a song about someone boarding a plane all alone on their honeymoon)

When he only played the songs he was asked to play, it was like, “Lie low.”

🎵 FREAKS

“I’ll do other concerts so please come again!” With this one sentence, it was over.

@BlueD01

On the topic of Jin-san’s tooth: “My mother always told me to brush my teeth so I always brushed it... How did it turn out like this...? It’s like it comes from the side of the tooth...” *proceeds to explain the proggression of the cavities*

Q.: Jin-san, when you’re create a song, do you give them to a character after making the song? Or do you come up with a character and make a song for them? A.: I formed a band in high school in the past and we used to be active, but though I’d wanted to continue on the band, the others wound up turning into “adults”. From there, I was recommended to use VOCALOIDs, but I could only make incomplete songs, like, the type of song that you play a little bit and just two people in the audience go, “wa~h” at it. Back then, the common usage of “eyes” caught my attention, like, “people become idols when they draw in the eyes of others”. So I started making KagePro. Also, I’d wanted to make idol-like songs. And that is connected to the following topic. I wanted to write a story of growth. Just like Hoshi wo Tsunagete from Kemono Friends, you can make stuff that goes, “this character is like that~”. It varies with each song.

So, Jin-san wanted to create idol-like songs. Also, Kisaragi Attention (he didn’t state this but most it likely) is a song with the theme “it doesn’t matter if one’s own nature (their sense?) doesn’t match them, as long as a third party accepts it”, and it seems it turned into an idol song from this.

Jin-san: *sees the lottery poster* I want that poster... The host: Do you not have it? Jin-san: I don’t. I might’ve given it to my mother.

(After the lottery) Jin-san: I’d wanted to bring it over from my house, but lots of things happened... I’ll mail the big deal on a later date. After the concert ends, please... talk to the staff member over there. We won’t do anything bad with your personal information. *laughs*

@bonus_time34

During the introduction of the colaboration drinks: “We did this in Oosaka last time, and we prepared the same stuff for Tokyo.” He called the drink a “soup”. “This soup has a nice color, huh~. Master, I’ll have the usual (lol).” A red “soup” came straight from the back. “It’s almost as if it was already prepared, lol.” The host joked as it was brought to him, “You’re getting VIP treatment, huh (lol).”

First half of the question and answers corner. “Think of a question with my songs as the BGM (lol).”

“Jin-san is in a period where he uses ‘I really like you’ in his songs a lot (lol)!”

“Now comes the song by your beloved uncle for your other beloved uncle: Additional Memory.”

Jin-san waving his hand as he retreated into the waiting room looked so happy and cute that everyone waved back. I wound up lost as to whether I should applaud or wave.

“How was the album?” “It was the be~st!” some people raised their voices. “I listen to it a lot too. But I don’t cry. I did cry when taking the injections, though (lol).”

“I’m glad I was able to compose this one: Lost Day Hour.” The prolongation of his voice during the hook was wonderful. The high-pitch parts were beautiful. “This song is about the character called Kokonose Haruka.” (My memory of this talk is faint.)

To explain the rules of the lottery: anyone who made an additional order would get a lottery ticket. “(The special present) Could be a signed truck tire (lol) or a signed light-motor vehicle with an expired license (lol). Something that would be a pain in the ass (lol, lol).”

Here, he talked about brushing his molars. “‘How do you brush your molars?’ The dentist’s face looked like a lightning had fallen in front of him.”

The request of the lottery winner was for Jin’s favorite song by THE BACK HORN. “I’m indecisive about this one (lol)! Seriously?! Okay, then!” He played Yume no Hana. He was excited and seemed to be having fun. To the person who made the request, thank you... “I didn’t think I’d get to play THE BACK HORN. It was the best.”

Then, we had the last song... or so he said. “Though I say this is the last one, we will play a video, and I’ll come back after the applause, so I might play something once more (lol),” he stated. “Let’s see each other again somewhere else. This has been Jin. Thank you. Here’s Remind Blue.” The arrange of the second part was amazing. The hook of that part... was great...

The animation of Solitude was cool but the lyrics were good too... Below are a sketch I made of the girl from the video while watching it, as well as a drawing I made of her relying on my memory.

“I played this at COUNTDOWN JAPAN. Is there anyone who listened to it?” About ten people raised their hands. “So there is~. I had thought something along the lines of, ‘let’s do this (solo album)’ after releasing the second album. I was asked things like, ‘Won’t you make that into a CD?’ by the people who listened to Solitude. I’m the one looking forward to it (the release of the solo album) the most.”

He introduced a new song from that album, Mermaid. “Weren’t your titles always supposed to be written in kanji and katakana!? What happened (lol)!?” “Nothing happened (lol).”

“Until I started using VOCALOIDs, my songs felt like holding a concert for only two people while going, ‘It’s destruction~! I’ll tear up your eardrums~!’ (lol)” “It’s been about eight years since last time I made something just because I wanted to compose and listen to it. I wanna make stuff that I feel like conveying.” It seems he composed it based on that. Unlike KagePro, this album will be like a “collection of short stories”.

Mermaid was a song about a honeymoon. The high-pitched hook was melancholic. Jin-san also said this, but it was like a fairy tale.

When he was making songs on request or KagePro songs: “It was like, ‘Even if you have a scenario in your head, lie low’.” He managed to put the things that crossed his mind into songs. He did it...

(A little before another song.) “Can I do it? It’s okay, isn’t it (lol)?” “I’m happy to release (the song) in this occasion (talk live concert).”

The thrilling melody of FREAKS is damn great. It’s a song that gives you courage.

This one was really the last song, so Jin concluded it with his farewells. “I’m thinking of playing many other new songs.” So he’ll do concerts again...? Ambiguous...

After this, there was an announcement, and an autograph session of sold goods and sets.

From the time I got Jin-san’s autograph: when I said, “I like Kisaragi Momo-chan! Thank you very much for always!” he replied, “She sure is popular, huh~”, so I think there were probably about two more people before me who showed the appeal of a Momo fan.

It was a really fun talk-and-play show and I wasn’t able to cool down my excitement. I wanna go again...

@mine1_Hedgehog

Yuukei Roadshow in Tokyo Memo

(About his tooth.) His face was swollen, so he came wearing a mask, but even after his cavities healed a little, instead of going “wah~”, he ended up feeling dejected. “It was like, ‘Did I put on weight?’”

This time, the host ordered a drink that was named after one of the album’s songs! “That’s right; if you pay for it, you get a drink.” He thought it had a good color and was happy to receive it. “Then, Jin-san, you order yours too,” he was prompted. “Master, give me the usual soup.” → “Oka~y.” And so, a red drink came to him as if it had been waiting for a cue. It was an Imaginary Reload one.

The first track was Imaginary Reload. The lights were green. I got emo when listening to that yapping electrict guitar song being played with an acoustic guitar... He’s good with the guitar...

Once it was over, the host was like, “It was a cool song with a dashing sense to it, huh?” and Jin-san interjected, “That’s right.”

When he was asked why he wasn’t having his drink, he said, “I can’t drink anything carbonated right now (because of his molar).” “Don’t cry~” Why did he choose that, then? “Carbonated drinks seriously sting. They make me feel awake.” “It’s literally an ‘imaginary reload’.” “It smelled of blood.” Seriously, why did he choose that?

Here we had the first questions and answers corner. *Looks at the letters displayed on-screen* “This is like a detective drama!” “You can ask about anything, even if it’s not KagePro-related! It can be about secrets regarding Jin’s birth and things like that too!” [roar of laughter] “It’ll finally be revealed...!”

Shintarou’s mother is set to be originally from Hokkaidou. Speaking of which, Momo-chan had mentioned this.

HibiHiyo’s village is based off the village where Jin-san used to live in the past. It’s linked to a town, but the place is actually a weird gathering of villages that you could hardly call a town. There’s seriously nothing there at all. “You’d understand if you saw it, but it’s a place where perverts are born. You have nothing to do there except be delusional.”

(On the topic of Tsukihiko’s eye color.) Sidu-san is in a zone unknown to Jin-san regarding this. In volume 4, his eyes “don’t open because he’s laughing”, but in the manga, he indeed has them closed at all times, www. Jin-san said he had normal eye color, but Sidu-san’s “normal eyes” are wicked, so we can’t know for sure.

There was a lottery after this. The rule was that people would win based solely on the amount of food they got. “You don’t have to spend too much money. That’s not the kind of game it is.”

*drinking his beverage* “Is there anyone here who was also in Oosaka? [lots of hands go up] “I love you...” [roaring laughter]

Second track was Shissou Word. He trailed off at the first verse of the second half like, “wata(shi wa)...” and then resumed after three seconds as if nothing had happened. I forgot why, but he said “I love you~” again afterward.

I think Shintarou is a smart, lovable and good person, but Jin-san sees him as mysterious. He doesn’t know very well how much of what Shintarou says is the truth.

Jin-san was shocked that Vegeta and Bulma from DB got married. “That yankee and Bulma...” It seems he thought he was gonna die.

Everyone thinks that so and so are in a romantic relationship and will definitely get married! Jin just hasn’t written that yet! Even though this kind of thing goes on (in fandom), he can’t bear to see these sprouts of hope get plucked. That’s why the future story that he’ll write next will be like a parallel/what-if thing, and won’t become the future of the normal route. There’s no definite answer to the things Jin writes.

The next protagonist is already decided. The new characters too. It might also happen in places other than Japan. For Mekakushi-dan, there’ll be those who will appear just like they were before and those who will appear grown-up. I think it’ll be a good story.

@natunyudo

Jin-san: How was the live? Me: It was great! I also went to the one in Oosaka, but it was so good that I also came to this one in Tokyo... Jin-san: Thank you very much. How were the new songs? Me: They were good! Jin-san: Which one did you like most? Me: Ah... Mermaid! I was touched...! Jin-san: I’ll do my best in the other new songs! I’ll also make even better albums than this one (MekaRelo)! Me: I’m looking forward to them! I’ll buy them for sure! Ah, also, this... *hands over a letter* Jin-san: Wah~, thank you so much! *stares at the letter fixately* There’s a musical note written here~🎵 *sees my name written at the back* Thank you very much, [my name]-san. Me: ......!!? (He called my name...!!???) Jin-san: I’ll also do my best to fix my cavities! Me: Ah... please do your best! I’ll be cheering for you!

@nozunozu0815

Me: Thanks for having me win the lottery! Jin-san: Ah, it was you?! We also met in Oosaka, didn’t we?! This time, unlike back in Oosaka, we obsessed with the CD order for the songs so it was different, right? Did you have fun? Me: There was Imaginary Reload and it was really the best! Speaking of which, that person who’s been an Asahiner for seven years came today too, but there was no My Funny Weekend. 😇 Jin-san: Ah, that’s true. You noticed it. You see, I can’t open my mouth to sing My Funny Weekend. 😇 That one has really high notes~, honestly~. Me: Indeed. Since your mouth is swollen, it might be difficult. 😇 But getting to listen to new songs was also the best! (He finishes writing the autograph)... If it’s okay with you, can we shake hands? Jin-san: That’s fine! Thank you for coming today! I intend to do this again somewhere else, so please do come listen~! Me: Thank you very much too! I’ll definitely go! And I’ll definitely not wash these hands anymore! Jin-san: Please stop that, ww. Please wash them, ww. Seriously... you’ll get influenza, ww.

