#atsushi's style is consistent all the time and i love that

[diagonal-queen]

hello it is i the question deliverer of ever!!!

here are a bunch of random stupid questions for you to answer. you don’t have to do all of them if you don’t want to, just the ones you find the silliest 💕💕

these are all just gonna be completely random questions i’m pulling out of my ass expect zero consistency

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-what’s the best fanfic you’ve ever read/written?

-are you a spider girlie, a snake girlie, a beetle girlie, or a bee girlie? (this is how i classify people in my head so i have the answer already, but i want to know which one you think you are)

-what quote/lyrics/words from anything ever resonate with you the most?

-opinions on rat kings?

-what’s your favorite kind of leaf (and/or tree)?

-favorite type of cloud?

-who is the silliest person you know?

-what would someone have to offer you to get you to punch atsushi in the face?

-on the contrary, what would someone have to offer you NOT to punch fukuchi in the face?

-what are your most used emojis and why?

-of the authors represented in bsd, which one is your favorite? (keyword authors not characters, it’s very clear who your favorite character is lmao)

-orange juice or apple juice?

-what song is stuck in your head atm, and how much do you actually like it?

-if paint was edible, which color would you eat?

-if you could learn everything about any one thing in the universe instantly, what would you choose?

-what’s your favorite suit in a deck of cards?

-what’s your least favorite thing about your favorite thing?

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ok that’s all i can think of rn. expect more later after my beain collects more ideas probably

have a BANGER of a day sir dialicious 💕💕💕

SEWER RATTTTTTTT BRO ALWAYS GOT MY BACK bro is so nice...bro <3 also im sorry for this long post to you and everyone else who sees it i know it's gonna be boring as fuck T-T

What’s the best fanfic you’ve ever read/written?

well i personally suck dick at writing and i haven't read any full fanfictions in ages...i really can't remember but if i find any

Are you a spider girlie, a snake girlie, a beetle girlie, or a bee girlie?

If i had to choose one of these i would say bee girlie because spiders are scary and snakes are scary and beetles aren't my style but bees r so fluffy and like flowers...jus like me... :D

What quote/lyrics/words from anything ever resonate with you the most?

They say the sun don’t shine forever But through any weather we’ll make it As long as we make it together - song lyric

"Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart." - book quote

"The head may err, but never the blood." - book quote (and yes im serious lol)

"It's because of you that I don't even wanna be here anymore. Eventually I'm gonna end up jumping off a cliff because of you." - something i was told by someone

there's gotta be more but i can't remember them at the moment lmaooooo like literally any time someone asks me something i like i suddenly forget every single thing i've ever liked ever

Opinions on rat kings?

what like when rats all get their tails tied up? or just men with rat energy that i stan? well i love that second one but the first one is sad...they're stuck... :(

What’s your favorite kind of leaf (and/or tree)?

my favourite trees are cherry blossoms and jacarandas because they're GORGEOUS (honourable mention to frangipani trees) but when it comes to leaves specifically i don't really have a favourite lol

Favorite type of cloud?

cumulus because they're super cute ^^

Who is the silliest person you know?

hmm...deadass probably you man. you are hella silly and i love it

What would someone have to offer you to get you to punch atsushi in the face?

There is literally nothing you could give me to get me to punch my husband in the face

On the contrary, what would someone have to offer you NOT to punch fukuchi in the face?

the gift of flight and the complete abolition of systemic oppression in modern society

What are your most used emojis and why?

🌸 - looks pretty and i like it and i use it as the same as a happy face 💜 - purple is my colour 💓 - usually when im talking to jaya lol 😭 - when something SUUUUPER funny hehe haha 🔫 - when i threaten people to give me their arts and writings 🤧 - when ppl r nice to me...an i cry...happy.... ✨ - to add some PIZZAZZ ❤️ - i am a loving person i love a lot of ppl a lot 😌 - i use this to pretend im dom-coded

Of the authors represented in bsd, which one is your favorite? (keyword authors not characters, it’s very clear who your favorite character is lmao)

well i'm gonna be real with you, i actually am uncultured and haven't read many of the authors' works. i've read only a few, so i'd have to say of those that i've read, i liked doppo kunikida, mykola hohol and akiko yosano. i've yet to read dazai but i really really want to :(

as for individual works, i've read and enjoyed anne of green gables and the raven. i got through about a third of the great gatsby before abandoning it because i found it boring. i am still reading crime and punishment and i like it a lot.

also you don't know who my favourite character is silly goober because i have TWO in my head rn and you couldn't guess either of them i dare you to try

Orange juice or apple juice?

orange juice 🍊

What song is stuck in your head atm, and how much do you actually like it?

punky funky love by granrodeo. i love this song sm it's so catchy and fun and it just lifts my mood so much. if you asked me to name a bad granrodeo song i would glitch out because there literally isn't one

If paint was edible, which color would you eat?

hmm probably brown because it reminds me of chocolate or beige because it'd be like caramel

funfact; whenever i eat m&ms i have this ritual where i save all the brown ones for the end, i eat all the other ones except for one of each colour, then i eat all those in one go. and then i begin eating the brown ones one at a time until there are nine left (lucky number) and then i eat all those at once. its cus the brown is more chocolatey in my head literally just because it is brown

If you could learn everything about any one thing in the universe instantly, what would you choose?

cmon i cannot possibly decide this. hmm uhh fuck um. i might like to know the entire contents of the library of alexandria, the truth behind every cold case in the history of true crime, my entire family history, the truth behind ghosts and spirits and the paranormal, and those are just some of the things i'd consider.

What’s your favorite suit in a deck of cards?

probably diamonds. i really dont know why but they fuck. i also like spades cus spades look and sound super cool

What’s your least favorite thing about your favorite thing?

i seem to give it to the world a lot more than it gives it to me

[kimium]

Hi friend, here’s a request: please tell me which are your Top Three ships in BSD and what you like most about them💜🥰

Oh friend! I'm always excited to talk about my Bungou Stray Dogs ships! Here we go!

My Top Three Bungou Stray Dogs ships in order

Soukoku (Dazai/Chuuya)

Without question my favourite ship from Bungou Stray Dogs is Soukoku. There are many reasons why I ship this, so let's start.

First, the second season of Bungou Stray Dogs starts with an adaptation of one of the light novels, Fifteen. One of my favourite scenes is when Chuuya is found by the other members of The Sheep. We soon find out that they're only a threat because of Chuuya's abilities, so they lean heavily on him. When Chuuya expresses that he wants to stay with Dazai and solve the mystery of Arahabaki the two Sheep members try to guilt him.

While Chuuya would 100% fall for the emotional manipulation (he sees them as his only family), Dazai sees it for what it is and calls them out before severing any thing that would force Chuuya to listen to him. This is probably one of the first times Chuuya has been handed autonomy. To me, this shows that Dazai respects Chuuya and doesn't see him as a tool to use or manipulate.

While later on Dazai uses some underhanded tactics to make the offer of joining the Port Mafia Chuuya's only option, to me this reads as "Dazai has found someone he's interested in and doesn't know any other way to get Chuuya to stay with him". Even when Dazai calls Chuuya his dog, I read it as "Chuuya, I want you to give me all your attention and energy because I want you around me".

Next, they're red and blue dichotomy. What can I say? I'm always a sucker for it. They don't get along and bicker like an old married couple the entire time. The series makes several clear examples to highlight how different they are, but my favourite one is their fighting styles. Dazai, with an ability that only cancels other's powers, uses logic and psychological games to trap his enemies. Chuuya on the other hand is a powerhouse and thus he doesn't need subtly. This causes tension when they work together. However, in reality they're the most devastating power couple in the series and it boils down to one thing: trust.

They put on a front that they don't care for one another. They bickered the entire time, but in the end both genuinely believe in one another. I think my favourite example of this is in Dead Apple when Dazai trusted Chuuya enough to 1) Use Corruption 2) Be so Pissed Off that he'd punch Dazai in the face 3) Release the antidote to the poison. That's some 5D chess work there, Dazai. Also, Dazai calls it "waking up Snow White" and we all know Snow White woke due to True Love's Kiss. (And, that manga panel where Dazai cradles Chuuya's face so tenderly?? That's love!!!)

Finally, in Beast AU, Chuuya is still at Dazai's side?? So much has changed, but that's a consistent that remains? I've written enough unhinged 100/51 (KHR) fics to tell you that if someone is still at your side even if you rewrite the entire universe that's Love. (Even if that love is corrupt.)

2. Shin Soukoku (Atsushi/Akutagawa)

First, Atsushi/Akutagawa is a straight "Enemies to Begrudgingly Working Together to Lovers pipeline". That's a dynamic that's just too good.

However, the main reason why I ship Shin Soukoku is because Atsushi and Akutagawa are great character foils to one another. Both are opposites like Dazai and Chuuya, but unlike those two, Atsushi and Akutagawa have completely different morals and perspectives on life. Atsushi is not Mafia Black (like Dazai and Chuuya are). It is this difference that allows Atsushi to show Akutagawa a different perspective and challenge Akutagawa's way of thinking. However, at the same time, Akutagawa can challenge Atsushi and some of his more idealistic perspectives.

Another reason why I like Shin Soukoku is because they can help the other be a better person despite their differences. They're the perfect meeting of the ADA and Port Mafia and it boils down to one reason: Atsushi does not have the same regrets as Fukuzawa or Dazai, who both have committed many crimes.

Finally, and a funnier reason I ship them is because both of them have suffered under Dazai's "mentorship". I laugh every time I think of Atsushi and Akutagawa (after he understands Dazai didn't always have his best intentions at heart and is emotionally over it) bonding over the BS Dazai has put them through in the past (and present).

3. John/Lovecraft AND Ranpoe

No, I am not cheating. These two ships are tied at spot three. I'm not sorry. Let's start with John/Lovecraft.

I can sum up the reason why I ship: they fill my ship dynamic bingo square, "regular human is dating a supernatural creature/monster". Which is always a great dynamic. Absolutely top tier. Everyone go home.

But really, that's the reason why I like John and Lovecraft. Lovecraft is not human and John is. No doubt it was John that had to teach Lovecraft about all the human-things in the world, which is one of my favourite tropes because it can be so sweet and cute.

Also, there was a banner in BSD Mayoi (mobile game) that had John and Lovecraft at an amusement park. They were clearly on a date!

Now, Ranpoe: What can I say? They start out as rivals (well, according to Poe) but they end up friends (and then lovers in my mind). Poe afterwards clearly respects and admires Ranpo, to the point he tries to impress Ranpo with his stories. Ranpo clearly likes Poe and respects the work he does, never belittling Poe's writing and instead encourages him to "try again". Poe is awkward and shy while Ranpo is awkward but he doesn't care because his awkwardness comes from Being Right All the Time. I think they're very cute together and should date.