We had a conversation like that. 😇

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #mekakucity reload #kagerou daze #jin #shizen no teki p #yuukei roadshow #yuukei roadshow in tokyo #my translation #event

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odissey061 · 5 years ago

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Motonari's route

Chapter(s) posted:

1. This freak won't have me

2. Kick him in the teeth

Please, teach me a better way to create link because I can't do it by myself

Chapter 3: This trick never worked at human's memory

Tag: @towa-no-yume @r-f-a-journalists

When I open my eyes the first thing I feel is an acute headache: the hands run through the hair until I discover a bump. I press it to see if I feel the pain and then I whimper like a baby: it hurts a lot. Why I'm so stupid? I take a look around me and I notice I'm in a cold and empty cell. The room is surrounded by three wooden walls and before me there's an iron grille. Here and there on the floor against the wall there are spooky chains that make me chill and smile nervously. At this moment I heard the rolling waves and I understand I'm on a ship.

Where I am? How many time has passed since my kidnap? I must return to the Oda right now! A lot of hours passed since I left Azuchi castle: I told to Hideyoshi I'd come back after lunch, so probably they have already noticed my absence.

I try open the door but, obviously, is locked and I look around to find something to force the look, but the room is empty, except the chain on the wall. Then I took a clip from my hair and, holding it tight in the hand, I pray:"At human memory this trick never worked, but, please, if there's even the littlest chance, make it happens". Great, now I pray to objects like they were gods!

I plug the clasp in the door lock but, as I expected, it doesn't work. Pushed by despair, I retry again and again, but after a large number of failed attempts and swears, finally I give up and I lean my back on the wall. A man appears in front of me: he's very tall and his body is made by tons of muscles, his eyes shining with malice. With a look I understand this man is a brute and he doesn't hesitate to use violence and if I had to fight against him, I'd probably die. "Who are you and why I'm here?" I demand, but he laughs dryly:"I'm the one who makes the questions here, little girl" and he opens the door. As he spoke, I recognize him as the man who kidnapped me. He enters in the cell and leaves open the door. I try to gain more time:"I understand why you kidnapped me: I'm very close to the Oda commanders and your boss wants information about them", Well, at least you are not stupid, that makes easier my work. So little girl, talk about your friends" he comments. "The problem is exactly about this: you see, I'm only their maid and I don't know anything about their future moves, so keep me here is useless" I lie and I walk towards the door. But the man grabs my hair, making me moan for the pain and yells at me:"You think I'm so stupid to believe you? I'm not a fool! In Azuchi people say Nobunaga brought you to battle on his horse His voice becomes lower, still being threatening:"If you don't tell me spontaneously all you know about them, I'll make you confess with the bad manners". And when he shows a bag full of torture instruments and I'm terrified. I don't know very much about torture, but I can imagine how much they'd hurt my body. I want to scream for help, but I know nobody will save me. My face gets paler. I know already how this will finish: this man will torture me until I speak, but I don't know anything, so he'll kill me for nothing. I'll die for anything!!

"I'm not his lover: I'm his maid and I have been staying in Azuchi for a few days. I don't know anything about them and if I knew something, I surely won't talk to you" I repeat using a quiet voice to not make him angrier. "Bad answer" he smiles sadistically, almost happy about my resistance and slaps me so violently to turn my head. "Try again, little girl, but the next time I won't so merciful".

"And if I don't confess what are you going to?" I bravely provoke him. The Oda forces helped me a lot and I won't betray them for my own safety. "I'll break all of your bones and if you won't talk, then I'll cut the tendons of your hands and your feet. If you still won't confess I'll remove your eyes, then I'll tear your ears and finally I'll cut your tongue" his threats scare me a lot, but I won't give up my loyalty. He takes from the bag a strange object and he places it near to my nails.

No no no no. Please, somebody help me!

I close the eyes too scared to watch, but at that moment I hear a new voice:"Yoshitoko, what are you doing here? I'm sure the captain hasn't told you to torture this girl since he is out to collect information with a few men. So I wonder: whose order are you following?". I open my eyes and I see a young man who's throwing diggers with the glare at the man in front of me. The newcomer is younger than this man, but somehow the eldest has to obey him. "The captain is still a child, quartermaster: if all of us wait for his command, we'd have alredy died. He doesn't know what to do and he's not able to keep the promise he made" he growls, "He's the captain, not you: he knows what's the best for us better than you. You are only able to hurt people and torture them, for this reason you won't be a captain. Now leave, Yoshitoko" The man speaks with a rough voice and I can feel the subtle threat he silently implies. I except a Yoshitoko's reaction, but he obeys whispering something.

Left alone, the young man is more relaxed walks towards me and I step back, so he reassures me:"I don't want to hurt you. I want to check your wound". I let him check my arm. I groan for the pain when he tries to move it. He looks more friendly than his colleague, so I try to ask:"Can you tell me who are you and how many days passed since my kidnap? Will you torture me again to seek information I don't have?". He sighs: "The arm is broken, now I call a doctor so he can help you better. Now you are on a pirate ship and you were kidnapped by Yoshitoko yesterday, following captain's order. Now the captain is away, but in a short time he'll be back and will decide what to do about you". "Earlier I said the truth: I don't know anything about Nobunaga's future plans. Keep me here he's useless" I whisper, "Even if you don't know anything you'll probably stay here as a political hostage to be used against your friends" the man explains my situation. The sadness overwhelms me to the thought I'll be used against my friends: I can't do this to them. "But as I told you is the captain to decide, so he could even release you" he tries to reassure me, but I have no illusions: if I were in his position I'll do the same. I even realize probably I won't be able to go back to my time. No way this will happen! The man says they wait for their captain, so it means the ship is still in the port: that makes my escape more easily. The man is inside the cell and the grill is open: all I have to do is run and don't be caught. But the pirate in front of me is still vigil even if he's more relaxed, surely is ready to catch me and even I'd beat him he'll give the alarm. No, escape at this moment is too risky but if I don't do it right now later would be impossible.

The only thing I can do is talk with the captain: I'm even ready to beg for my release, it's necessary. "The captain will be here in a few hours, so be more patient" he ends the conversation. "What kind of man is your captain?" I wonder, "The captain? Is an edgy man. He treats with respect his subordinates, but he doesn't trust anyone except me on this ship. Is the type of person who can be your friend but he stabs you in the back some minutes after" he responds. So he's a bastard and the possibilities he'd let me go are very low.

* * *

It's almost evening and Hideyoshi is worried: y/n told him this morning she'd have gone in the city until lunchtime, but she didn't come back. He asked around but nobody was able to tell him where y/n was. He alerted Nobunaga who decided to hold a war council to find her. Hideyoshi expresses all of his worry and Mitsunari takes word with a stern look on his face:"I'm quite worried as well, Lord Hideyoshi. We should look after her".

"Maybe she escaped after she went to war, after all, was her first time on a battlefield. I won't be surprised" Mitsuhide suggests with his cunning tone, but a more careful eye can see a glimpse of worry. In the past days, he went to some places with a very horrible reputation and in a red light district and he noticed a lot of Portuguese men who acted too much secretive for being simply merchant. They were really cautious: they gazed around before speaking with someone and once Mitsuhide risked revealing his true identity. Just today he succeeded to talk with a man after days of failures, but what he discovered was suspicious arms traffic. He didn't discover anything about y/n's missing. And the possibilities she's been kidnapped are not low. "My lucky charm is not a coward, Mitsuhide: she proved it during the war"

Nobunaga scolds him, "Then I suppose we should look after her" snorts Ieyasu. "As if you hadn't done it before, before" teases Mitsuhide: Ieyasu's contrarian reactions are always a delight for him.

"Lord Ieyasu is always so kind" Mitsunari praises him. Ieyasu scolds him:"I told you I wasn't searchi-", "Enough! Each of you will send your own scouts in the city to collect information" Nobunaga stops the discussion. Once the council ends, all the warlord obey to Nobunaga orders, sending men in the city and its surroundings with the order to search for y/n and arrest everyone look suspicious. But as time passes, nobody finds y/n.

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muffin-n-waffle · 6 years ago

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Channy Watches Anime Sometimes And You Should Too: Fall 2018 Edition

I’ve feel like I’ve been trying to make this post for forever, but life has gotten a little busy with Halloween prep and the like. Regardless, this particular season is one of my favorites, and I’m hoping that some of the new anime coming out of this season become some of my favorites as well. With that, let’s get started! I’ll actually be listing these anime from my favorite so far, but as time goes on, my opinion could obviously change. But, without further ado, here we go!

So Many Colors in the Future What a Wonderful World

In Nagasaki, a descendant of mages, 17-year-old Hitomi lost her sense of color at a young age and grew up lacking emotion. Her grandmother Kohaku, a great mage, sends Hitomi to the past, to the year 2018. There, she spends time with a 17-year-old Kohaku and friends from club activities.

Right now is the perfect time of year to watch something that feels a little...magical. So far this show is super pretty, and I really like the concept too. The pace is a bit slow, but it honestly makes the experience feel more relaxing instead of as if it’s dragging, at least in my opinion. Considering this plo has magic and time travel in it, I’ll be looking forward to see where it goes.

Run with the Wind

Kakeru, a former elite runner at high school, is chased for stealing food. He is saved by a Kansei University student Haiji, who is also a runner. Haiji persuades Kakeru to live in the old apartment "Chikuseisou" where he plans to team up with fellow residents to enter Hakone Ekiden Marathon, one of the most prominent university races in Japan. Kakeru soon finds out that all of the residents except for Haiji and himself are complete novices.

So, after giving sports anime a chance last season, I found that I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it’s likely predictable, and often follows the same formula, but usually the shows are super feel good with just the right amount of painful drama on the side to make your heart hurt. I think, actually I know, this is the reason that I can watch animated sports when I can’t really watch them at all in real life. The stakes here seem to feel higher because I get to know the characters along the way, and I feel as if I really have someone to root for. That being said, this anime is awesome so far. The animation is fluid, and the way it’s directed is just so, so beautiful.

Zombieland Saga

A typical morning. The usual music. Their normal lives. The peace these seven girls experience will suddenly be destroyed. By the living dead... zombies. A reality that they never wanted a part of, an amazing and terrifying zombie world. They all share one wish: "We want to live." These girls will struggle through this saga, in order to achieve a miracle.