Honourable Mention:

-Yosano/Kyougoku

[artnachronisme]

Going from one BUCK-TICK's album to another in chronological order, something is obvious : the guys did take their time to evolve at first, but once they did, they never stopped. The difference between Aku no Hana (1990), Kurutta Taiyou (1991) Darker than Darkness style 93 (1993) and Six/Nine (1995) is so big, and they published them in 5 years. And what can I say about the albums after 1995 ? Damn. I'm a big fan of their early years from Hurry Up Mode in 1987 to 1989 with Taboo : very straight rock, new wave influenced and punk rock even though they already are very special in their own way thanks to Imai Hisashi's genius and hability to create a harmonious whole . But once Taboo came out everything's changed - Atsushi Sakurai started to write almost all the lyrics and it obviously had an impact on their music.

Aku no Hana is very dark, its inspiration from Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal had infuse the music and the lyrics very deeply. It's one of my favorite album so far, it's very homogeneous and the sound is definitely my type. Kurutta Taiyou isn't very different if we talk about the sound only, but the atmosphere is something else. You feel how it sounds goth rock more than straight rock. Titles like Taiyou no Korosareta or Jupiter announced the next album very clearly without going out from the album's ambience. Darker than Darkness style 93 is definitely a break up from the past. The introduction song, Kirameki no Naka de... says it clearly : new sounds and experimentations are coming. The third song, Yuuwaku has blues influenced, Dress is a journey to a foreign sound, its structure is extremely special. Funny that the last two were composed by Hideko Hoshino : it's clear that he had a specific vision with these two titles. The album is more industrial, the bass and the drum are quite strong. Finally, when I listen to Six/Nine I'm overwhelmed. Songs like Aikawarazu no "Are" no Katamari ga Nosabaru Hedo no Soko no Fukidamari or Rakuen (Inori Koinegai) are out of this world. For real. So experimental. And if I talk about Misshitsu I'm gonna lose myself. It reminds me of Guns of Brixton by The Clash with its reggae guitar's sound, but darker, obviously. It's crazy how every album is homogeneous in its own way, is consistent despite all the experimentations they did. Also, Atsushi Sakurai improved a lot with his vocals, I love how his voice sometimes "break" or sounds like a deep scream. But I could write about this in details for a long time so... I'll stop here.

The fact is that my favorite band is Pink Floyd, I should be use to experiments and all these type of things when it comes to rock music. I've listened to so many things since my teenage years and my discovery of rock music in general (from classic rock to glam, heavy metal, industrial and everything I could feed myself with - which means a BUNCH of things) but BUCK-TICK hits different everytime and listening to their whole discography at once - meaning during weeks - is quite an experiment too, honestly.

[bandaged-writer]

a chance || dazai

➤ Pairing: Dazai x Reader

➤ Genre: fluff

➤ Warning: none

➤ Summary: To be held so closely and tightly by you, reminded him of the time you confessed to him one late afternoon. Now that Dazai thought about it, it was a lovely memory and wondered if it was okay for him to give in.

➤ Word count: 3.1k

➤ Note: This is my first time writing after nearly a year, but I hope you still enjoy it. Please, let me know what you think and feel free to drop a request in my inbox. ^.^

The sound of hurried footsteps were successfully drowned out by the hustle lingering within the busy streets of Yokohama. People chattered away either on their phone for business purposes or with their peers, laughing at jokes, pouting and enjoying themselves underneath the glowing sun of spring. The smell of food filled your nostrils as you passed them in a hurry and for a moment you contemplated getting a piece of that delicious piece of strawberry cake the bakery had on display. After all, your morning stopped you from having the slightest bit of breakfast in your system.

That train of thought, however, was interrupted by your colleague, Kunikida, picking up the phone. “Where are you? You’re already five minutes late and I doubt you’ll finish the reports you have to finish at this rate.” You couldn’t helpt the slight roll of your eyes, yet you knew that Kunikida only meant well - or so you’d like to believe. “I��m sorry, Kunikida,” you started with a heavy sigh, stopped at a traffic light and waited for the lights to turn green. “My car wouldn’t start this morning and the traffic is too horrible to take the bus. The next train would’ve arrived late so now I’m walking to work.” 

To anyone else, it could sound like an excuse, but Kunikida never saw you arriving late without a plausible reason and even that case was extremely rare. Whenever he entered the office, you’d arrive at the Agency only a few minutes after him, a treat from the local bakery in your hands and a grin on your face. Truth be told, it had become a part of Kunikida’s schedule: “Greet [Name] at 08:05 am”. That’s how consistent your presence was.  “That’s unfortunate,” Kunikida spoke and glanced over at your supposedly empty desk which Dazai was occupying, mumbling something about finding your Google search history and using it for blackmail while Atsushi was quite literally dragging his superior away from your desk. Luckily, all the chairs possessed the ability to roll. ‘‘How much longer will you take?“

One hand stuffed into the pocket of your jacket, you hastily crossed the street once the traffic lights turned green and skillfully avoided bumping into people, only stopping once because someone’s dog was sniffing your leg with a wagging tail. You stroked the pet’s head affectionately and cooed at the creature that possessed such button-like eyes. At least there was one good thing about your morning now. “Hmm..Maybe about ten minutes? Could be less, could be a few minutes more,” you spoke into the phone, unsure of how long you’d actually take. If the streets continued to be so lively, then you’d definitely need longer than usual. Why couldn’t those people choose a different day to go outside and meet up with their friends and business partners? Ah, not like you had any control over such a thing.

‘‘Dazai-san! I’m sure you won’t find anything on [Name]‘s computer!“ Atsushi argued loudly enough for you to catch it over the phone. ‘‘Isn’t this what people your age call ‘finding tea‘?“ Dazai whined in response, pouted his lips and acted like he had gotten seriously betrayed by the Internet and its slang language.

‘Oh, Dazai is back?” You asked Kunikida before he could ask you to hurry up so he wouldn’t end up wringing the brown-haired man’s neck who was currently going on Kunikida’s nerves with his usual antics. A smile cracked your lips at the thought of a sense of normality returning to the Agency. Well, as normal as it could be. “Unfortunately, yes. Please try to arrive as early as possible.”

With those words being said, the call ended and the small smile fell from your lips faster than it had found home on your face. Everyone was still on high alert after Atsushi was abducted by Akutagawa and fought the Port Mafia’s rabid dog. Then there was Dazai purposely getting himself caught by the mafia just so he could find out who had placed the bounty on the young boy’s head. He was successful as always, but usually it was a death sentence once you were within the wall’s of the Port Mafia.

Of course, you believed in Dazai. His calculations were awfully accurate and somehow, everything played right into his bandaged hands. A man of such intellect would be terrifying to anyone else, but it only made you wonder how sharp Dazai really was, how deep his thoughts truly went. You’d probably never find out.

Despite Dazai’s plans always working out one way or another, you couldn’t help but worry about the suicidal idiot while everyone else brushed it off, saying he was either drifting along the river or chatting up some pretty lady. Only Atsushi and you had voiced out your concerns at the time.

You’d barely made it through the door and shrugged off your jacket when your hand was suddenly held by an awfull familiar, bandaged one and chocolate orbs sparkled brightly upon your apparently long-awaited arrival. “What a blessing you are for my sore eyes!” Dazai exclaimed dramatically and pulled off his daily, overdramatical act, lips pulled into an anticipating and hopeful smile that this time you’d say yes to a double suicide with him. “Ah, [Name]! You won’t believe how dull and grey the morning is when you’re not here and all I see is Kunikida’s unflattering face.” Somewhere in the back, you could hear Kunikida call out his partner’s name in an offended and warning tone of voice, probably about to pop a vein, too.

Normally, you would’ve laughed at their antics, but this time, a frown slowly spread across your face as you looked at Dazai, his hand delicately holding yours. Only one mistake in his planned abduction could’ve sentenced him to death by the hands of some mafioso. He wouldn’t be here, holding your hand and fooling around with Atsushi, annoying Kunikida and receiving more paperwork as a result. That idiot wouldn’t ask you for a double suicide every morning or steal bite after bite of your food until it, according to Dazai, magically disappeared. He would be gone, erased, deleted. This was the first time Dazai had been at the office ever since his visit at the mafia. “A wonderful face such as yours would look absolutely stunning in a lover’s-”

Dazai cut himself off as you refused to even crack the ghost of a smile at his attempt of openly flirting with you. Usually, you’d hear him out and end up laughing at his rather serious suggestion, but this time, there wasn’t even a glimmer of amusement in your eyes. Instead, he found a layer of sudden sadness clouding your gaze, but it wasn’t enough for tears to spill. “Is everything okay?”

You lowered your gaze to the ground, bangs casting a shadow over your eyes while you slowly let your hand slip from Dazai’s gentle grasp and raised it up high. Suddenly, you smacked him upside down on the head - maybe a bit harder than you intended to, but it was deserved either way. “You idiot!,” you exclaimed loudly enough to catch the attention of your colleagues who were more than puzzled that you were upset with Dazai of all people. After all, they were convinced that the two of you were connected by the hip or siblings separated at birth. 

“Ah, didn’t I tell you that I’m not as fond of pain as I am of your face, [Name]?” Dazai whined after his chin collided with your shoulder pretty hard. A pout found home on his lips as he was about to rub the sore spot you had hit so mercilessly and out of the blue, as well. “Shut up,” you said and rested one hand on his back, the other one cradled the back of Dazai’s head, getting tangled in his messy, brown locks. It probably looked funny given that Dazai was taller than you and maybe you’d laugh about that later. “I was worried sick about you,” the grasp you had on his trenchcoat tightened like he was about to disappear, slip from your embrace like water through the gaps of your fingers. 

Chocolate-like orbs widened as he understood what the hit was for and he silently admitted that it was indeed deserved. He’d told you nothing about his plan to extract information directly from the mafia instead of receiving it through a third person. Of course, Dazai knew you’d be upset with him once he’d return to the Agency, knew about the feelings you held for him.

Dazai could feel your heart thumping against his chest in relief and allowed himself to bask in the warmth you radiated. He didn’t necessarily return the hug, but ended up patting the top of your head and gently messing up your styled hair which had probably frustrated you like every morning. To be held so closely and tightly by you, reminded him of the time you confessed to him one late afternoon. Now that Dazai thought about it, it was a lovely memory and wondered if it was okay for him to give in.

The sun was beginning to set and dipped the office of the Agency into an orange hue, giving the usually lively space a tranquil and warm aura that would be welcomed by anyone walking in. But the office was empty safe for Dazai and you who was typing away on the laptop in front of you, sending off important emails and bringing certain documents into chronological order to make it easier for Kunikida to skim through them whenever it’d be needed.

Dazai had ended up with more paperwork than necessary since he insisted on annoying Kunikida all day while you just had a lot to do. A case had caused a lot of material damage throughout Yokohama and now it was your duty to get everything organized and ready to be paid off by the insurance that had saved the Agency from bankruptcy more than once. That was why the two of you were currently stuck in the office, working overtime, unpaid.

Usually, you’d chat with the man sitting opposite of you about anything that came to mind, but that afternoon, you were nervously biting your bottom lip, chewing the sensitive flesh until it was reddened. The glances you stole of him were fleeting but you’d always look away whenever Dazai was about to make eye contact. Your cheeks were dusted in a pink hue as well and truth be told, it looked cute and suited you in a way. However, Dazai wasn’t too fond of your sudden silence. He was about to break the silence, but you cut him to it and closed the laptop shut a bit louder than necessary - you flinched at the sudden, strong sound bouncing off the walls of the Agency.