And idol show, but with zombies! Honestly, this show wasn’t even on my radar until I saw a clip of it on youtube, which was from the very beginning of the first episode, and I’m so glad that I decided to pick it up. I feel like this is hilarious commentary on just how terrible life can be for real life idols, but we’ll see how the show ends up playing out. For now I’ve been super happy with it.

As Miss Beelzebub Likes

Beelzebub is a great demon lord who rules over several millions of demons. Myurin, who decides to serve the demon lord, learns that not only does Beelzebub lack the poise of a great demon, but is also a laid-back girl who likes fluffy things. Thus begins the daily-life comedy revolving around the many villains in the demon world.

Sure, this show might be about hell and demons, but it’s seriously the cutest thing I’ve ever fucking seen. Honestly it’s like a slice of life workplace romantic comedy, and I enjoy the shit out of it every single week.

Bloom into You

Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and blushes, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her...she feels nothing. Disappointed and confused, Yuu enters high school still unsure how to respond. That's when Yuu sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she's inspired to ask her for help. But when the next person to confess to Yuu is Nanami herself. Has her shoujo romance finally begun?

Y’all I relate to the main character, Yuu, here so much that it’s not even funny. This is mostly because (slight spoiler alert) even when she does get a confession from Nanami, she still doesn’t really feel anything. There’s no flash of light, or punch to the gut telling her that yes, this is the one! She even feels jealous that Nanami can have such feelings. I know in the long run she’s going to feel something for Nanami, but so far it’s been amazing seeing a character like this in a romance anime! Regardless, this has been a really cute shoujo so far, and I can’t wait to see where it leads.

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai

Puberty syndrome – abnormal experiences rumored on the internet to be caused by sensitivity and instability during adolescence. This year, Sakuta Azusagawa, a second-year student at a high school near Enoshima, meets several girls that are experiencing this "puberty syndrome." For instance, he meets a wild bunny girl in the library. She turns out to be an actress on hiatus, Mai Sakurajima, who is also his senior at the school. For some reason, no one else can see this enchanting girl. How did she become invisible...? As Sakuta searches for answers to help Mai, they spend more time together, and he eventually learns of her hidden feelings...

Weird title and weird plot summary, I know, but so far this one has been fairly intriguing. I know it sounds like it’s going to be a harem anime, but with how the episodes have all gone so far, I don’t think thats going to be the case. I really hope not to be disappointed with this one, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tsurune

The story follows Minato Narumiya. Minato played Japanese archery in middle school, but after a certain incident, he ran away from the sport. In high school, Minato meets new friends, and together as part of their school's archery club they aim to win the prefectural tournament.

Another sports anime, and while this one does have a lot of promise due to the fact that it has Kyoto Animation backing it up, there’s something about the pacing that hasn’t quite grabbed me just yet. This one only started a couple of weeks ago though, so there’s still a lot of time for the story to completely take hold of my heart. As a side note, the music in this is really beautiful, and it’s been one of my favorite parts so far.

Boarding School Juliet

The story takes place at Grigio Academy Boarding School where students come from two rivaling countries known as the "Black Dogs" and "White Cats." Persia and Inuzaka are leaders of their respective dorms, but they are secretly in love with each other. Now, they must keep their relationship a secret from other dorm mates while trying to avoid trouble.

In the beginning I was afraid this one was going to be far too melodramatic for me, but thankfully this is taking a comedic route instead of a tragic one. However, something with this anime just isn’t clicking with me despite the fact that I really want to like it. Normally romantic comedies are my favorite genre, but I think the comedy here is what’s not hitting the right notes, at least for me personally. I’m going to stick with this one to see where it goes, but I hope to not be too disappointed by it in the long run.

Anima Yell!

The anime centers on Kohane Hatoya, a young girl who loves to be helpful to others. After she moves from middle school to high school, she becomes fascinated with cheerleading, and she starts a cheerleading club at her high school. Joining Kohane in her cheerleading activities is the experienced Hizume and Kohane's childhood friend Uki.

One last sports anime, though this one is so low on the list mostly because I’m not expecting much from it. Overall it’s a cute anime about cute girls doing cute cheers, and it’s been a nice show to unwind with on my Sunday evenings.

#anime #so many colors in the future what a wonderful world #run with the wind #zombieland saga #as miss beelzebub likes #seishun buta yarou wa bunny girl senpai no yume wo minai #bloom into you #boarding school juliet #anima yell!#tsurune

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chibalein · 7 years ago

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Kalafina Live Report @Osaka - Christmas Premium Live 2017 (Part 2 of 2)

Click here for Part 1. Click here for my Live Report of the Acoustic Live in Zama.

Amidst all the negative speculations, here is something real for you xD Again, this will be a long post, but please read it until the very end. Thank you :) Feel free to comment or ask anything you like!

The musicians entered the stage and tested their instruments shortly, when Sakurada started to play a short solo and Kalafina entered the stage as well.

Let’s talk about their dresses first. You can see them here. (I wrote the following part before those were released, so feel free to skip it). Hikaru’s dress was more of a crimson red, tight at the torso and going straight and wider downwards. All of the dresses had the image of wedding dresses, although different types. Her dress was certainly the most modest of all, so to say, but I was too far away to see any details. Also, I absolutely loved Hikaru’s hair style. It’s simple, the way she has her hair most of the time I guess, but I think it looks the best on her, without any special/big ornaments or tightly braided parts. I liked her outfit the most too. Keiko’s dress was the most impressive. Being pink/magenta/white, her dress stood out the most, mainly because it was HUGE. It was almost double the size compared to Hikaru and she looked so much bigger and taller than she actually is, but she was absolutely gorgeous, especially with the flower adornments in her hair. On her left side of the dress, there was a huge rose-shaped part. Wakana’s dress was of a bright red, with many layered parts and she was the closest to being a princess bride. Totally stunning as these kinds of dresses suit her very well, in my opinion.

Kalafina started with “dolce”, not that big of a surprise I thought. While the roof was lighted up in blue, the stage was brightly illuminated. Keiko sang extremely deep, deeper than usual when she is “just” support. She sounded a lot like a bass in the background with turned up volume. But it created a great mood and along with Wakana they all created an emotional beginning for us.

After that, the stage became dark, with big spotlights from above on the girls. The spotlights also had the be much bigger than normal, so their big dresses fit into the circles xD The neon tubes inside the diamonds in the background shone green, the stage was then illuminated partly in red – Christmas colors!

“We wish you a merry Christmas” on this festive stage, simply great. The “trees” on the stage also began to shine. Hikaru was absolutely cool here, her English is great (in contrast to the other two *cough*) and she had fun on stage as far as I could see. In the middle part, where Wakana starts to sing very high, she simply killed it and Keiko made of lot of gestures with arms and torso – they didn’t move a lot during the concert… you know, the dresses. It was a pretty performance and another great introduction for a Christmas concert.

During MC #1, they bowed before the audience, but in these dresses they couldn’t do it normally, so they had to make a curtsey like the beautiful princesses that they are. Wakana said that they have been doing the Acoustic Tour since November and wanted to convey Christmas emotions to us, although it wasn’t Christmas yet. Keiko mentioned that this was their first Christmas Live this year and Hikaru asked for the stage to be lightened up, so she could see the audience. She was impressed that so many people managed to come on a weekday, she thanked us for that and they wanted to “show us many landscapes”.

Let’s stop here for a second and talk about the setlist. Despite this concert being awesome and absolutely stunning, I was a bit disappointed by the setlist. Take out the Christmas songs and “snow falling” and it was totally the same as Zama/the Acoustic tour. Even in the same order. And if I take the Nikko Live into consideration as well, then there were many songs I would hear for the third time in a row now. I fully understand that the girls are super busy and can’t come up with a whole new setlist in such a short time. Since they also probably in the middle of preparations for the 10th Anniversary Live, of course, they go with the songs they have rehearsed already. I am not saying that this is bad or that these songs are bad – but still I had hoped for a bit more than just one different song of their normal repertoire, like “Door”, “Haru ha kogane no yume no naka”, “Kotonoha”, “Kichigo no shigemi ni”, “Hokage”, “Sorairo no isu” or, especially in that “light” block, “Kimi ga hikari ni kaeteyuku” (come on, that would have been so awesome). ALLELUIA! They have their own song called “Alleluia”, for gods sake XD These are all songs that are already in acoustic more or less, but are rarely performed… it’s just a pity, in my opinion, particularly for those who attended (more than one) Acoustic Live. However, before the hate starts that I don’t appreciate this enough bla bla, that does not mean AT ALL that I did not enjoy this. Very much the opposite. Yes, a little disappointment was there, but that gave me also the great chance to listen to those masterpieces again and to find details that I didn’t notice the first time. Also, many performances differed from before, so there was plenty new stuff to discover and luckily, since no “Storia” or “Ring your bell”, there was not a single song that I dislike! I loved every performance - only for the second or third time already xD Feel free to compare this report with my Zama report to see what could have been different, see link at the top of this post (I am way too lazy to do it myself). Here is my biggest criticism of Kalafina so far: THEY DON’T HAVE A PROPER ACOUSTIC ALBUM YET! So many acoustic concerts, so many non-acoustic songs re-arranged and no album dedicated for that! Come on, girls, throw out those Christmas songs and blow us away with an acoustic version of “Ongaku” XDD

Ok, anyway, the next song was “Sapphire”. I didn’t mind at all to listen to this beautiful song again. The stage was in a deep blue and green, with some sort of green lines as a pattern in the background. It gave a rather painful impression and contributed greatly to the song’s mood instead of a plain blue stage. Especially the red dresses were a big contrast to that. Keiko and Wakana sang very emotionally and Wakana’s tender voice (I actually wrote “butter soft” in my notes, as we can say in German XD) was perfect. The Strings as well as Sakurada did an awesome job for the whole night and I really came to appreciate the Strings boys. They are often drowned out by the other band members in non-acoustic songs, but here they could go full power and be properly heard. Hikaru had put on her sad face, but struggled with the high notes. Her “koborete yuku“ was pretty much drowned out by Keiko because she wasn’t loud enough. I felt so sorry for her, because you could really see her giving all her best but it just wouldn’t come out right :/ Still, great performance by all of them.

Next was “Sandpiper”, horray! The stage was of a warm orange and Hikaru again very emotional. The Cello again killed it. Other than that, this one did not really differ from Zama or Nikko. During the long instrumental part Kalafina looked first to the left, then to the right side, while they were also illuminated from each side. A bit boring I have to admit, but the dresses looked so cool in that light. Hikaru again, the prettiest! At the end, they changed positions with Hikaru in the middle, but she showed as her back while the other two their sides.

“Magia” started with a deep red/pink stage, so not very Christmas-y. During the chorus it became blue/green and had a rather mystical touch, but I liked it very much. I feel like “Magia” is one of those songs where Kalafina always tries to be more experimental, as they also had a lot of light changes. Hikaru��s “negai” were very dramatic and the performance was so much stronger than any “Magia” performance I’ve ever heard/seen before. As the song continued, Hikaru gained more and more speed and power. She sang the words very emphasized and clipped, she got louder during the second chorus. All of three sang so much more powerful, they all got louder and more vigorous too. The instrumental part was skipped and Keiko continued with her part in a green background, while it became red again for the last chorus. With the end of Hikaru’s final “negai”, the song also ended immediately, with a single spotlight focussing on Hikaru. This was probably my favorite performance of the night. I have heard and seen this song so many many times by now, as it comes up in pretty much every bigger concert, and I was simply surprised that they still can surpass themselves by just changing a few little things. In acoustic, the focus lies almost exclusively on their voices and people get not distracted by the band or the show itself so easily.

From one strong song to another, next was “Blaze”, another song I really enjoyed. We had dark blue/white illuminations and with Keiko being in the middle again, the whole song became again a lot more sadder. Then during chorus a pink/red/orange stage and Hikaru sang with a lot of gestures. Like in Zama, they sang certain words and syllables during the chorus extremely emphasized, like “sekasaRETE”, “SAkende” etc. For the Kajiurago bridge they came close together. Have I ever mentioned that I love love love Keiko in that part? That short moment where she sings very very high is awesome every single time. I also noticed that Hikaru had a single flick of hair in her face that wouldn’t go away, no matter how often she put in back to place XD

MC #2 was about Wakana talking about how many people came to see them for the first time and others who have come many many times. For them it is difficult to re-arrange non-acoustic songs, even after so many years. When December comes, they feel that certain feeling “Ah, it’s winter and time for the acoustic concerts” (something like this). This feeling is very special to them and the next song would be a song that they have performed countless times by now, namely their debut single.

“Oblivious”, yay! The stage was illuminated in blue and green, with stripes and other patterns. Wakana started right into the stanza, again a lot slower and more emotionaö than normal. The middle part gained more speed, while Keiko and her small kajiurago part were cool as usual (and you could hear her singing the lines properly), but she skipped the last line of it. Keiko’s and Wakana’s duet was slow and frail, almost yearning, as they sang facing each other, while Hikaru again was doing almost nothing until she was finally allowed to sing the aaaah part once in an orange stage. It was quiet but pretty and later the stage changed to purple. The final chorus became faster and more powerful again and Wakana sang the final “utatte” without any instruments.

After that, the neon tubes in the background shone white in a blue stage. Sakurada introduced “Seventh Heaven” with a short solo. Keiko was sideways and had a big spotlight on her while singing the first part, so that the huge dress would fit. It was again a beautiful, almost flawless performance. Hikaru struggled again with the high notes, but Wakana was wonderful, especially her “anata to watashi”. At the end we had a bright stage.

It continued with “Kantankatan” on a bright, white stage with the neon tubes in blue. Wakana was tremendously beautiful, but totally not feeling the christmas spirit XD The “toki wo hashiru kisha” is my favorite part in the normal version, but I came to like it even more in the acoustic version. From this part on the song gained more speed, the Strings were simply awesome, they also played with a lot of gestures. During Keiko’s part the stage became deep red und she sang so much more fragile. At the end the stage was deep blue. I felt sorry for Hikaru, because neither Wakana nor Keiko looked at her, it was always a duet-like thing between only them XD

Next was “Lacrimosa”. The neon tubes shone red on a red/white stage and later in deep green, in the middle part deep red and then blue/purple/turquoise, at the LA-CRI-MO-SA part red (at which Kalafina stretched out their hands towards the audience, just like at the 9+ONE performance) and at the end the whole hall was covered in light blue light. The Strings played extremely fast here and I enjoyed watching them a lot. Hikaru sang the Kajiurago parts after the chorus more or less alone. I felt that the stanzas were more dramatic and faster than usual. Other than that, same as Zama.

We‘re halfway through, guys. Congratulations, you’ve made it this far. Go get a drink or stretch your arms and legs a bit, you deserved it.

We entered MC #3. Keiko did a small recap of this rather dramatic block. I admit, I did not really understand what she was saying, as there was too many words I didn’t know and I couldn’t get out my cellphone to look up the words, you know xD She talked how she wanted to show us different landscapes/sceneries and whether we were able to see them or not. It was very beautiful for her too to see the colors on stage changing and she enjoyed their own harmony too, but that harmony is very difficult to control. The topic changed to the christmas-like decorated stage and how it brings them into christmas mood. Especially the fir branches contributed to a lot of green on the stage, where Keiko said that especially Wakana liked it, as she loves plants and green. Wakana mentioned that these fir branches were actually real and Keiko was like “…ah, ok”. Coming from this, it was said that the next block, since this is a Christmas concert, would be therefore Christmas songs.

They then continued with “From heaven above”, which I wouldn’t even have recognized if they hadn’t announced it. I admit, I have never listened to that song even once, only the preview on ITunes (not proud of it though… I should get the Winter Acoustic Album…). The stage became dark blue and the weirdest thing about that performance was again their English. I didn’t know the lyrics, but they certainly didn’t help me to understand them either (I’m being mean I know :p). So this was the first time for me listening to the full version of this song and I admit I liked it. Can someone help me, is this an actual original Kalafina song or a cover from some traditional christian church song? I’m not sure xD Anyway, their harmony was great and they appeared to enjoy singing this song, as they swang along and moved a lot, short but very nice performance.

Then, huge spotlights focussed on the girls and the background became green again, as the next song was one of the more famous Christmas carols, “Deck the Halls” (it’s this song). I knew the song but not the title (I just googled it lol). This one was really fun to listen to. Kalafina smiled a lot and had a lot of fun too. Great harmony and singing, the stage was bright and warm. Again, weird English.

The stage was green again for “Jingle Bells”. Haha, I knew this would come up. It started out rather slow, but later was so joyful and fun. The neon tubes shone red and again, this whole Christmas atmosphere warmed the entire hall. At the chorus, everyone started clapping along. I enjoyed it very much, along with everyone else.

MC #4 started with Hikaru saying that Christmas songs always warm her heart, but continued to ask whether she can talk freely for a bit and everyone was laughing and cheering her on, as we all love when she does some conversation with us. She told us that they arrived in Osaka the day before the concert and that she went to explore Umeda and Hep 5 (see her blog post here), a huge mall with a big red ferris wheel on its roof. She rode the ferris wheel all by herself and felt quite lonely, because there were only groups or couples around her. At some time a photo is taken which you can purchase afterwards. So, when she was asked if she wants it she answered with a resolute “No, thank you! (いいえ、結構です!)”, because it was too awkward to have this kind of photo (I really laughed hard at this, because she said in such a funny way). Keiko and Wakana also laughed in the background. After all this time, even Hikari gets excited when she sees all our smiles and eyes on her.

She then introduced “Hanataba” for us. This song is about leaving things behind and the choice which things to leave behind. You need a strong determination and heart for that, and she wants this feeling to reach our hearts. The stage was illuminated in blue/pink, with flower patterns in the background. Hikaru was very emotional, while the Chorus became somewhat speedy. Keiko was amazing and better than in Zama. At the end we had a deep yellow/red/orange light and the background diamonds were illuminated with a pattern that looked a lot like those colorful windows of churches. The final kajiurago part was strong and great, on a purple stage.

“Manten” started with a deep blue stage and bright spotlights on the girls. During the stanza they were only accompanied by the piano, but it somehow drowned Hikaru out, as she suddenly became quieter. During the instrumental part Keiko turned her back to the audience and spread her arms and when her turn came, the Strings played much faster. She was very cool and made a lot of gestures the whole performance.

Again, “Hyakka Ryouran” was introduced with an deeply red illuminated stage. Keiko’s first stanza was accompanied only by the piano and she sang very soulful, while Wakana on the other hand was very loud, she almost drowned out Keiko. From an blue/green stage we got again red for the chorus with turquoise spotlights from above. Hikaru’s “atte” was longer than usual. And here came my favorite part: after the chorus ended we got a moment of silence while the whole hall became dark blue and a single spotlight focussed on Wakana. She sang her kajiurago lines very slowly and super sad, just like in Nikko and Zama. I love it. Then there was another pause of complete silence, and then BOOM again, Hikaru delivered her lines powerfully and loud, the musicians gave their best. Keiko’s next stanza was accompanied by a red/blue stage and took out all the previous speed but she herself sang very strongly. Her “yaiba” was longer than normal. It was an amazing performance, Keiko gestured a lot with her arms and ended the song on a deep red stage.

In MC #5 they told us that all the songs they had just performed are already very dramatic in the original version, particularly “Hyakka Ryouran”. Wakana was back in the middle and Keiko told us that the songs from this concert contain the word “hikari” a lot. When they travelled to Osaka with the Shinkansen, she saw a big rainbow (see here) and while taking photos of it, the light around the rainbow and the landscape were astonishing. Having these landscapes in mind she sings and while singing she is seeing the landscapes that she wants to see.

Her words were followed by “Hikari furu”. The girls were being illuminated from all sides and Wakana started out somewhat slower, but that just might have been my imagination. First only the piano played and the Strings joined him later. Keiko sang her part very quiet and Hikaru was barely audible, she struggled extremely with her “to omotta” (poor thing :/). Wakana’s “hitomi wo tozashite” was AMAZING as always, it’s my favorite part. All in all and despite Hikaru’s mistakes, I liked this performance a lot more than Zama. Keiko’s final “mabushii asa” was longer too (they somehow discovered holding the tone longer for them). Beautiful song - the girl next to me started crying XD

With Keiko in the middle again, it continued with “Hikari no senritsu”, with the first part of the first chorus in acapella. Then the song went on as usual in a white, light green stage. Kalafina had a lot of fun singing, they were smiling and moving around a bit, but the melody was so sad, such a contradiction. The instrumental had a solo from Sakurada, then a solo from the Strings, it was a nice change of focus on the instruments in an orange stage. The part that starts with “taiko no oto kara” they sang very very strongly, not as smooth as they usually do. This made the whole thing a lot more dramatic than the song actually intends to be. Hikaru’s next lines were sad and the Strings only plucked the strings of their instruments. Good performance overall!

“Into the world” started with blue illuminations. They all sang very beautifully, I liked Keiko a lot here, but this was the fifth time in a row to hear this song, so I was kinda… you know, not really impressed by it anymore. Still great performance, but nothing special happened here.

Just a bit more guys, you can do it!

In MC #6, Kalafina made a curtsey again and people clapped a while for them. Keiko emphasized the beauty of Symphony Hall and it makes her very happy that they can make us happy with their harmony, she thanked us for that. She then continued to introduce the band members. “Are we all having fun?” she asked and we were like “hell yeah”. She said that the final song would be a Christmas song. But SHE FORGOT WHICH SONG! XD I laughed so hard at this, she had to look it up somewhere or someone told her, but she apologized to Wakana and Hikaru and then to us.

So it went on with “Winter Wonderland”. The stage was blue/pink and Wakana sang very nicely (in her strange English… I only understood half of it lol). The whole arrangement of the song was very charming, in the middle part we had a bright white stage. The girls appeared to have fun and we had fun too.