“I’ve got to tell you something,” your voice was full of conviction yet it was shaking with the insecurity of a child, your fingers couldn’t properly hold still. Interested in what you had to say, Dazai rested his chin on his palm, brown eyes attentive to your every move yet they held a soft glimmer in them and conjured a smile on his lips. “Hm? What is it?”

You took a deep breath - once, twice. It felt like your heart was trying to pound its way out of your ribcage, your pulse raced and you could hear the blood ringing in your ears. But this was no time to chicken out. If you didn’t do it now, God knew when the next best chance would be offered to you on a silver platter like this. “This might sound silly, but I think I might be developing feelings towards you,” you confessed in one breath and for a moment it felt like a burden had been lifted off your shoulders. It felt good to come clean. “You don’t have to return those feelings at all. I just..really needed to get this off my chest and I don’t want it to change anything between us,” and it was true. You didn’t mind being just friends with the suicide enthusiast as long as he remained by your side in some way. But unsaid feelings can be one’s downfall, so you took the risk.

The expression on Dazai’s face didn’t change, but it wasn’t quite readable, either. There was a certain depth to it that you’d never reach the end of, no matter how deep you swam, no matter how deep you’d cut. “I was wondering when you’d notice,” Dazai pretty much deadpanned. He had taken notice of your lingering gaze, the more frequent blushing when he’d compliment you or the fact that you always brought food with you, although you knew he’d eat it instead. The confusion on your face at that moment was quite amusing, too. Dazai chuckled, “you’re pretty much an open book for me to read, [Name].”

Of course, he’d know before you’d even notice your own feelings, you thought to yourself and let a gentle chuckle slip past your lips. It was really futile to hide anything from that man. “Promise it won’t change anything between us?”

“Promise,” he smiled in a heartfelt way.

“Yes, we’re all very happy you two get along,” Kunikida cut the moment without mercy and dumped a load of paperwork on your desk that contained things like finances, complaints, cancelled cases as well as successful ones. “But work comes first.” The blonde adjusted his glasses on his nose and then crossed the point of giving you your work for the day out of his schedule. Next was getting the discounted eggs and several other goods. No way he was going to miss out on that. “Come on, don’t be so harsh on them, Kunikida,” Yosano said, sitting on the edge of Ranpo’s desk who had been watching the scene with snacks between his fingers. “You know how they are,” the doctor tried to reason with the idealist and possibly lessen your paperwork. Kunikida shook his head no - as was expected but one could always hope, right? “That’s no excuse to be slacking.”

“Don’t worry about it,” you assured your colleagues and got to your desk only to find your Google search history opened. So that bandaged bastard really did want to find dirt on you. Luckily, this wasn’t your personal laptop but the one you explicitly used for work. “It has to be done sooner or later, anyway. I’d rather have it off the desk now than tomorrow,” getting comfortable, you opened up Excel and began typing in the different losses as well as profits the Agency had made, giving several documents your signature and the likes. 

“And what was that about my face being unflattering, you bandage wasting machine?!”

“Ouch, words hurt, Kunikida-kun!”

True to your words, all the paperwork was off your desk, every single data was saved on your laptop and the documents were stored away safely in a folder. When you looked out of the window, you saw that the large crowds from this morning were beginning to clear out, the sun was about to set soon. Considering the time, you doubted that anyone else would enter the Agency, today. 

Atsushi was out on a job with Kenji, Kunikida was getting those discounted eggs, Ranpo had finished a murder case and most likely went home with Tanizaki’s help. Yosano had given you a hand with some of your work but left early.

You closed the Agency’s door when your ears perked up at the sound of footsteps approaching you and sighed. “I’m sorry but we’re closed for today,” you spoke and locked the door properly, letting the key slide into the pocket of your jacket. But to your surprise, it was no possible client that wanted to give the Agency yet another case. “What? You can’t recognize me by the sound of my footsteps? I’m disappointed, [Name],” Dazai feigned hurt and put his hand right above his heart. The audacity you had to not recognize him after working together for so long! You couldn’t help the surprise adorning your face - Dazai never got back to his workplace unless he was dragged by Kunikida or it was a top priority. “Yeah, you must be incredibly hurt and will never get over it,” you laughed and cocked your hips to your side. “Now, what did you come back for?”

It was at that very moment that Dazai dropped the theatrical act that you had grown so fond of and replaced it what that damned tender face of his. You know, the face someone made when they could see their puppy grow up. “Let’s go on a date,” He spoke softly, not tripping over a syllable and remaining completely composed unlike you when you had confessed one or two months ago. Heat rose to your cheeks and suddenly, you grew oddly shy. Sure, Dazai was the epitome of a flirt and regularly asked women to commit a double suicide with him, but never quite asked them for a date with a look in his eyes that made the endless depths of them seem reachable. “Are you serious?” You double-checked, eyebrows raised in curiosity of his sincerity. Although you were pretty sure that Dazai wasn’t messing around in that moment, you feared that your ears might’ve played an ill trick on you. “As serious as a suicide enthusiast can be,” Dazai confirmed and offered for you to take his hand. Your eyes flickered from his hand and back to his face a few times, wondering what changed his mind about your feelings towards him and being a little bit cautious. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“You trust me, don’t you?” You hated it whenever he pulled the trust card. Both of you knew you could never say no to that particular question, because it’d be a lie. And Dazai had a nose for lies. Sighing, you put your hand in his and watched his face light up in a pleased way, red staining your cheeks and your heart rate gradually picking up the more you realized that Dazai was seriously taking you out. In a date way. 

As the two of you strolled throughout Yokohama’s streets and ended up in a small restaurant where Dazai made up for all the times he’d eaten your food by treating you to dinner, he’d realized that maybe this was one of the few right decisions he’d ever made.

A friend of him once told him he could never fill the empty hole in his heart. But maybe you could.

[metalandmagi]

Summer 2020 Anime Worth Watching!

Apparently it’s time for the summer anime season, even though it feels like time is meaningless at this point. But somehow, there are still new shows coming out, so if you’re looking for something to watch when you’re stuck at home, here’s a list of the first impressions I got from this season. I don’t really know if it’s going to be worth it, considering how the spring season delayed so much, but here we are. 

As always, not all of these are available on Crunchyroll, but I’ll put a * next to the ones that are.

And if you’re looking for a bit more variety, I have lists for 2019 and the rest of this year’s seasons too...because remember when there was good anime being released instead of just everything being an ecchi or a second season?

2019 master list

My master list for every season of 2020 anime

New Shows!

*The God of High School: An over the top action anime consisting of one big tournament arc! It follows a group of teenagers competing in the epic “god of high school” martial arts tournament to determine the best fighter in the country. Following in the footsteps of Tower of God, this is the newest “crunchyroll original” that is being adapted from a South Korean webcomic. You can tell from the first episode that this will be a spectacle with crazy characters and lots of wild action and humor!

Great Pretender: When a Japanese con man pickpockets the wrong person, he ends up hopping on a plane to Los Angeles and getting wrapped up in a scheme with a sassy Frenchman named Laurent...who basically runs the mafia. There’s humor, there’s plot, there’s great characters, and it’s kinda gay. It’s an exciting original anime from studio Wit, so the animation is bursting with character, and both the music and the general vibe remind me a lot of Baccano or even Lupin III. And since it takes place in America with several foreign characters, there's hilarious English and accent shenanigans abound! The bad news is it’s still in Netflix jail, so if you want to watch it legally you’re kinda stuck for now. 

Japan Sinks 2020: A giant earthquake hits Japan, and a family must cope with the mayhem together. Because what the hell else could possibly go wrong this year? This is a new series (based on a novel) made by Masaaki Yuasa, the guy behind Ride Your Wave and Walk On Girl, if that tells you anything about the style of this anime. I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far, but I heard it goes from being a gripping realistic disaster series to a balls to the wall adventure. To be honest, disaster shows/movies freak me out, and this one is pretty devastating so far, which is a testament to how well it's made. But I appreciate that they include glimmers of hope when they’re needed. The best moments are the quiet ones that focus on the actual people and the narration that juxtaposes the time periods. There’s so much atmosphere, and the music really enhances the experience. And it’s all out on Netflix now, with a dub and a sub!

Deca-Dence: When humanity has been pushed to the edge of extinction by monsters called the Gadoll, the rest of civilization is forced to live in enormous mobile fortresses and send groups out to battle the unknown monsters. So basically like Mortal Engines but the fortresses can turn themselves into giant fists and punch the monsters. We follow a girl named Natsume who wants to be one of the soldiers who fight the Gadoll, but she is constantly rejected because of her prosthetic arm. So she ends up with five years of cleaning duty supervised by a stern but mysterious badass named Kaburagi. I honestly don’t care at all about the plot of the anime, because for me the characters are what drives everything, and these character dynamics are great. I’m not going to say it’s the most original story, but I think it’s fun so far. 

*Rent-a-Girlfriend: A typical harem/romance anime that follows the world’s most annoying protagonist named Kazuya. After Kazuya is dumped by his first girlfriend, he seeks out a rental girlfriend out of self pity….BECAUSE APPARENTLY THAT’S A REAL SERVICE THAT EXISTS IN JAPAN?! Like you can actually rent moms/dads/girlfriends/boyfriends and so on. Anyway, his fake girlfriend is the picture of anime waifu perfection...until Kazuya starts being his typical asshole self and she reveals her true nature of being an absolute sass master who don’t take no shit from no boring ass main character. Shenanigans happen and the two of them end up having to pretend they are in a real relationship. And I’m just calling it now...Kazuya’s grandma is the real best girl of the series. If you want a harem that’s actually funny and doesn’t mind roasting the protagonist, give this one a shot. Although I wish this were just a straight up romance instead of a harem because there is no way in hell that any girl, let alone more than one would want actually to date this guy. 

Next Seasons and Continuations!

*Fruits Basket 2019 (Season 2): Thank goodness Fruits Basket wasn’t delayed or cancelled last season because sometimes I feel like it was the only thing getting me through the spring. I’ve ranted about how good it is enough by now. If it can’t brighten your year, then nothing will. Just watch it if you haven’t already. 

*Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World (Season 2): Subaru is still trapped in another world, and he’s still as angsty as ever, but that’s not going to stop him from constantly putting himself through hell when he keeps dying horribly every time he needs to reset the timeline! There are mysterious new villains, nobody knows who Rem is (again) and I think there’s a plot somewhere under all the suffer porn. Seriously though, this show is pretty cool (even if I was two years late to the party). It’s one of the most interesting isekai anime I’ve ever seen, and it feels like it’s acting as a deconstruction of the genre, kinda like how Madoka Magica is for magical girl anime...both shows certainly have enough crying. The story is weird but interesting, the world building is cool, the villains (and sometimes the heroes) are batshit crazy to watch, and I like its moments of humor. 