After that, they fake-ended the concert and left the stage, but veeery slowly due to the dresses. Everyone kept clapping until Kalafina returned veeery slowly. Hikaru waved at the audience while Keiko and Wakana proceeded to take a bow again, but Hikaru was so distracted that she didn’t notice in time, so she just smiled. Wakana said in MC #7 that she is always surprised how time flies so fast during a concert. She thanked us for the encore and that they have been to this beautiful hall last year the last time. As most of the songs are rather slow, she wondered whether some of us fell asleep. Out of the musicians, only Sakurada and the Cello guy returned and the next song would only be accompanied by them. Even though it’s already cold winter, Kalafina wanted to send warm feelings to us, so the next song would be gentle and warm. She used the word “yasashii”, so I was getting very nervous. I expected “Yasashii Uta” and although this is pretty song, I just didn’t want to hear it again at all.

But luckily, they performed “Snow falling” and I couldn’t have been happier about it. Not only this was a song I haven’t seen live for myself yet, I really adore it. Along with “Magia” this was my favorite song from this concert. The song started with a grey/white light. Wakana was absolutely stunning during this whole performance, emotional, frail and yet warm. Hikaru didn’t cover herself with glory here, to be honest. She struggled with her parts a bit and the “ritardando” and “falling snow” were quite off-key, but don’t worry, she’s still the bestest. I loved loved loved the middle part, where they all sing alternately. Wakana killed it and it was just perfect, despite Hikaru’s small mistakes. It was a great final song.

But NO, it wasn’t the final song yet! The other Strings came back and Hikaru took over again to talk freely in MC #8. Sales corner time! She introduced the new Christmas Live exclusive goods and began with the stola. Men might not know what a stola is, it’s a bigger, warm scarf basically, that comes in navy blue. In silver there is “Kalafina” embroidered on the bottom side and the tour logo in the upper middle in black, although it is not that visible on the first look. So how is this supposed to be worn? In order to see the logo you can do like this (she demonstrated it on herself, so I can’t really describe what she did), or you can do it like that so you can’t see the letters and logo. You can give it to someone as a present, as Christmas is almost there, so please check it out, she said, while Wakana and Keiko had their own little conversation in the background, but they were laughing and talking about Hikaru’s hilarious way of folding the stola. Hikaru then explained some stuff about the collaboration with Sony Walkman. She said something like it would come out in January, but I’m not sure whether this referred to the release of the products or to more information on it. But more information will follow soon, she said further. Wakana herself apparently uses a (Sony?) Walkman and that they actually had some sort of saying in the design of the products (not sure about this either).

This time we finally (or sadly) reached the final song and this would be of course another Christmas song, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas”. The stage was illuminated in purple and the neon tubes shone white. Hikaru sounded a lot different than her usual voice, but she sang with a lot of power. Maybe it was due to the English lyrics, but I liked it a lot, I love to see new sides of her. I also heard this song for the first time there, but I enjoyed it and the girls also had fun on stage again.

After the song ended, many people stood up and clapped. Kalafina quickly introduced the band again and joined hands to take a bow. For that they went to the edge of the stage, but suddenly burst out into laughter, because they were so close to the first row. Like really close xD I think Keiko’s dress even reached the faces of the poor/lucky dudes. The musicians left and Kalafina’s version of “Morobito kozorite” started to play, a song Wakana seems to like a lot as she said that she wanted to sing this, giving the impression that they would perform this song right now. It got everyone’s hopes high for a second, but she immediately realized the misunderstanding, causing Keiko to kneel down and laugh, because she totally did not want to sing another song anymore. Wakana said that this song always gave her special winter feelings and thanked us for coming. Then “Jingle Bells” was played and Hikaru thanked us for coming so numerously, despite the concert being on a weekday. She also talked in Osaka dialect for a bit, very funny xD Keiko thanked us too and said that she was excited about this start of their Christmas Lives and even though it was too early, she wished us all a merry christmas. So they left the stage for good, but again veeery slowly, ending the concert.

Here are my final thoughts:

It was a wonderful wonderful concert. Although almost all of the songs did not really surprise me, which I still kinda regret, I enjoyed listening to those songs very much. It was in many terms different and even better than Zama, the amazing dresses, a slightly changed way of singing, different illuminations and the prettier hall made it all a special experience. I am really not the type of person who gets into Christmas mood and it’s not really a special time to me (and since I can’t celebrate it with my family this year, it’s even less special) but damn, Kalafina’s great performances, their own outstanding versions of Christmas song classics and the fun they had on stage, these things really made me feel it a bit xD

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this very long report (this became much longer than I intended to be, I’m sorry v_v). Thank you so much for reading!

Unless Kalafina throws in some special premium stuff into January or February, then is my final concert report (I sure won’t be sitting in Budokan with my notebook when half of us are coming there anyway xD). In just half a year, I wrote 6 of them! When I entered this sweet community and realized that I was one of the very few that are able to attend these wonderful concerts, I wanted to share this experience with you, talk about it with you, as you are the only persons around me that are as obsessed with Kalafina as much as I am and the only persons that would really appreciate and understand this. No one asked me to do this, so I hope that you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. I want to apologize for any grammar/vocabulary mistakes and sometimes insufficient way of describing things (I feel like I used the same 5 adjectives over and over again). These reports are quite biased and one-sided, I focussed on details you guys might not have minded and vice-versa.

Having said that, thank you very much again for keeping up reading! I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, safe new year with countless new Kalafina stuff (*fingers crossed for a new album*)!

Here is for you the limited bookmark of the concert: a Christmas rose :)

#kalafina #christmas premium live #acoustic tour 2017 #live report #part two

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yumeka36 · 7 years ago

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Being bullied for your hobbies

I didn’t experience any kind of teasing or bullying for my hobbies in school until my second year of middle school, which is, ironically, the same year my Pokemon fandom began. Unfortunately I went to a private and snobby middle school, and none of my classmates shared my interest in it. One reason could be that I got into Pokemon at an older age than most kids at that time; the majority of kids getting into it were around 7-10 years old while I was 13-14. So many of the younger boys at my school were into it, so of course, being in middle school where peer pressure is rampant, you were considered a nerd if you were older than them but liked the same things. All the girls my age were into boys, glamour, dating, the latest hit movies and TV shows, and other teenager stuff. So liking Pokemon and cartoons at my age was out of the question! As far as actual incidents of bullying, there was one girl in particular who would always mock my Pokemon obsession. She wouldn’t attack me directly per se, but she’d do it by making subtle comments in my presence. For example, she had a 6 year old brother who also liked Pokemon and one day when I brought my Poke-Dex toy to school, she said something like “Oh, my brother has that, but he’s 6 years old…the right age.” And another time when I brought a magazine to school that had Pokemon fan art drawn by artists in their late teens and I showed it to her, trying to prove to her that older teenagers like Pokemon too, she said “Well, they must have no life.” Then another time when I took a Pokemon book out of my locker, she tried to take it away from me and give me a fashion magazine instead.

There were countless other incidents like that with her, and a few with other students too. When we were talking about going to high school one day in class, and this other girl found out I like Pokemon, she was like “You’re going to high school? Drop the Pokemon” (wish I could tell her now how Pokemon is what helped me make friends in high school!) Then I remember another time Pokemon somehow came up in the topic the teacher was discussing and some boy blurted out “Isn’t Pokemon for preschoolers or something?” and the whole class laughed while I just sat there feeling awkward. I even recall a couple of my teachers saying Pokemon is stupid, and one time, when I had brought my Pokemon Red version to play on the bus when we were on a school trip, one of my teachers noticed it and, after confirming that it was Pokemon I was playing, he asked the girl next to me “You like Pokemon too?” and she said “No, I hate Pokemon!” Then he turned back to me and said, “Hear that? She HATES Pokemon!” I don’t think I responded at all and just continued to feel bad.

As you can see, compared to extreme bullying cases you hear about, this is pretty mild. I wasn’t being verbally or physically abused and no one was vandalizing my stuff or anything like that. It was just a lot of hurtful remarks which, at that impressionable age, inhibited my self-esteem and made me keep thinking something was wrong with me for not being like everyone else. Luckily I had a couple of friends outside of school who liked Pokemon and I could share my hobby with.

Thankfully I went to a public high school with thousands of students, so there were plenty of “nerds” like me who liked anime and video games. That, together with the fact that during those years, anime was becoming more well known as a form of entertainment for adults too, with anime DVDs becoming available everywhere and anime airing on TV via Adult Swim and Toonami, so that helped make it more acceptable to like by the time I got to high school. Surprisingly, despite covering my school notebook in anime pictures and wearing anime shirts to school, I don’t recall being put down about it at all. Everyone just ignored it, or, if they were anime fans too, they’d compliment my stuff. That’s how I made a lot of friends in high school actually. It was also around this time that I started learning how lucky I was in terms of having a mom who supported my anime fandom and didn’t put me down for liking so-called childish things. A couple of my friends in high school weren’t so lucky and were constantly being harassed by their parents for liking “cartoons” at their age. While my mom was always buying me the anime stuff I wanted, it baffled me how my friends’ parents would never buy them anime stuff for their birthday, Christmas, etc., even though that’s what they really liked. Some years later when I was in college and I was telling one of these friends how my other friends who like anime got accepted to these prestigious universities, she said she had to tell her mom about that – that she had to prove to her mom that you could be an anime fan and still be smart and do well in school. It made me sad to think that people were that ignorant.

Luckily my only account of bullying in school was when I was into Pokemon in middle school, and luckily I never had any family members put me down about liking the stuff I like either (since my family is basically just my mom and she has total respect for it, and the 2-3 other family members I have I’m hardly in touch with, but they don’t mind either). But besides school and home, there is another place where you have no choice but to interact with people who might not approve of your tastes: the workplace. At my first job at a greeting card/gift store, a few of the girls working there would tease me about liking anime, insisting that it was all hentai and I was watching perverted stuff. Of course I would try to tell them that not all anime is hentai, but they wouldn’t listen. I would even fantasize about how I would someday get up the nerve to tell them about the stories of good anime series I was watching at the time, like Nana and Fullmetal Alchemist, so they couldn’t keep saying all anime is hentai and may even get interested in watching it themselves (I never did get up the nerve though). But it wasn’t anything serious, just a few remarks here and there, and unlike being teased for liking Pokemon as a kid, I was an adult by then and I didn’t let it get me down at all. It was just a little annoyance.