No Guns Life (season 2): The story of Juzo, the hard boiled detective who plays by his own rules continues in the second season of No Guns Life. In case you missed the first season, this is a mystery/action anime that feels like an old noir film had a cyberpunk baby. There’s underground conspiracies, there’s interesting side characters, and...oh yeah the main character has a gun for a head. That’s right. we came to see a bara detective with a literal gun for a face, but we stayed for the world building and mysterious plots!

*Fire Force (Season 2): I’m going to be honest here, I really didn’t know if I should include this one or not. I have a major love hate relationship with Fire Force, but I figured there may be other people out there who would like it more than I do. So in case you missed the first season, this show follows a group of firefighters who puts out fires caused by spontaneous combustion using a mixture of guns and super powers. It was created by Atsushi Ōkubo, aka the guy who made Soul Eater. So it’s bound to be amazing right?

Not necessarily. Strap in for this one lads. 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with this show overall. Its main characters just aren’t that interesting most of the time, it can’t decide on what kind of show it wants to be, and so much of it just dragged for a good part of the series. I don’t know if it was a problem of pacing or if the plot was just that uninteresting for a while. The first couple episodes set up a very unique plot, filled with intriguing moral dilemmas. And then it proceeded to abandon everything interesting in favor of badly timed fan-service. It just couldn’t strike the balance that Soul Eater had between its humor and its sincerity. If they wanted to make an ecchi show, they should have just made one instead of inserting the same overplayed scenarios into every episode. I don’t care if a show has fan-service as long as it fits the tone, or if it only has certain episodes dedicated to playing up the humor. But Fire Force has a habit of just inserting it wherever it wants regardless of what’s actually happening in the episode. Also, some of the humor revolves around one of the main female characters who has a really messed up self image because she’s slightly more muscular, and not a tiny delicate flower like some of the other girls. Not going to pretend that doesn’t bug me. 

But that doesn’t mean there is nothing good about it! If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the first season, and I wouldn’t be including this one. So far, the second season has actually been funny because it made the first episode more like filler, instead of cramming in too much plot all at once. And to the surprise of no one, the animation is absolutely god tier. I wish it was being used for something other than clumsy fan-service, but it’s still really something to see. The world building is super creative and 100% my aesthetic, and there were a couple side characters I really loved later in the series (Benimaru). And I did like the twists and turns the series took later in the season when it actually focused on the conspiracy behind the fire force and the cult. When it follows the mysteries it sets up, it’s more fun to watch. Who would have thought? 

TLDR: There’s good stuff and there’s bad stuff. This show is really something you have to watch for yourself to decide if it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to at least try the second season, because I want to see where this goes, but it’s on thin ice. 

Honorable Mentions

Isekai edition! Both of these came out last season, but I hadn’t mentioned them when I made my spring list. But they’re both getting dubs now so I’m still counting them.

*My Next Life as a Villainess- All Routes Lead to Doom!: A twist on the isekai genre where our main protagonist wakes up as a character in her favorite otome game...only to find that she’s actually the bitchy rival side character who ends up either dead or exiled in every route of the game. So naturally she does everything she can to prevent this by becoming a sweet and caring supporting character...who inadvertently makes every single other character in the game fall in love with her. I ignored this show for the first few episodes because I need another isekai in the world like I need a hole in the head, but after hearing everyone rave about it, I caught up with it in no time. It’s a fun take on the otome game tropes, and it manages to be funny and sweet while not committing to any particular pairing.

*Ascendance of a Bookworm (Season 2): That’s right, it’s another isekai where an adult is reincarnated into the body of a child in a fantasy world. But this time, it’s a nerdy girl whose entire purpose in life revolves around reading books (can relate). However, when our main character Mine is thrust into this fantasy world, she quickly realizes that this particular fantasy setting is a little too...medieval  for her tastes...meaning a family of commoners like hers would have no clue how to read and books are only meant for rich people or the church. So of course Mine has to figure out how to either get her hands on some books or make them herself. This is a super cute show that I waited a long time to finally watch, and since the second season is finally being dubbed I wanted to shout it out. It’s just a wholesome isekai version of Dr. Stone. There’s no real action, but it’s a relaxing watch if nothing else. 

Well, there you have it. Hopefully nothing else gets delayed or cancelled because it’s pretty slim pickings as it is. And before anyone asks, I didn’t include GIBIATE because I thought it was a massive disappointment that somehow made a time travel horror anime plot boring. There’s also My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, but it’s been 5 years since I watched the other seasons and don’t remember anything about it. But there’s that too in case anyone is a fan of the series and didn’t know it got another season. 

See you next season…if the world is still here by then?

[kieranosbornfmp2]

Soul Eater

Although I know basically nothing about Soul Eater that doesn’t stop me on knowing that it exists and also knowing about its anime theme song that has become one of the most known theme songs.

Soul Eater is a Japanese manga series  written and illustrated by Atsushi Okubo. The story is set at the Death Weapon Meister Academy and revolves around three teams that all consist of at least one weapon meister and a weapon that can transform into a humanoid. Trying to make their weapon into a Death Scythe that is fit for their headmaster Shinigami who is the personification of death. They must collect 99 souls of evil humans and also the soul of a witch and specifically in that order or they will have to start again.

The art for this is very classic anime looking when it comes to the animation and that's usually some of the best looking shows as new anime look very plastic like and too shiny at times something about old anime just has this really cool charm to it.

The manga I personally don’t like the look of and that is for that one reason and its the grey tones. Like usual I find it makes the art that could of been really good into something's that just looks really weird to me and much less appealing plus I feel like you lose detail with great grey scale instead of adding it as cross hatch shading is my favourite form of manga shading. However I really love its exaggerated proportions especially for the legs and shoes. I just think this style looks cool but the grey tones ruin it for me.

[lovingatsushi]

I’m so glad I’m able to write lovemail to you, because I’ve honestly been wanting to for quite some time. I adore your writing for a lot of reasons, but the first that comes to mind is definitely how well you sell established relationships. With a lot of established relationship fics, I find it really hard to believe because the characterization is very… strange, at least to how I envision it. You do not have this problem. You slip into the relationship so easily, to the point that needn’t even get so far as to get actual confirmation to know that these two characters are together, love each other, and are perfect for each other. They just… are. And they are wholly together in a way that’s so easy to believe in terms of canon. The characterization is spot on, and elegant and perfect and I could ramble about it for longer than is strictly appropriate. That’s not even to mention the writing! Your style is so distinct, in so many little memorable ways. From the way you format things to the way you chose your words, it’s easy to recognize and I adore not only that consistency, but how well you make it work. You write distinctly like you and not like anyone else and it gives me endless joy to read your writing. I also just want to take a quick moment to mention how well you describe surroundings. You can paint really vivid pictures of the environments the characters are in, but only in a way that  makes it relevant to other things going on already in the story. It’s so easy to literally see where the characters are at any given time and you feel completely wrapped up in the world and the fic because of it. Thank you so very much for your writing, and for blessing us all with us, and I can’t wait to read more from you.

💌💌💌

Dear Jail,

Happy Valentines Day! I hope you have a wonderful day, or have had one (by the time you read this message)! I’ll be honest, I didn’t really see a point in Valentine’s Day a couple of years ago, but I’m super-duper full of love and I want to make you feel good too!

You’re a wonderful person, Jail. Really and truly, you are. You’re so expressive and kind, and you have motivated me many a time. I love sharing ideas with you to see what you think, and I love talking to you! You’re so peppy and bright and always fill the timeline with energy whenever you come online!

I honestly wish I could read more of your stuff, too! Your Christmas submission was the first thing I have ever read of yours, and it was absolutely incredible. Your phrasing, pacing and characterization is spot on and lets me paint a very vivid picture in my head! It’s not often I get to do that and I really love reveling in those little pieces of another life that you present us so incredibly!

You’re so honest about what you like, too, and I really enjoy that we have a lot in common. I really value meeting you, and I wish you nothing but the best, and may you have a safe and warm Valentine’s Day!!

Well Wishes,

Your Secret Valentine’s Pal

💌💌💌

The quotes below are from your fic “Orange Skies” on AO3!

Atsushi’d thought of the dangers of that mission, and how he did not like the idea of it, and how he yelled at his lover for something inevitably given to him — how they argued over such a stupid thing, how both had apologized, wondering why the hell they’d gotten so angry anyway — )

…A soft sigh escapes his lips at the memory.

Chuuya…

The sea seems so peaceful if one were to look from afar; however, its waters also take you to dangerous places. There is nothing peaceful about that.

This - This was just in the start of your fic and it’s already reeled me in! I love how the phrase is here again; it’s a very effective use of repetition! You’ve got me excited for Chuuya’s entry, and Atsushi’s reflection is already digging depth into their dynamic!

If so, he thinks, bitterness welling up in his heart as the possibility makes itself clear. Then he couldn’t be here. Not in a public place like this; if anything, the mafia would probably cause a ruckus and these people would be running for their lives right now if they were really here.

Another sigh escapes him as he looks away from the happiness surrounding him.

No Chuuya yet.

Aww Atsushi growing impatient and just a bit annoyed from waiting just makes my heart clench - I know the feeling!

-

My stomach is coiling from Atsushi’s worrying, he’s really dragging me down with him, huh? (I mean this in the best way possible, you’ve successfully played my feelings on puppet strings, with this fic.)

“Long day today, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah. Long day indeed.”…“Almost as long as a month.”

Oh my god these absolute dorks - This scene is so cute and I love that this is how their reunion plays out!

“Crybaby.” Chuuya huffs, albeit softly, irritation not evident in his voice. “I told you I’d be home, didn’t I?”

I’d want to cry, too. (You can tell from this entire thing that my emotions are kept on a leash that’s about as vulnerable and exposed as Atsushi’s shins. Or maybe you’re just a very talented writer. Hmm. Probably both?)

We arrived yesterday, actually.”

“…You’re awful.”

I love them. This is the first ChuuAtsu fic I’ve read and while I’d never disliked it before your writing made me fall for this ship hard. Your pacing is also so good? The plot just kept playing in my head and the conversation flowed in a very natural manner. Also I’ve read your other BSD story and really liked how you strung Rimbaud’s thoughts together! It was super interesting! (But for the sake of not spamming this event quotes from it weren’t included here) - Okay I’ll stop rambling but Happy Valentines! (Or would this be “Happy BSD Lovefest?”) I hope you’re having a great day and know how immersive your stories are!

💌💌💌

Jail and I don’t talk much, but I think it’s always a pleasure to see her around on the server when she pops in! She’s always so bright and bubbly, and her love for the rarest of rarepairs is adorable! I especially loved seeing her mini drabble about her Poecott fan child as I really like the trope of gifted characters realizing that they are gifted! I’d totally be interested to learn more about this OC and the world of BSD as she sees it, and what other fan children Jail may have! Overall I’m super glad to have Jail on the server and I hope to see more of her writing in general!