Looking back on these incidents now, I have to say that it’s true that people act differently as a group than by themselves. Back in middle school, most of the girls acted alright when it was just me and them. Even that one girl who always teased me about Pokemon acted nice to me when it was just me and her. I remember we used to both get dropped off early to school before most of the other kids and so we’d hang out together and I’d be playing Pokemon and she wouldn’t have any snide remarks. Sometimes she’d even talk to me about it in a friendly way. But once the other girls were around, she changed her tune. Another girl even went so far as to act like she liked Pokemon too when it was just me and her, saying how she would have certain Pokemon cards I would tell her about. But then she’d make fun of it as soon as the other kids were around. And even among the adults at my first job, they wouldn’t make any hentai comments when it was just me and one of them, only when they were in a group. It really is interesting how people can be persuaded to act differently than they normally would when they’re in a group and they don’t have enough self-confidence to overcome peer pressure. Which is why I’ve always felt that “I like individuals, but not people so much.” Unless the thing that someone likes is immoral and by taking part in it they’re causing actual harm to others, I don’t think anyone should be put down for the things they enjoy.

Anyway, I guess I’m lucky that my mom always respected my hobbies, and once I got away from that snobby middle school, I met a ton of fellow anime fans throughout the rest of my school years, many of which I’m still friends with today. And at my last job and the one I’m currently at, I haven’t had any teasing. In fact, I’ve met many coworkers with the same interests. I even have a group of coworkers from my old job that I get together with sometimes outside of work to play Pokemon and talk about anime. And at my current job, I completely decorated my office desk with Disney, Pokemon, and other cartoon/game pictures and figures and nobody cares – most of my coworkers think it’s cool actually =) I really feel that during the past several years it’s becoming more and more acceptable for the adults of the new generations to like these kinds of things. If that’s the case, I’m very glad for it ^_^

*This is a revision of a previous post I wrote on my old anime blog. You can also comment on the revised post here*

*Crossposted from my main blog, Yume Dimension*

#animation #anime #editorials #fandom #fandoms #pokemon #video games

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rosesvoyages · 7 years ago

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Is it racist to wear kimono if you aren’t Japanese? Will you be laughed out of town?

So this is probably my third post about kimono wearing experiences for foreigners in Japan. This is something I feel passionately about and I thought I would do an update post because the rules of engagement have certainly changed since I was a young gaijin and donned my first kimono.

I have worn ‘kimono’ (note for readers, when I say ‘kimono’ I am using it as an all-encompassing term for yukata, the fake silk kimonos one can rent out, hakama, furisode etc. see previous posts for more info) many times for a variety of occasions, but the first time was special. I suppose we were a gaggle of 20 year old foreign girls who spoke Japanese, so as you can expect we went down a storm. Now I’m four years older and more grizzled! However I would still recommend the experience and I eagerly booked for myself and the New Yorker when we were in Japan this time. We booked a fairly cheap experience at Yume Yakata in central Kyoto. The place was packed, mostly with tourists from South-east Asia and China. There were a variety of kimonos to try on, from garish, more quirky designs to the more traditional. Once you have selected your kimono form the rails and rails available, you chose an obi (belt) and uwa-obi or himo (string) to go around it. The Japanese colour pallet is certainly different to the western one, and many combinations which the staff would suggest of obi and kimono are different to what I would chose. Often Japanese kimonos have a clashing colour combo, and the obi and eri (collar) are used to provide a pop of colour. My friend selected a sophisticated and classic dark green kimono, which is definitely her colour, and a light purple obi to bring out the purple flowers which adorned the base kimono. As I own several yukata and kimono I decided to wear something very different, and I chose a lime green kimono with a subtle cat kimono. Some of the accent cats were a deep purple, so I went for a purple obi as well to bring these out, with a matching pearl encrusted lime string across it. Overall I actually think it was much nicer than it sounds, and I was really pleased with how it worked.

For my first observation, I would say this is something that has become much more common since I first did it in 2012. Back then there was visible and audible shock, interest and positive reactions from local people. The shop resembled a factory, with a group of about 10 kimono dressers working through different stages for each person, once one was completed it was on to the next one! When we were out in the field, there were certainly more people in kimono than when I first came to Japan. This included tourists of all ethnicities and people from across Japan. The advantages of going to a place like this is that they will dress you correctly, and save you the hassle of trying to tie an obi (a feat I have still not mastered) yourself, or having to buy the numerous undergarment layers etc.

As I usually do, I like to ask my Japanese friends and take a barometer about how they feel about foreigners trying on kimono. I also asked a good friend of mine (who I think would tell it to me straight) to give me her thoughts on the matter. She said that in her experience, as a native Kyoto-ite, nowadays there are a lot more domestic tourists who enjoy wearing kimono in Kyoto. Although when I asked if she would wear one in Kyoto she answered no, but because she thinks it is incredibly touristy and she’s too cool for all that. She didn’t see it as racist or in any way offensive when foreigners do it. She actually liked that traditional wear was being revived.

There was recently a hoo-ha when a Boston Museum was stopped from holding a kimono try on session at one of their exhibits. I think this is a real shame. It turned out the protestors were also not Japanese, but Americans who felt offended on behalf of Japan, which highlights why this is a false paradigm by which operate. By trying on kimono it enables people to learn about traditional Japanese culture, artistry and experience it first-hand. The protestors cited Said’s orientalism, ironically orientalism doesn’t really work with Japan which is both perpetrator and victim in the schema. Long story short, this is not some third world country who are being exploited, this is a first world country sharing cultural treasures. Furthermore, I would compare it to someone feeling ‘offended’ by an Asian person wearing western clothing. The people who feel offended in Japan are often the same type of people who would make racist comments in the street. When worn respectfully, and properly it can be a wonderful chance to get a first-hand link to Japan and learn more about the culture. I digress…

We had a lovely time walking around Kyoto, praying to find true love and happy marriages at Kiyomizu-dera, my favourite place in Japan, talking about Japanese history, untranslatable words, and as you can see from my tongue in cheek picture above, taking selfies!

#kimono #japan #tryon #racist #opinion #tourist #travel #blog #japanese #gaijin

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snowbunnie42 · 7 years ago

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Soul and the Treaty of the Moon Extra #2

Hello again! I wrote another drabble in the Treaty of the Moon Universe / Galaxy. This one’s a prequel, about how they started the moon colony in the first place. The original reverb can be found here:

https://sahdah.tumblr.com/post/164622378000/soul-and-the-treaty-of-the-moon

Yume shuffled back and forth. She blamed it on her shoes—uncomfortable high heels covered in sparkles—but she was actually just nervous. The fate of the company rested in her hands, or perhaps her false eyelashes.

She had no idea how Charles had weaseled her an invitation to this cocktail party, and honestly she didn’t want to know. The hotel bar had been rented out to some bigwig or another. Instead of tables there were lounging couches and booths. The dim light created an intimate atmosphere.

The guests, none of which Yume recognized, were political figures and heads of banks and businesses. A lot was going to happen here. Perhaps not the most legal of things. Deals were struck here.

But where was—ah! The man she was looking for, Mr. Thorne, commanded a conversation at a booth in the middle of the room. He was surrounded by what Yume assumed were senators or government officials as Mr. Thorne was the Advisor of Earth, Sea, and Atmosphere to the Earthen senate. They laughed loudly to whatever joke Thorne made, trying to gain favor.

Thorne himself was fat, balding, and his face was slightly flushed with alcohol. Perfect.

Yume wobbled over, holding her empty martini glass. She was glad to have something to hold on to, to ground her. When she got closer she made sure to swing her hips and push her chest forward. Anything for the company, she reminded herself.

“Hmm, Miss, why don’t you join us for a while?” One of Thorne’s cronies called. Her plan was working, but it was still sad a pair of hips could distract these important men.

“Oh, me?” She turned and fluttered her eyes. “Well alright,” Step one complete, get his attention.

“Not what should we call a pretty lady such as yourself?”

“My name is Yume, sir,” she smiled.

“Well sit next to me, Miss Yume.”

Thankfully Mr. Thorne resumed his speech, which seemed to be about what his latest proposal to the Earthen senate. It regarded the distribution of volcanic soil, which was a topic Yume knew. Volcanic soil was very potent made for excellent farming.

Yume held in her opinions on the argument in favor of humming in agreement to everyone’s point of view and saying, “How interesting!” to things she already knew.

“And what are your thoughts, Miss, uh, Yume?” Thorne boomed.

“Oh, well, I think equal distribution would be wonderful, creating better farming everywhere, which would help the economy and create jobs. In fact, I’m certain my father’s company would love to get involved with the mining aspect of the project.” Yume was proud of herself for subtly bringing in the company into the conversation. Surely things would go her way now…

“Equal?! No, miss, you are not understanding what I am proposing. Selling our soil would make our country more prominent and make money. Don’t be naïve. Bah! I don’t care whose company your father runs.” He scoffed, “Women…I need another drink…” Thorne, along with his cronies, left Yume behind in search of more alcohol.

She’d failed. Yume sat in shock. How could a man voted as an advisor to the senate be so greedy? And this outfit, this acting, why?! What was she going to tell Papa?

Oh, they’d tried to get into contact with Mr. Thorne many times before. They’d never gotten farther than his personal secretary. He was either busy, or out of the country, and the times they were able to make an appointment with him he would cancel at the last minute. And so, when her cousin Selene proposed a different kind of route, the board was just desperate enough to try it.

Yes, trying to seduce Mr. Thorne into giving them a meeting was such a great idea.

“You know, if you’d done your research, you’d have known Thorne used to be a radical and has always been known to vote for policies that would make the most money as possible.” A young, male voice said from behind her.

“Huh?” Yume turned around, but the man was already walking around the couch. Yume found him rather plain looking, except for his brilliant red hair.

“May I join you?” He gestured.

“Oh, uh, sure.”

“May I buy you a drink?”

“Actually, I’m kind of hungry…” her stomach growled. She had been too nervous to eat beforehand.

“Fair enough.” He waved a waiter and ordered today’s special. His smile and pleasant interaction with the staff was making her feel a little better already. “My name’s Brett Halley. And you must be Yume Albarn, daughter of Lee Albarn and heir to the mining company he formed 32 years ago. I’m guessing your company wants Thorne’s sponsorship on a new endeavor. They sent you to whisper a few words in his ear about it. I’m sure the outfit was to get his attention.”

“How’d…how’d you know that?”

“Research.” He shrugged.

The food arrived and they began eating and chatting. It was very easy to talk to him. He was knowledgeable about many different topics without sounded smug. He asked her questions, and listened to her answers. It was refreshing, considering all that had happened that night.

“You see, my father’s always wanted to try moving his operation to the moon. There are new minerals that have been found there but have never been properly studied or used. Papa used to dream of being an astronaut until grandfather convinced him to stay on the ground.”

“So instead he went underground?”

Yume laughed. “Exactly! But now that he’s successful he wants to follow his dream. Obviously moon travel is very expensive, and to create a whole operation, well, I don’t want to imagine how much that would cost. So the Board decided it might be best to get the government’s help, and their approval. So many committees and political groups turned us down. We thought if we got someone important and relevant on our side we could get more votes.”

“Smart plan. Who will you ask next?”

“I don’t know. I’m beginning to think that this whole idea of going to the moon is worthless.”