[goldenkiva]

unfiltered rambling (this is a (long) vent post; cw for some irl death mentions, sui and self harm mention (nothing in reality), bad mental health time, all that jazz

well it’s 7:30 am and ive been awake since 4 am. which is an improvement really. i slept at 12:30am ish, in contrast to constantly sleeping at 8 am or later the past month or so. and it’s been taking a very bad toll on me lately mentally. everything has been building up and probably toyin’s death (yes the one who was found dead, we were classmates in middle/high school...) was my breaking point as i had a very bad panic attack a few days after. that lasted a good 22 hours before i fully calmed down. it always takes me 5-9 hours to calm down from anxiety or trauma related bad times as i have no real coping mechanisms and i will just literally do nothing but stay huddled up in bed until the unbearable feeling goes away. but that one. was just really bad. i think i also accidentally upset one of my best friends before that which also attributed to it (we’re fine now.) it’s been a bit since i had that panic attack but i still feel so bad all the time. sometimes i joke about wataru giving me chest pain bc i love him so much but i feel like i havent experienced physical emotion in so long i just want to feel it even if it’s painful. i dont self harm so dw about that btw. but i rarely shed even a single tear anymore when ive always been a total cry baby. i only cry full on tears and sobs now when im being over stimulated during a conversation. i just genuinely want to feel physically excited or happy or sad or whatever. i want to feel physical emotion again and not just numbness with an occasional laff or on the verge of getting watery eyes but not even real crying or whatever. 

i also had to get a new phone bc my dumb clumsy self dropped my phone flat on the screen a second time and it was unrepairable which makes me sad bc i only had this phone for two years and it still ran perfectly well. i wanted to keep it for 3-4 years at least...i got a new one ordered yesterday and im splitting price with my dad n i just feel bad i had to get a new one at all bc because of covid and shit my parents are only getting half the usual business and we already dont make a ton. thankfully my parents and sister are the type to not spend recklessly in general (i am prob the biggest spender...) but that wont stop my dumb of ass generalized anxiety disorder from making me worry about bankruptcy or poverty or some other extreme. i hate it bc i cant do anything about these thoughts except just what feels like sitting in mud and i slowly sink in. i wish i was an artist with more clout because i desperately want to be have consistent (or any) income. even before covid i always feel bad about not having a job. ik it’s hard to balance school and work anyway so it’s fine if im not working but it sucks. american college is a scam. at least i didnt go to an art school. (well. i am in art program in college. but not going to an arts dedicated school like ringling. which is significantly more expensive. if i went to art school id be significantly more likely to end up in very heavy debt) but i hate having gad. i hate not having any real coping mechanisms. i feel frustrated and a little annoyed when i asked about coping mechanisms for my anxiety with my therapist she just told me breathing exercises. which ig can be valuable but ik in my heart this wont help me at all. perhaps it’s un-dx’d adhd with rsd making me feel that way that makes me refuse to even want to do them. all my medical and health issues are also a contribution to my gad and financial terrors. sometimes it makes me wanna die but i wont do that. bc my friends and family would genuinely be very heartbroken if i were to suddenly be gone especially if by my own hand. i wouldnt want anyone to blame themselves either...

the only things genuinely making me feel anything lately is wataru and buck tick. it almost makes me a little upset how little amount of things make me happy or even feel anything rn. im reading a tragedy visual novel rn (which is very good and well written and i generally like tragedies and i find them indulgent) that i am enjoying very much yet i feel barley anything while reading it. i immensely miss the buck tick concert streams so bad. watching them over the month and half they streamed every saturday morning really put how much they love making music and performing in a brand new light to me, and watching that last concert bestias locus solus was just. so amazing. i dont know how to talk about it other than i was genuinely touched. they went all out playing at that concert stage bc it was their first time performing there (at the time in their 31 year career, 33 this year) and the unplugged performances and sakura especially got me so hard. im not good with words so im not doing a good job at all expressing how much that concert (along with the day in question 2017) made me feel. i miss it. i want to buy the dvds so bad but theyre so expensive and now is not a time for reckless spending. but one day i will attain them and experience the happiness they bring me again. im sad my friends arent rly into them the same degree i am but ig it really is such a personalized feeling. i was already in a state of dread and depression when i got into the band. but im still glad my other friends enjoy them and tell me they enjoy their music. their stuff slaps. theyre just an amazing band. a band not restricted by genre. a band who makes music because they love it and love performing and love their fans and dont get warped in the ideas of fame or fortune, and are fully okay with being normal people...a band with the same line up since their pro debut in 1989 because the members all love and care about each other so much. theyre still going strong in their mid to late 50s as they were in their late teens. they make me so happy...

well it’s 8 am now and if youve read this whole thing, thanks i guess? that sounds rude, but im just kinda sittin in the mud. im still in the midst of cleaning my room. i am not someone to recklessly hurt myself or anything like that so dont worry about that. i’ll be fine. probably. if you wanna listen to buck tick heres their spotify :) i recommend their albums atom miraiha no. 09, no.0 (especially the live performance version), kuratta taiyo, darker than darkness style 1993, aku no hana, and their kemonotachi no yoru/rondo double single. they slap so good. also spotify is missing literally like 15 years worth of their music from the 00s-10s. you can find downloads online though. theyre also releasing a new single in august im very excited for it. also, the singer of the band (atsushi sakurai) did a collab with sheena ringo where he sung the bg vocals of her song elopers, which was also made in sakurai’s image and she got it really dead set on tbqh. sheena ringo loves bt so yall should too :)

[bungoustraydogz]

Oh!! Can I have a friendship matchup? I'm introverted, socially awkward, always thinking (maybe too much), creative, book-smart (street smarts not sm lol), v emotionally consistent/stable. A bit lazy. I like reading, drawing, playing flute and piano, and going to school and learning about math and science. I love looking at imaginative realism art! I also like water scenery and clean air. And I've got a soft spot for rabbits!! Thank you~

Hello dear!

I think one if the best pals for you in the BSD universe would be Atsushi! Why? Because I can totally see him being fascinated by your creative side, listening to you playing the flute and visiting art museums with you just to spend time with you, simply appreciating your presence while you tell him about artists he never heard of and their styles. I can also see him coming up with adorable ideas to draw ~He would also respect you for your knowledge in science and try to help you study (eg acting like your teacher, coming up with questions while looking at your notes, giving you hints when you don’t know the answer). Plus he would be able to distract you from all these nagging thoughts and his warm vibes would stop you from overthinking ♡More importantly, Atsushi is a character with whom you can just hang out on the couch, play card games, watch movies etc, since he can be “socially awkward” too and he knows how to simply appreciate his friends presence, he doesn’t need parties. And let’s be honest, that pretty kitty probably has a soft spot for bunnies too! (Who hasn’t)

Hope you’d agree and liked the Match-Up ♡

[recentanimenews]

Five Highlights of the Fire Force Anime's Thrilling Debut!

Hey all, and welcome back to Why It Works. I’m currently deeply buried under the deluge of new summer anime, due to an ill-considered oath I once made to always watch every new premiere, but even my anime overdose delirium couldn’t keep me from appreciating the stunning brilliance of Fire Force’s first episode. Directed by Yuki Yase (episode director on Madoka Magica and Monogatari, and director of Mekakucity Actors) and based on a manga by Atsushi Okubo (creator of Soul Eater), Fire Force doesn’t just clearly convey the talents of its staff - it elevates them into something truly awe-inducing, a gorgeous and thrilling celebration of animation and visual storytelling. Today on Why It Works, let’s break down just a few of the highlights of this stunning premiere!

The Layered, Intricate Layouts

Yuki Yase is clearly a director with a singular voice, but many of the layouts of Fire Force’s premiere seem reminiscent of the stylistic flourishes he likely internalized working on SHAFT productions, which generally all take care to adhere to a general visual formula. That formula includes incidental shots which aren’t framed simply to capture the focus characters, but to expand to include the broader geometry of their environment, making a visual maze out of foreground details and background lighting. The early scenes of protagonist Shinra’s introduction to his team are lent a sense of mystery and grandeur through their detailed layouts, and the later fight scenes naturally convey the bedlam and disorientation of a building on fire through similar tricks. Fire Force’s layouts greatly enhance its visual drama, and I hope they continue to maintain such a high level of creativity and beauty.

The Vivid, Thematically Resonant Color Contrasts

At one point in Fire Force’s premiere, one of Shinra’s teammates informs him that the blue visual bands of their uniforms form an unbreakable link between them, protecting them from the horror of their fiery enemies. That line isn’t just a reflection of his support for Shinra - it’s essentially an explanation for the visual terms of the show’s drama, as the screen erupts in flames countered and bound by those glowing, vivid blue bands. It’d be easy to get visually lost in the speed and overwhelming orange glow of Fire Force’s battles, but the contrast of those blue bands against the fire both help to maintain visual clarity, and also emphasize the show’s thematic focus on teamwork and mutual trust as the only bulwark against the flames.

  The Beautiful Minimalism of Its Flashbacks

Shinra’s memories of his mother slot into two distinct visual categories: the warm, colorful palettes of his happy childhood, and the brutal black-and-white minimalism of her traumatic death. While the modern world is portrayed through somewhat muted colors, the contrast between these two flashback styles emphasizes how his mother’s death drained all color from Shinra’s world, reducing his existence to barren grayscale, with only the orange of flames and the red of his “devilish” eyes still offering color in the grey. This creates distinct, beautiful moments, but also directly informs the show’s emotional and thematic intent.

The Wild Diversity of Visual Digressions

Yuki Yase’s time at SHAFT saw him consistently dabbling in unique visual styles that diverged heavily from the standard aesthetic of his shows, like the witch worlds of Madoka Magica and sprawling illustrated scrolls of Monogatari. In Fire Force, that fondness for visual experimentation is expressed in a variety of ways, like the stained glass windows used to illustrate the history of the Infernals, and the roughly animated, beautifully colored depictions of their ever-shifting nature. Even the show’s brief gags are often conveyed through distinct and attractive new visual styles, making for an episode that looks as if it’s constantly reinventing itself, embracing any visual tools that will further its dramatic goals.

  The Utterly Stunning Animation

And of course, beyond all of the show’s excellent directorial and design choices, there are the plentiful, utterly beautiful cuts of action and fire animation. Animating something as fluid and detailed as fire is an inherently difficult prospect, but Fire Force is utterly brimming with cuts that demonstrate the terrifying majesty of an out-of-control fire, or the physical weight and staggering momentum of its heroes’ powers. Sequences like Shinra’s big introduction, or his team’s encounter with an out-of-control infernal, don’t just look beautiful - the clear flow of character movement always conveys a strong sense of every object’s sturdy physical form, while the convincingly illustrated flames around them make it seem like they’re skating on the surface of a lake of fire. Fire Force’s debut was a visual marvel from start to finish, and I dearly hope the show continues to dazzle us with such purposeful, beautiful, and thrilling spectacles.

What did you all like best about Fire Force’s debut? Let us know in the comments!

-----

Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

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

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[brooklyndrinksandgoeshome]

It’s embarrassing, the last three written entries on here have mostly been about people passing away as if I’m surrounded by the all-encompassing grim reaper everyday at every turn. I mean, this is what happens when you write about the past and naturally the people who are no longer with us will get a bit of extra space because all we have from them now are memories, but for fuck sake, I’m not mister doom and gloom all the time. If anything, it seems as if I’m surrounded by a self-contained bubble of early 90s Japanese wrestling, 70′s power-pop, Radio Garden, this Oliver Sacks book that I’m hoping to finish before the end of the week and curling. No really, curling. Seriously, curling rules.

I haven’t written that much about music in the last several years mostly because of burnout and if I’m not careful, it’ll start to feel like a job and I’ll want to put it off until my non-existent deadline creeps up on me which I can push back to infinity without any consequence (hell, it’s taken me a week and a half to finish this pointless exercise anyway). Besides, critiquing music as a serious profession, I’ve come to realize as the years have past is, well, kind of stupid; like if you don’t have anything nice to say, just ignore it and all the bad music will all hopefully vanish, right?  

That being said, I do wonder why a lot of bands from yonder past never never got the credit or recognition they deserved. Usually from a DIY perspective, I’m quick to blame poor distribution deals from a company run out of their mom’s basement, or a local band who never played beyond the same 20 people at the same club for their entire existence, (this plagued almost every Detroit band from the early-80s until the late-90s) or just plain old self-destruction that still bites people back, whether if it’s drug addiction or a fear of failure/success. My personal favorite --and I can’t find it on the internet to save my life right now, was when a jilted ex destroyed all but a hundred copies of her boyfriend’s first and only EP of his band, thus making it an instant collector’s item with their tracks being discovered fairly recently on a Killed By Death bootleg.

I also think my own opinions on music have always a been a bit left of center as I get bored way too easily and I quickly turn into a crotchety old man whenever Pitchfork creams their jeans over another Garageband produced dance track that sounds as boring and milk toast as any song put together from laptop bloops and bleeps.* Feeling this old out of touch makes one resort to the jazz or country section of any used record store, or when anyone asks me what I listen to these days, I usually say “podcasts.” But something about the aforementioned 70s power-pop obsession has arrived after a brief yet expensive summer of Northern Soul collecting that got put on hold as I have a hard time paying more than $20 for a 45; yeah, this phase didn’t last very long. Before that, it was Sun Ra who has literally hundreds of releases under his always spotty discography and after awhile, it became overwhelming search through scores of, I’m sorry, no disrespect, bin fillers, to eventually find a reissued gem like Sleeping Beauty or Lanquidity. Before that, it was electronic, sci-fi synth soundtrack sounding 70s prog made by the guy who use to drum for The Shadows. Did I mention that I get bored way too easily?

Even by record nerd standards, I know I have some unpopular opinions on popular unpopular music: Big Star weren’t going to be next Beatles ever and they probably have five good songs top. As much as I love The Jam, Style Council have a handful of tracks that blow away anything else Paul Weller’s ever done (oh snap, fighting words). With a few exceptions, The Yellow Pills comps are wildly overrated with a lot of tracks sound more like a second rate Rick Springfield --even if it was the point for a band to be the next Rick Springfield. Also, it still bothers me that The Fastbacks, mostly ignored for their entire 22 year career, got more recognition when they opened for The Presidents of The United States of America when “Peaches” was in heavy rotation. Seriously, I’ll take Answer The Phone Dummy over any 90s Sub Pop release any day.

The Keys: I Don’t Wanna Cry

Produced by Joe Jackson and still managed to have only found a recent audience from the depths of obscurity thanks to a Youtube hero. Not bad, but probably too nice and squeaky clean as The Buzzcocks and Undertones already did this way better and louder. Still, the singer hits those high notes with ease and could have easily been a hit if it was written for, I don’t know, Elvis Costello or someone else a bit more angsier. 

The Letters: Nobody Loves Me

Again, way too wussy and self-hating even by pop-punk standards, but I still love this track as it’s bouncy pogo energy and raw production more than make up for the shitty lyrics. One and done, never heard from again until a 2002 CD reissue of their mostly unreleased discography, or is it a reunion record? I don’t know.

The Tours: Language School

Another one and done from the UK who got plenty of hype from John Peel, signed to Virgin and imploded within a year never to be heard from until Cherry Red reissued their unreleased album a few years ago which is now also going for a steep price on Discogs. Nice short, poppy number here that if anything, makes you realize how much (again) the Buzzcocks influenced a generation of UK bands in the late 70s-early 80s.

20/20: Remember The Lightning

I first remember hearing about these guys from the well meaning Radio Heartbeat Records who reissued a single that quickly went out print along with the rest of the labels discography --some moved on to form Captured Tracks who eventually went on to re-release all of Milk ‘n Cookies output on a (sorry) completely unnecessary 2xLP box set, huge picture book included. 20/20’s first album got lost in the shuffle of another busted label (notice a trend here) that got swallowed up by Epic Records, which is a shame because we could have had a punkier younger brother of the Knack.

De Cylinders: I Wanna Get Married

Spontaneously heard a live set of these guys on the always fantastic, very missed Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU and rushed to see their record release/only American show ever in front of a dozen others at a random Brooklyn bar. The wonderful Sing Sing Records reissued this single and naturally, there’s a way out of print CD discography compilation  that’s only available in Japan for like $40 bucks on Discogs. Uh, I have to find a job first.

Nasty Facts: Drive My Car

God, I love the internet. This gem would have never been discovered if it wasn’t for some Youtube hero who posted a vinyl rip of a bootleg as the original pressing is long gone --cheapest one I found on Discogs going for $70 and it’s tough being a cheapskate and a record collector at the same time. Anyway, punky rocky from New York with a singer who sounds like less gruff but equally badass Joan Jett; America’s answer to the Rezillo’s! Get on it, weirdo!

Ail Symudiad: Garej Paradwys

Probably never made it farther out than Cardiff because everything’s in Welsh, but they put out a surprising number of singles that were all pretty consistent throughout the 80s --I’m pretty sure this is their third one. Full of energy despite the weird guitar effect pedals used throughout the song and if you’re curious, they’re called Second Movement and according to Google Translate, this songs about partying in their garage. I don’t know, I didn’t go farther than their “Paradise Garage” song title.

The Elevators: Your I’s Are Too Close Together

The least punky song on here, but it did make me laugh out loud the first time I heard it. I mean, of all the reasons why he won’t go out with her, and he lists everyone one on here, her facial structure was the final straw. Probably a wee mean spirited, but the lyrics go perfect with the chorus, high notes on the lead guitar and all.

The Records: Starry Eyes

Saving the best for last. There’s no excuse, this should have been a huge hit. I mean, it’s great that we have our own song to share with our closest friends --for example, a heartbreaker of an ex or whatever it was you want to call it when we had an on and off again thing in 2012 introduced me to this and well, all it did was prolong some coulda-woulda-shoulda feelings that lasted a bit longer than it should have. Anyway, this song’s a power-pop masterpiece that, unintentionally or not, sounds like an unreleased Big Star track and it makes me angry that these guys got swept under the rug for whatever reason.

I’m tired and I’ve run out of adjectives, just like how I use to back when I (barely) made a living writing about music, no benefits, no thesaurus. Will try to write more about something like Atsushi Onita or how much I love The Great British Bake Off or something. 

*Nothing made me feel more out of touch with underground/contemporary music when I had a hard time understanding what the big deal was with The Fiery Furnaces, but when I couldn’t get away from Animal Collective, that’s when I get up and settled into a WFMU k-hole. I can tell you the exact moment sometime around the end of 2007, on the 7 train heading into Long Island City for work, reading The Metro --I’m a sucker for free daily newspapers no matter how badly written, and came across their best album of the year list with Strawberry Jam being number four or something. “This album rules” the brief review started and once again, I just didn’t get it. I don’t always take part in any schadenfreude, but I’m glad significantly less people give a shit about them these days.   

[mononohke-archive]

Anime Roundup Pt.1 - Fall 2016 [Spoilers]

It’s that time of the season again where I get to write thousands of words nitpicking whatever anime I happened to watch! For the first time, I want to add a SPOILER warning because although I don’t go out of my way to spoil plot points, I will bring them up if necessary. This is late once again, and honestly I don’t have much of an excuse. I did have some writers’ block, but I also just procrastinated a lot. It’s a good thing no one cares about my opinions in the first place! :D 

Also, I had to split this into two parts because apparently there is a word limit of 5000 on text posts. 

Overall: This was a really damn good season. The were a couple of disappointments, yes, but it still mostly good and there were a few amazing, Anime of the Year contenders too.

Total Anime: 11 | Average Score: 7.5 | Word Count: 5058

- (DIRECT) SEQUELS -

Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season [7/10]

Oh... Bungou Stray Dogs. How dare you do that to me? How dare you get so damn good you made me cry, then a few episodes later, take it all away? That’s what the first 4-episode, completely unrelated flashback arc of this second season did. Meaning: it switches protagonists (focusing on a character/friend from Dazai’s past in Port Mafia), switches tone, and switches... um, quality of writing to be perfectly honest. This whole 4-episode arc is like a masterpiece compared to the rest of the show before and after. I need to talk about why I like it better so much.

#1) The main character is someone I ended up really caring about. Oda Sakunosuke (voiced by the great Jun Suwabe) is a Port Mafia hitman who is unwilling to actually kill people. Despite his job, he takes care of a few adopted kids and tries so hard to do what’s right and follow his principles. He is a protagonist which I rarely see, and I fell in love with him instantly. Compare him to Atsushi who is... just okay... nothing special... kind of boring by comparison, actually. I have issues with being invested with the characters in the main storyline.

Of all the people in the Agency, I only like Kunikida and the boss, Yuki. Collectively, they don’t get much screen time, especially compared to Dazai, but even I did not have a problem with Dazai in this arc. His stupid suicide jokes and tomfoolery are severely toned down and frankly, he’s a lot more likable like this. The other side characters were great too, like the villain, Gide (voiced by another one of my favorite seiyuu, Shinichirou Miki).

#2) Total difference. If you haven’t seen BSD, you won’t know that it is full of humorous moments. A lot of it is... hit and miss. And sure, it’s not overall or primarily a comedy, but the comedy elements are pretty strong and frequent, especially in the first season. In this arc though, there was almost no humor. It was a serious gangster drama with a few supernatural elements. It’s almost comparable to last season’s 91 Days, which I personally enjoyed a lot.

#3) Genre shift. This is related to the previous number and to reiterate, the first arc of BSD season 2 is a dead serious gangster action/drama. The rest of the show is highly comedic with a lot of anime tropes/cliches, but the flashback arc had none of that. It almost didn’t feel like an anime. It was a legitimate crime drama (with the focus on the criminals instead of the police) which is actually really damn rare in anime. I praised 91 Days a lot for this in the previous season, so BSD gave me another taste of that and it was beautifully done. The bleak, but still beautiful color grading, the 1930s aesthetic despite it taking place in modern times, the soundtrack, everything was on point.

Aaand that’s why I upped the score by one point compared to the first season. This flashback arc did it for me. It made me desperately wish that BSD was about Odasaku and Port Mafia instead of Atsushi and the Agency. If this arc was released alone as an OVA, I would’ve given it a 9 for sure.