“It’s not worthless!” Brett exclaimed. She was surprised by his sudden passion. “I think it might be fate that we met here tonight. Listen, my mother runs Comet Space Travel. But we’ve been planning to create a colony on the moon, we just need a reason to go there. What if we made a mining colony on the moon? This would give all of the people we mean to send there jobs, and if there is indeed an economic value on the minerals you would mine there it would make it all worth it.”

Yume’s smile became so big it nearly broke her face. She began to babble ideas on how the colony would work and what it would look like, and how they would get there.

“And how does the daughter of a mining colony executive know so much about space travel?” “Research.” :)

#soul eater #reverb 2017 #reverb #soul and the treaty of the moon

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smilefromtheheartalways · 8 years ago

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Zero and Yuuki: Why they are the very definition of Star-Crossed and why it’s such an important element to VK

Hi guys,

So it’s come to my attention that @imaginarylights has received a bit of flak from the tag line she chose for her recent edit here. I find this hilarious because when she came to me to show me her edit she asked what to tag it under and I was like “Well, star-crossed lovers of course!”

Why did I tell her to use ‘Star-Crossed Lovers’? Well, because it is the most explicit character trope that accurately details both Zero and Yuuki’s love in VK and is the trope that Hino has used since the beginning of Arc 2 and is continuing to flesh out and explore even now in VKM. This trope is so important to her story that she is using it as a means of exploring the concept of coexistence which is one of the most reoccurring themes in the manga and if we are to be honest it is the theme that really needs to be focused on and resolved in this new series as she did not give it the closure it needed nor deserved.

I’m also going to hide this under a cut because man this is going to be super long and I have been working on this for God knows how long.

Preview:

To sum up Yume was the love that was ‘meant to be’ but couldn’t because their love was not true or requited. Conversely Zero and Yuuki were the ‘ill-fated’, ‘star-crossed’ lovers that were never meant to be, but was, because their love was so pure and strong. It is Zero and Yuuki’s love that paves the way for coexistence to be achieved in order to create a new world where their love is accepted, and vampires and humans can live peacefully together.

Before I get started I would like to link you to @zerolover66 who already made a post recently about this topic which you can find here. I would also like to link you to a page that goes through the notion of ‘Star-Crossed Lovers’ as a character trope here and the definition of ‘Star-Crossed’ here. Both which will be referenced throughout this post.

To begin with let’s actually look at what it means to be ‘Star-Crossed’.

To be Star-Crossed is to generally be ‘ill-fated’. It is something that is not destined to be, or if it is, it is destined to see many trials and tribulations.

Looking back on VK it is important to note that Hino has described Vampire Knight as a ‘tragic love story’. It was never a ‘tragedy’. The reality is that both ships are undoubtedly based on a tragic albeit one a twisted love. However only one of the ships finds tragic hardships in the form of being ‘Star-Crossed’, the other finds tragedy in being the ‘Destined Love’ that failed.

The definition for tragic is stated as:

tragicˈtradʒɪk/

adjective

Causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow.

tragedyˈtradʒɪdi/

noun

An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.

A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.

Vampire Knight is not a tragedy. As pointed out in a similar post by Yume, Yuuki and Zero were happy. Yuuki found her happy ending. VK did not end at her downfall but at her overcoming the sorrow and distress that followed her her whole life and finally finding happiness.

Using the word ‘tragic’, in front of the main identifier (‘love story’) indicates that Hino noted that Vampire Knight is a love story above all else. The use of the word ‘tragic’ indicates that it is also a story that encompasses a love that involves ‘extreme distress and sorrow’.

The distress and sorrow that followed Zeki’s love is that of being a ‘Star-Crossed love’; the love that was ‘not allowed’ based on their station and the expectations placed on them by their expected societies. The title ‘Vampire Knight’ should be a key indicator in this as it emphasises the difference in station between the Vampire Knight and the Vampire Princess Queen.

Not only that but as a general rule of thumb, Star-crossed lovers are often forced by society to show their love in other 'more acceptable' ways such as dedication, service, loyalty and protection I mean doesn't that just scream Zero Kiryuu to you? I mean not only that but that's exactly what is expected from a 'Knight'. Now to be fair, Yume also follows a tragic love story in the sense that their love story is canonically based on a ‘twisted love’ that also canonically ended in tragedy because the Vampire King could not have the Vampire Queen because she was in love with someone else.

The reason Kaname and Yuuki cannot possibly fall under the ‘Star-Crossed’ category is because they were ‘destined’ to meet and eventually fail. Even though their ship is a tragedy, their tragedy came from the fact that their relationship was not satisfying and not because it was ‘ill fated’ or ‘not meant to be’. For all intents and purposes it was meant to be except neither person could find happiness with the other because the love given by Yuuki was not reciprocated to the full extent Kaname wanted. She loved him on a level that did not transcend her love for Zero. It did not make her smile from the heart. It did not move past pride and adoration. It stayed stagnant and remained as a love a girl had for a man she admired and looked up to as a brother. It was Zero and Yuuki who ‘defied the stars’.

‘Star-Crossed Lovers’ generally focus on the effects of social status impacting on the two love-birds pun intended being together as social expectations shape how the love is viewed and received. Following the course of the original manga it is Yuuki and Kaname that would originally be perceived as ‘Star-Crossed’. Kaname is a pureblood. Yuuki is a human. Vampires and humans are not meant to share any connections. Zero however is seen as a possibility. He and Yuuki start Vampire Knight on the same side on the chessboard as it were. They are both perceived to have the same status as a human. This is crucial to the overarching storyline and the main plot device Hino uses to drive the story and show progress. However, we soon realise that Zero is a vampire, and Yuuki does everything in her power to save him. Their relationship however ultimately remains balanced, while Kaname’s and Yuuki’s does not.

At this stage Zero and Yuuki do not follow the ‘Star-Crossed’ Trope, but Yume arguably does, as both Hunter’s think Yagori and Vampires think Aidou and Ruka show disdain for it. A Pureblood vampire and a human can not exist together in this world. Something echoed by Shizuka and her lover.

All that changes, however the moment Yuuki returns to being a pureblood and she realises that ‘everything she ever wanted’, ie, Kaname, was ‘already hers’. She realises she’s betrothed to Kaname. She is the same species as him. She’s expected to live all eternity by his side. They are no longer ill-fated and this is depicted through the change in the characters opinions of the ‘romance’. Ruka stops sulking and claims she understands and that she even pities Yuuki for the fate she now has. Aidou starts calling Yuuki, Yuuki-Sama, and tries supporting her relationship with Kaname even though he is at this point a hard core zeki shipper and has been since he caught Zero and Yuuki in the act of that sexy wrist bite.

Zero and Yuuki however have the adverse effect. They go from being on ‘mutual’ ground to having their stations cited as the reason they can no longer stay together. Zero is a hunter. Yuuki is a pureblood. Therefore she must go with the ‘man who can walk the same path of time’ as her.

They can no longer be ‘on each other’s side’, despite Yuuki’s promise to Zero, which is later revisited multiple times in the manga, because it is important. We also see how this causes both Zero and Yuuki immense suffering in the form of their thirst in the six month and one year time skip. The fact that they are different ‘species’ is cited multiple times in the manga to show how ‘ill-fated’ they would be as a couple.

The most notable times that deserve a reference include, but are not limited to:

When Yuuki first drinks from Zero. Zero hides his feelings for Yuuki and they both redefine their roles as hunters and vampires who need to work together in order to achieve their own interests.

The next moment of relevance is when Kaito reminds Zero that Yuuki is incompatible to him when the two of them leave after the events of Sara and the Association. This in turn forces Yuuki to remind Zero that she ‘belongs’ to Kaname. Again, another point that indicates that Yume is not ‘Star-Crossed’ but the love that is expected to be.

Followed by the Masquerade ball, in which that whole scene does nothing but follow a scene straight out of Romeo and Juliet. In which Yuuki is depicted as explaining how Hunters and Vampires don’t dance together, AKA don’t get along, AKA don’t be together, to both Isaya and Zero himself.

The most notable however would be when Yuuki indulges in her fantasy where the social restrictions of her being a vampire and Zero a hunter are removed and both are returned to their role as ‘humans’ and given the opportunity to pursue their relationship without the expectations that are keeping them apart. This also further highlights how these barriers are causing both Yuuki and Zero immense pain and suffering. Suffering which is symbolised through their thirst.

This is once again elaborated on in VKM, where despite Kaname’s blessing, Zero and Yuuki are once again forced to keep their relationship a secret, as the Purebloods have targeted Zero and the hunters have questioned Zero’s authenticity to their cause. Coexistence has not been achieved yet, but both Yuuki and Zero are the bridge to reaching that, which leads me to my next point.

Zero and Yuuki were given their time as humans to develop their relationship and their feelings for each other so that when they were forced apart and revealed as the true ‘star-crossed’ pairing, they had a strong foundation that made not being together extremely difficult, but also showcased how perfect for each other they really are. Thus, by them finding a way to be together, despite the pressure of social expectations, they are paving the way for coexistence. Think about it. The Queen of Vampires and her Hunter Knight, coming together and sharing the same path gives reason for coexistence to be achieved and for them to create a world that allows them to be together. BANG COEXISTENCE.

Essentially, to sum up Yume was the love that was ‘meant to be’ but couldn’t because their love was not true or requited.

Yume were both:

Pureblood Vampires.

Expected to be together by their society and thus betrothed at a young age.

Shared the same immortality.

Started off the series with what was perceived as the same feelings for each other.

Both deemed the King and Queen of Vampires.

Conversely Zero and Yuuki were the ‘ill-fated’, ‘star-crossed’ love that were never meant to be, but was because their love was so pure and strong.

The factors that acted to keep the two apart included:

Being a vampire and a hunter and thus expected to distrust and dislike each other

Yuuki being betrothed to someone else.

Their lifespans not matching up.

Neither one of them feeling like they deserved the other because of who and what they were (Zero in Arc one, Yuuki in Arc 2)

Moreover, it is Zero and Yuuki’s love that paves the way for coexistence to be achieved in order to create a new world where their love is accepted, and vampires and humans can live peacefully together. They started together on the same side of the board and they finished together on the same side of the board.

Also, for added emphasis, I just want to highlight a few elements that Hino has borrowed stole from a well known story depicting ‘Star-Crossed’ lovers: Romeo and Juliet.

When you compare Zeki to the foundations of Romeo and Juliet you can see that Hino has taken elements of the trope underpinning the pairing and fleshed it out in her characters in a way that allows them to work it out and be happy.

Here are some relevant elements from Romeo and Juliet that Hino has drawn inspiration from:

In Romeo and Juliet, you have two warring factions consisting of the Montagues and the Capulets. This creates a never ending level of hate and distrust between both parties.