To be fair though, this season was also genuinely better than the first in a few ways. Namely, the introduction of the overseas/foreign group of specialists full of familiar Western authors like Mark Twain and H.P. Lovecraft. The leader of The Guild, F. Scott Fitzgerald (played by another one of my faves, Takahiro Sakurai), in particular is a delight to watch as he pulls the strings of his evil plans. Generally, all the new additions to the cast, including the extra focus on Port Mafia, are highly entertaining to follow, much better than the Agency alone. Although the Guild arc is a little bit rushed because of the flashback arc, the pacing and everything just felt a lot more exciting than the previous season.

Other than that, I can’t say I have any new criticisms or appraisals. Most of the things I mentioned in my first review of Bungou Stray Dogs carries over. I do want to praise the production values again because this show genuinely has top-tier animation and sound design (because Production I.G.). Forget what I previously said about the direction because that and the cinematography are beautiful. Some of the shots in the show are worthy of being framed. Even the soundtrack was good, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. The biggest, and pretty much only, flaws that this show has is in the writing/plot and characters and those are really important things. Great writing can often make up for a lack of production values, but it usually does work the other way around.

Haikyuu!! 3rd Season [8/10]

I was kind of surprised that for the next sequel of Haikyuu!!, they would dedicate an entire (10 episode) season just to one match. Even now, I question that decision. Don’t get me wrong, Haikyuu!! is still as good as it ever was in terms of production values, writing, voice acting*, etc buuut having 10 episodes dedicated to one match and nothing else? I’m not a fan of it.

Part of that is because as far as sports anime goes, I tend to favor training arcs and down time in-between matches, more than actual matches themselves (and I also prefer shorter matches). This “season” is one rather lengthy match, with nothing after it or before it like in the previous seasons. I’m sure I would’ve been fine with it if it was part of a full 25 episode season. That’s why I actually dropped it one point instead of being a 9/10 like the first two seasons.

Other than that, I don’t really have any complaints... I mean, yes, my preference for shorter matches is a thing, but it’s not at all badly paced like Diamond no Ace. But looking back, I might’ve preferred marathoning it than watching it week-to-week like I did...

*RIP to the original voice actor of Ukai, Kazunari Tanaka.

Natsume Yuujinchou Go [10/10]

Watching this new season of Natsume Yuujinchou was like meeting and old friend. It was like going home. With the exception of a slight change in art style, there is no difference at all between this and the last season that aired back in 2012. My biggest complaint, honestly, is that Go only had 11 episodes rather than 13 like every other season does. Thankfully, another season is guaranteed next year, so it’s not over!

Now, I don’t want to discuss every reason why I love Natsume Yuujinchou so much because I plan to do that one day in a proper review of the series as a whole, but let’s just say that this series is really important to me. This season gave me what I wanted: more fun, heartwarming, and emotional anecdotes of Natsume’s everyday life interacting with youkai and humans alike as well as a bit more backstory of Natsume, Natori, Matoba, and Natsume’s family/friends and the slight moving forward of an overarching plot. Further character development for some few characters also happened in the usual subtle way.

I’m so happy Natsume has maintained its level of quality, even with the studio change. All the original voice actors and most of the original production crew came back. Thank god for this consistency because not all shows get it (*coughsdgmcoughs*).

- INDIRECT SEQUELS & NON-SEQUELS -

Days [7/10]

This is a sports anime. Just a regular sports anime which hits all the beats of every other sports anime. The production values are pretty decent, although the CGI players in long shots are somewhat distracting, but they are nothing special.

So why did I like this one? Well, aside from how I generally favor sports anime (albeit for shallow reasons like good yaoi art/doujins/fanfiction), I did get invested in the characters, that much is undeniable. What helps is that the voice cast is incredible, with Takahiro Sakurai, Daisuke Ono, Tomokazu Seki, Daisuke Namikawa, etc etc. Yes, despite the sameyness of this sports anime, I took a liking to it. It entertained me and it’s good enough for a sports anime, which I rate relative to each other, not other anime of different genres.

Days, in all actuality, is pretty average, but I liked the characters a lot and that’s enough for me.

Drifters [7/10]

Before I start talking about this one, I am not familiar with Hellsing (yet, but it is on my plan-to-watch list), so I can’t really use that as a comparison. Now then, Drifters is a little strange to me because on one hand, it really plays to some of my base desires/guilty pleasures and overall I found it fun to watch. For example, It’s incredibly gorey and violent, which I appreciate. It’s a massive crossover story with famous historical figures and takes place in a very Lord of the Rings-esque (almost like a cliffnotes version) alternate universe. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and has plenty of hilarious and cool moments.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of unfunny “offensive” humor/etc that really takes me out of the viewing experience. How can I properly enjoy something when I’m always lowkey uncomfortable? Some of the sexism and homophobia/transphobia is so bad it feels like an 80s anime. (If you’ve seen an older anime, you know how much more blatant they are.) How is this writer still stuck so far in the past? Get a clue, man, most modern anime is usually at least subtle about it.

Anyway, aside from that, I did also have some problems with other things, which I can only describe vaguely because sometimes I zoned out while watching the show. Well, regardless, I still thought Drifters was pretty good, and I liked it, but it sure as hell is flawed. Looking forward to the second season though.

Fune wo Amu [5/10]

If I had to pick the most disappointing anime of the season, it would be this one. Not that Fune wo Amu/The Great Passage is actually bad, per se, but I expected much more. Granted, it was probably my fault in the first place. I made a lot of assumptions about what it would be like because I heard Haruko Kumota was attached to the project and thought it would be a masterpiece drama like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (written/drawn by Kumota) earlier this year. Turns out that Fune no Amu is actually based off of a novel written by someone else and Haruko Kumota is merely the character designer for the anime and is currently drawing the manga adaptation.

Even so, this anime looked promising. The whole premise centering around an adult cast working on the production of a dictionary (a somewhat mundane job) is exceedingly rare in anime. Sooo... maybe it would give a unique experience since there would be little-to-no anime cliches and tropes, right? Um, well, yeah that’s the thing. While is succeeded in not having that many of anime’s typical pitfalls, it did not succeed in making the characters or dictionaries in general interesting.

The biggest problem with Fune wo Amu is the complete lack of focus. It kind of goes all over the place and tries to cover everything, but instead it spreads the narrative thin. The only exception is Majime (the main character)’s connection to dictionary making, but even that is marred by a different issue (which I’ll get to after this). There are other things which are subplots or otherwise brought up, but never get properly explored or resolved.

For example: the romance between Majime and Kaguya. For a few episodes, they interact a little bit, Majime has a crush on her, halfway through he writes a cheesy love letter to her and bam! 10+ year time skip and they’re happily married. As someone who hates romance in general, it’s really weird for me to say that I wanted more focus on the romance. (On a sidenote, can I just say that Kaguya’s career of becoming a chef and restaurant owner in an extremely male dominated/sexist industry is about hundred times more interesting than Majime faffing about with dictionaries? Makes me wish the anime was about her instead.)

And that’s not the only thing ofc... the friendship between Majime and Nishioka was not really resolved. The old man and his dedication to making the dictionary was there in the beginning and brought back only at the very end as he’s about to pass away. Almost everything felt like it didn’t get enough attention.

As for Majime’s character development and his relationship with dictionary making. The problem with that is not really the writing, but with the imagery. The symbolism in this show is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. A character says something like “a sea of words” to describe making a dictionary and then later in the episode, Majime has a dream where he’s literally in a sea of words. Not only is it distracting as hell, but it feels unfitting for this kind of anime. Yes, there is some media where big and bold imagery is the way to go (Gurren Lagann, anyone?), but Fune wo Amu is not it. If the symbolism was more subtle or abstract, it definitely would’ve worked in its favor. Instead, it’s hamfisted and corny. If you want a good example of subtle, interesting, and effective imagery from a show with a similar vibe, watch Rakugo Shinjuu (which is in my top 3 best anime of 2016).

I also have to quickly mention the music, even though it’s not visual, because it also suffers the problem of being too obvious and distracting. It’s not a good thing when the main theme kicks in and I groan because it annoys me that much. Again, a more subtle soundtrack would’ve been better. Other than those major problems, there’s nothing really of note to mention. The animation itself is decent and the voice acting is fine as usual. Nothing standout though, despite the cast full of veterans.

So in the end, I struggled between giving this an anime a 5 or 6. I originally settled on a 6, but then lowered it back down to a 5 because I was being too forgiving.

[gamerzcourt]

How Pokemon Cards Are MadeHow Pokemon Cards Are Madevideo games

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How Pokemon Cards Are MadeHow Pokemon Cards Are Madevideo games

Creatures, Inc. is an often-overlooked arm of the Pokemon machine. The developer has worked on spin-off Pokemon games for years, starting with Pokemon Stadium in 1998 and most recently Detective Pikachu–as well as 3D Pokemon models for various games, including Super Smash Bros. But the company is also responsible for much of the Pokemon Trading Card Game, which consistently sees new series and expansions after over 20 years.

We recently had a chance to tour Creatures Inc.’s Tokyo, Japan office to learn about the process of creating Pokemon cards. During our tour, we spoke to Atsushi Nagashima, game director for the TCG, and Mitsuhiro Arita, a longtime freelance illustrator responsible for over 500 Pokemon cards–including the infamous holographic Charizard card–about how cards are conceived and then illustrated. We also talked to Satoru Inoue, the test room lead at Creatures, about how cards are playtested and how balance problems and broken cards are addressed by the team.

There are three main parts to making a new Pokemon card: coming up with the idea for the card, commissioning art, and testing the card with the current TCG rules. This involves a team of game designers, over 70 artists, and 19 playtesters working full time to create and execute new card series and expansions.

Step One: Pick A Pokemon

According to Nagashima, the most important thing when coming up with a new set of cards is variety. There needs to be a mix of art styles and types of cards; some need to have strong competitive potential, while others need to be appealing to collectors. But the first step to creating a new set is deciding which Pokemon to use.

“Near the beginning of a new series [based on the latest video games], we really try to take care to stay true to the video games that we’re basing the card series on–for example, the Pokemon that were featured heavily in that video game or had a big role in the story, we’ll make sure they’re kind of at the center of the set we’re making,” Nagashima said. “But once we’re kind of mid-way through the series, we start focusing more on play environment overall…and decide which Pokemon to put in based on that.”

A lot of those choices come down to what the game needs to feel more balanced and what Pokemon suit those needs, Nagashima said. But the team also considers which Pokemon don’t get a lot of love in the games or anime, the ones kids might find cool, or even Pokemon they themselves like.

“One of my favorites is Darkrai, and I think you’ll notice that there’s a lot of strong Darkrai cards,” he said, laughing.

Nagashima at the Creatures office.

There are also background stories and themes for each expansion, though that’s not really communicated to players. “In the [XY Breakthrough expansion], the theme we had for that was two parallel worlds. They both featured Mewtwo, so there was a Mewtwo that was in this advanced world…and there was a Mewtwo that was more old-fashioned,” Nagashima explained. “These two parallel worlds collide and then the world goes into chaos and is destroyed as a result of that.”

According to Nagashima, one of the team’s biggest challenges is maintaining the spirit of certain characters and Pokemon while putting their own spin on things. Because the card game is closely tied to the video game, it can also be tricky to translate certain game mechanics into ones that work in the TCG–like Mega Evolution, for example.