In Vampire Knight, the world consists of humans, vampires and hunters. After a war a long time ago, hunters were entrusted to protect humans from vampires. Thus two opposing factions exist without the knowledge of humans. Because of the events of the past there is a level of hatred between both factions and a distrust between Hunters and Vampires.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is betrothed to Paris. Paris, while royalty and considered to be a desirable subject is not the object of her hearts true desire. However prior to meeting Romeo she is happy to be betrothed to him and seek only her parents approval. This changes upon her meeting Romeo.

In Vampire Knight, Yuuki is betrothed to Kaname, who, like Paris, is originally seen as desirable, and is, naturally royalty and holds the mantel of ‘Vampire King’. However, it is revealed that he is not the object of Yuuki’s truest desire, shown through his inability to quench her thirst. Kaname is also the focus of Yuuki’s adoration however this changes somewhat as Zero enters her life.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet meets Romeo at a party in the House of Capulet, without any knowledge of who is, or his link to his noble, but adversary, family name. Romeo sneaks into the the soirée wearing a mask so that his true identity is hidden. Therefore when they meet they are free to be who they are. They dance, kiss and later confess their love for each other on a balcony.

In Vampire Knight, Yuuki and Zero attend a soiree and hide their true identities as a Hunter and a Vampire behind masks. This allows the two of them to speak openly and freely. As they dance on a balcony they share a kiss and Yuuki confesses to herself that she loves Zero and that her feelings are real.

In Romeo and Juliet, the secret love between the two creates a civil brawl that ends in a blood bath as tensions between the Montagues and the Capulets erupt following the death of Mercutio and Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. Romeo is banished and forced to stay away from Juliet.

In Vampire Knight tensions increase between Vampires and Hunters following the death of Yuuki’s perceived brother Kaname. Thus both sides show their disdain for Zero and Yuuki’s love and they are forced to ‘keep it a secret’ and not be seen together.

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo dies after what he believes is Juliet’s untimely death. However, it is revealed that Juliet is not dead, but in an induced coma-like state. Upon waking up to Romeo’s death she takes her own like.

In Vampire Knight Zero dies an untimely death saving a child and ‘a short while after’ Yuuki gives up her life to turn Kaname human and end her eternal life.

Ironically Juliet and Yuuki have surrogate parents (Juliet’s nurse and Kaien and Yuuki) that also ship and support them being with their ‘Star-Crossed’ love despite both knowing their true identities. But that’s just me having a bit of fun with it haha

And if that wasn’t enough for you, take one look at this image and tell me that Hino was not channelling the balcony seen in Romeo and Juliet here.

(Once again cleaned and edited by the lovely @imaginarylights thanks Sophi!)

#Vampire Knight #Vampire Knight Memories #Eternal Zeki #Radiant Zeki #Zeki #Vampire Knight Analysis

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl Anime Film Shines in Premiere Report

This piece was originally published on Dengeki Online and is republished with permission from KADOKAWA.

Text by Dengeki Online editorial team

A film premiere of the movie Seishun Buta Yarou wa Yumemiru Shoujo no Yume wo Minai, AKA Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, took place on May 25th in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Wald 9 theater. The movie will see its theatrical debut on June 15 in Japan. After the premiere was over, the cast and staff made some introductory remarks on stage.

▲Presenters on the Introduction Stage. From the left, Kaito Ishikawa, Asami Seto, Inori Minase, and Director Souichi Masui.

Based on the popular light novel published by Dengeki Bunko and created by Hajime Kamoshida (author) and Keiji Mizoguchi (artist), the Seishun Buta Yarou series is a heartrending and vibrant adolescent fantasy set in the city of Fujisawa with its glimmering sea and sky.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl is a completely brand-new anime film that animates the events from the 6th and 7th volume of the original series, continuing where the TV Anime Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (in Japanese, Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai), which aired in October of 2018, left off.

The film version is created by the same staff as the TV series, with Souichi Masui directing, Masahiro Yokotani in charge of composition and script, and CloverWorks managing the animation.

According to the preliminary announcement that was posted, the characters depicted will include: a middle schooler harboring a serious illness named Shoko, an adult who says she’s the same person that is also named Shoko, Sakuta whose mysterious chest wounds reopen, and finally Mai who wishes to have a future with Sakuta. Sakuta will also be depicted as struggling with various emotions and being forced to make a decision.

Along with Kaito Ishikawa and Asami Seto, Inori Minase Who Plays Shoko Makes a Surprise Appearance!

After the film ended, Kaito Ishikawa who plays Sakuta Azusagawa, Asami Seto who plays Mai Sakurajima, and Director Souichi Masui took to the podium on the introduction stage. The comedy duo Tenshin’s Mukai acted the part of MC.

The screening that day was the world’s first premiere of the film, and Ishikawa asked the audience, “So how was it?” and the audience responded with resounding applause. Seto also seemed to be interested in the crowd’s response stating, “I’m actually way more interested in hearing what all of you thought about the film than I am interested in talking about us.”

Once their opening remarks were over, Inori Minase, who plays the absolutely essential role in the film of Shoko Makinohara, made her surprise appearance. The audience gave surprised shouts of joy at her arrival.

When asked about how it felt now that the film was completed and the first premiere had been screened, Ishikawa responded, “I’m just really full of emotion right now.” He elaborated more on his current mental state by adding, “It just hit me that AoButa (short for Seishun Buta Yarou) is actually over, and I’m filled with a mix of emotions, I’m happy but also sad to see it to end.”

Speaking about having just seen the completed version a few days prior, Seto said, “If you all are feeling the same as me, then it’s really hard to wait for the film to come to theaters on June 15 to see it a second time.” This remark was directed at the audience who’d just seen the premiere of the film.

Minase plays the central character of the film version, Shoko Makinohara. Speaking of her role she said, “This character was full of mystery in the TV series, and knowing that going into the movie version, I felt an incredible amount of pressure.”

Minase also seemed to be interested in the viewers’ reactions, just as Seto had been moments before her. She said, “I hoped that people would cry during the film, so my heart was pounding with excitement wondering whether they did or not.”

Director Masui, who’s been involved since the TV series, said, “All of the cast and the staff worked hard on AoButa, pouring their hearts into it,” in a comment reflecting back on everything that had happened up until that point.

He also commented, “We worked so hard on the film version, pushing ourselves until the very last moment, just wanting to make it even a little better. I’m relieved that we were able to make it in time for today.”

This Film’s Story is Packed with Shoko’s Dreams, and the More You Watch the More You’ll Find to Cry Over

Subsequently, the two who’d played Sakuta and Mai up until this point were asked what the differences were between the TV series and the film version. “Sakuta became pretty emotional during the final parts of the TV series, but in the film, the level of that emotion is quite different I think,” said Ishikawa.

“Sakuta lives his life to be kind and this time that kindness hurts someone, and I think he feels a strong sense of anguish at being forced to sacrifice something,” Ishikawa continued, voice heavy with emotion.

“During the TV series, I was able to stay in the role of Mai the entire time during the post production period, but in the film version we recorded everything in a day, so I really felt the need to concentrate,” Seto commented. She continued, feeling conscious about a certain aspect of the film, “The film version is depicted at a really comfortable pace, but it’s still a film, so everything happens faster than it does normally. I hope that doesn’t feel too fast for people and the story feels authentic to the pace of real people’s lives.”

Minase, on the other hand, has a complicated role as she plays two versions of Shoko that appear in the film, the middle school girl and the adult woman. In regards to that she commented, “I was mentally prepared even before I received the script, but then when I opened it and saw the name Shoko written everywhere, I just automatically closed it.”

Apparently she went through the script and used a colored pen to differentiate the lines of the middle school Shoko and the adult Shoko, but earned the laughter of those present when she said, “In the middle of it all the names started to blur together for me and I started reading the name Sakuta as Shoko and started putting check marks beside his name too.”

After that the group began their after-screening talk and a question came up: when viewing the film a second time what scene would you like viewers to pay careful attention to?

Ishikawa recommended the scene where Shoko says, “I want to live.” When he heard the line, “I thought, once again, Inori Minase is amazing,” he said, apparently deeply moved.

Seto commented that the climax had such a strong impact in the middle of the film that, “I was in a daze during the latter half.” For that reason, “So for viewers, since you’ll know the events of the film already if you’re watching it a second time, I hope you’ll concentrate as you watch the events in the latter half.”

Minase said, “I’d like viewers to see it again and again,” in regards to a scene during the movie where Shoko appears wearing a wedding dress. “The story is filled with Shoko’s dreams, so once viewers know the ending I’d like them to watch it again, because you’ll discover her dreams even in the most trivial scenes, so the more you watch it the more you’ll find to cry over.”

Director Masui recommended the scenes were Rio Futaba is in charge of explaining things. “Rio is really smart and talks about all these things all at once, so you’ll need to watch not just once but multiple times and once you understand it all, the content of the film will look so much bigger to you, I think.”

Messages from the Cast

Finally their stage time came to an end. Ishikawa and the four others made their closing remarks.

Ishikawa said, “This film is full of so many people’s emotions, I could keep on talking and still not have exhausted all there is to say. I hope you’ll see this again and again, and I hope when you see it again you’ll cry from the beginning, that’s the kind of film I think this is."

“I also didn’t think Rio’s dialogue was something you could understand with just one watch, so I’m glad the director shared that sentiment with me (laughs),” said Seto. “I’d be so happy to hear from a lot of people that they’re looking forward to the film coming out on June 15th.”

“I think there are so many ways to encounter and enjoy AoButa. Some loved this work since its TV series and some have read the original work before the TV series, and I’m so excited thinking about how those people will view the film and what it will feel like to them,” Minase said. “I hope those who watched today and felt something from the film will talk to the people they know and on June 15 will go in large groups to view it again, so they can share those emotions together.”

Finally, Director Masui made the final remarks on stage saying, “This will be the end of the TV series and the movie version of the anime AoButa, but the original is still ongoing, so I hope people will enjoy that."

Resounding applause followed the four as they left the podium, with Ishikawa commenting, “It’d be nice to exit with everyone waving,” which gave the unique spectacle of all those in the audience waving simultaneously as they watched the cast and staff go, bringing the event to a close.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl's Film Overview

■ Opening Day

June 15 (in Japan)

■ Staff

Original Work: Hajime Kamoshida

Original Artist: Keiji Mizoguchi

Director: Souichi Masui

Script: Masahiro Yokotani

Character Design / Animation Director: Satomi Tamura

Music: fox capture plan

Studio: CloverWorks

Production: AoButa Project

Distribution: Aniplex

■Cast

Sakuta Azusagawa: CV. Kaito Ishikawa

Mai Sakurajima: CV. Asami Seto

Shoko Makinohra: CV. Inori Minase

Tomoe Koga: CV. Nao Toyama

Rio Futaba: CV. Atumi Tanezaki

Nodoka Toyohama: CV. Maaya Uchida

Kaede Azusagawa: CV. Yurika Kubo

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Official Website

Anime Official Website (English)

Official Twitter

Watch Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai on Crunchyroll

See the original article at Dengeki Online.

By: [email protected]

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

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