“In the trading card game, you have your basic [Pokemon]. You evolve it to Stage 1 and [then Stage 2], so there are two steps to get to your final evolution in general. If we added another step on top of that, you just wouldn’t have enough room in your 60-card deck to really make that feasible,” Nagashima said. “So we took the approach of only having Mega Evolutions for cards that were already really strong–so there was already an EX card and then that would evolve to the Mega-EX. We tried to reduce the number of steps in that way.”

Ultimately, Nagashima says, the TCG team is always trying to keep things fresh and varied while still paying attention to the competitive meta, and it’s a complex balancing act even from the beginning.

Step Two: Illustrations

Once the team has decided on the kind of card they need and who (or what) will be on it, it’s time to get the art process started. Creatures currently works with 73 different illustrators and artists to ensure sets are varied. One of the most prolific of them is Mitsuhiro Arita, who’s been working on the TCG since the beginning and has illustrated 537 cards to date.

Above: Arita at the Creatures office. Slideshow: Mewtwo-GX, Giovanni’s Scheme, and the Lurantis card, all mentioned below.

Arita showed us his workspace at the Creatures office, part of a pod of desks set up for freelance artists to work on confidential designs. Each desk is configured based on the artists’ home offices, usually with tablets for digital art and coloring. He walked us through his illustration process for a recent Lurantis card, paying special attention to dynamic shading and bright background colors to capture the spirit of the Pokemon.

Creatures sends the artists details about the card: what the Pokemon is, the kinds of moves it will have, and any important background information, especially when the Pokemon in question is in a game that hasn’t come out yet. This also applies to Trainer cards, and even the vaguest instructions influence the art; for example, Arita received instructions for a Giovanni card with an “imposing” feel, so he gave it a more classical painting style rather than a cartoony one. For holographic cards, Arita will usually specify which parts of his art should shimmer, though the final holo design is a collaboration with Creatures staff.

In the Red and Green days, Arita and the other artists only had the in-game sprites and limited official artwork to work off of when creating cards. Still, he’s responsible for some of the most iconic cards from the original series, including holographic Charizard and the original fat Pikachu. In a binder filled with all his designs so far, the first few pages could have been any Pokemon-obsessed kid’s collection in the late ’90s.

“Specifically this Charizard and that Pikachu are some of the most memorable cards for I think a lot of people who played the game originally, and I always thought that I’d probably never be able to draw cards that people would like better than those two,” Arita said. But a Mewtwo-GX card he recently designed is his new favorite, and he says he’s been getting good feedback on it.

Unexpectedly, the same artist is unlikely to work on every Pokemon in an evolutionary line. In the original card series, Arita illustrated Bulbasaur and Venusaur but not Ivysaur (which was done by Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori). While there are some cases where a consistent style is called for across an evolutionary line–like these adorable Tepig family cards–they’re usually usually split up between artists, presumably for variety or time efficiency.

Efficiency especially is key, since many of the cards go into the testing phase even before the art is finished.

Step Three: Full-Time Playtesting

At Creatures, there’s a special room dedicated to testing the card game. It’s in the back of the small office, and it’s filled only with tables, chairs, and drawers upon drawers filled with years of Pokemon cards. Seven hours a day, five days a week, 19 playtesters play the TCG to see how new cards fare. (The odd number doesn’t seem to be a problem, apparently.)

Because they’re mostly testing cards that haven’t been released yet, the playtesters have to work with what they have. Work-in-progress cards are actually stickers put on old cards so they can still be played in normal decks; if the illustrations aren’t finalized, these stickers will use generic art of the Pokemon (or whatever the card subject is) with the complete moves, name of the card, and suggested effects, HP, and damage.

According to test room lead Satoru Inoue, those smaller adjustments happen “extremely often,” while they’ll usually see at most two or three drastic revisions before cards are finalized. Nagashima noted that competitive players will sometimes use released cards in completely unexpected ways, in which case the card has to be banned–he specifically called out Lysandre’s Trump Card, which was banned in 2015 for making games severely imbalanced.

Even with all the playtesting, competitive players regularly surprise the team. Nagashima cited Shintaro Ito’s Mega Audino deck, which won him the 2016 Pokemon World Championships in the Masters Division, as a recent example–he didn’t expect the card to be nearly as viable as it was.

Inoue, Nagashima, and Arita in the Creatures lobby.

Nagashima’s favorite strategy, though, is one he himself was heavily involved in designing: the infamous Night March deck, which dominated much of the competitive scene in 2016 and won the US Nationals that year.

“I was only making it with the assumption that it would maybe make it to the finals, but not take the entire thing!”

Walking back through the office at the end of the tour, nearly every desk is filled with Pokemon toys and merch. It’s very clear: From the design and art to the test room, the most important thing for Creatures’ TCG team is loving Pokemon.

GameSpot News

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

7O3X 1 | Saiyuki Reload Blast 1 | Konbini Kareshi 1 | Knight’s & Magic 1 | Chronos Ruler 1 | 18if 1 | Boku no Hero Academia 27 | Vatican Kiseki Chousakan 1 | Katsugeki 2 | Hina Logi 2 - 3

Still need votes for this.

7O3X 1

As you can kinda tell from these notes, I love random trivia, so this was a hype show ever since I found out about it. Then again, I never thought a quiz anime would exist in the first place prior to the announcement of this.

Okay, question 1 – why exactly did some Japanese staff member saddle this show with a name that doesn’t match the Japanese title at all? So long as you know O is a correct answer, you’re fine…

I love how they’ve styled the credits to be like a Q and A. That really works in the show’s favour.

Headband girl’s name is Mari Fukami, right? How does she pose her legs like that?!

For some reason, I like Shiki’s name in the Western order more…

Interesting how Kuroda stands out more than Shiki, knowing anime tropes.

I’m not entirely up to snuff on Japan’s nuclear stuff, but the Descartes saying is fairly well known and I got it. The thing about quiz shows is that you have to want to play along, which I’m not getting just yet, but this is just the setup stage so I’ll keep going. Sahara…The Metamorphosis (I love transformation fiction, so to get a question about Metamorphosis so early on basically means you’ve won me over, LOL)…I think the deeper this goes, the more cliché it may seem, but I like it. Especially because I remember  helping out at the library a lot (plus free pizza as a result…haha).

The books Shiki passes by include “The World of Literature You Don’t Know” and a parody of that Arukeyo Otome thing by Masaaki Yuasa that was released recently (which is based on a novel). Specifically, the name of the 7O3X version of the book is “The Morning is Short, Walk On Girl” (to use the sentence pattern of the original).

Ah, now Shiki’s a kiddo that gets me! I’ve never been too sociable to people and before I got too deep with the internet, it was just me and books, and as a result I specialised in everything English (bar writing, which I was average at). However, by the time I was 13, I lost my skills in English to essays. My love of anime made its resurgence around then so I suspect if I were still a book nerd, I wouldn’t be where I am today…

Okay, I think someone on the ‘net warned me about the panty shot. It’s a good thing Shiki is clearly uncomfortable with it…yeah. Moving on.

That club with the skirts really is disturbing, but I couldn’t help laughing like the brunette in front of Shiki.

Gakuto really made a great first impression. It wowed me. Unfortunately, the quiz show he referenced doesn’t exist, according to Google-sensei…”High School Quiz Show” apparently does, though.

I think there are specialised makers of those buzzers, Shiki. Or you could order them online or something, your call.

Please stop with the panty shot references…but sticking “April” in English really doesn’t make this question work out for me. So, to answer in Japanese, it would be shigatsu.

There are 50 stars on the American flag, right?…Yep. It wasn’t a trick question – buzzing in too fast can be a liability, so make sure you listen to the entire question before you answer!

I’d actually guess Gakuto is going to ask for “the nation with the most people”…Darnit! Oh well, I knew that one before the other guy buzzed in. Interesting how there’s Vatican Miracle Examiner this season though.

I suck at anticipating questions, but I’m good at answering like Shiki. “Et tu, Brute?” is said by Julius Caesar.

The guy to Mari’s left just seems to be fooling around. I’d know that sort of guy anywhere…*frowning face*

I don’t know about this “I fell in love” one…By the way, the text is here. That reveals the author is Dazai and Das Gemeine actually starts with “Back then, each day was the end of my life.” “I fell in love” comes after that.

Kaijou High School? Is this foreshadowing for a later opponent? Like, say, Mikuriya Chisato?

Stop it with the panty shot reference! Argh!

Wait, there’s a silhouette there in one of the circles. The long hair and colour of the circle indicates it’s most likely a girl, but probably one the staff want to keep secret…Interesting.

I’m kind of ambivalent, as this was one of 4 major hype shows for me. The number of panty shot references means they may refer to the event again in subsequent episodes, and fanservice has killed shows for me in the past. However, I’m slowly getting the hang of this quiz bowl stuff, even if I can’t always get in before the answer, and I know the emphasis is on quizzes, so I’ll give it another ep.

Saiyuki Reload Blast 1

Apparently, you don’t need to know much to get into Saiyuki so *shrugs* I’m gonna try it.

I think a more literal version of this ep title is “Sudden Storm”. “Squall” implies power as much as immediacy…

This reeks of DN Angel (late 90s/early 2000s) style, and I like it! Plus I’ve heard of the dragon/Jeep from other people who’ve talked about the series (notably there was an article on CR that convinced me to watch this and it mentioned the dragon), so…that was actually no biggie. Camera blood spatter is a bit questionable, though…

I have weird tastes in humour, as you might know from Kado. Therefore, when the woman appeared at the window, I laughed myself silly…

Shangri-la is China, so it’s natural that west China is different to east China. Kind of like how western America and eastern America are different…

I dunno why Gojyo is a water sprite, but that “diarrhoea sprite” thing is funny.

Gahh! That blonde (Sanzo) is too hot for me! No wonder people put characters on dakimakura, this guy looks right at home on one.

Well, I dunno what I just got myself into, but that was some good stuff! Next ep, please! (Plus, Granrodeo and Luck Life, the same duo of artists on Bungou Stray Dogs. That’s gotta be a good sign, right?)

Oh great, I left the ep running and it turns out there’s an after credits segment. Tsukigakirei’s after credits extras didn’t quite work for me, but since I laughed so much at the main show, this shouldn’t hurt, right?

G-Guh! The dragon can write calligraphy?! With its feet?! At least the joke works in Japanese and English…

That baldness joke works for me, considering I know Sanzo’s a priest…welp, if you get a lil’ background knowledge, it seems like you can conquer almost anything Saiyuki, and who knows what places it’ll take me in the future, eh?

Konbini Kareshi 1

I’m here for the VA talent, if nothing else. Nishiyama’s (Atsushi of Boueibu) getting a lot of side roles lately, which is great!

That running sequence took a good minute and a half, which is the same length as the OP. I almost noped out of there because that kind of thing is only compelling for about 10 seconds for me.

There’s something that’s a hybrid of Sagrada Reset, Denpa Kyoushi and Tsukigakirei here…which means it’ll probably get a low to medium rating, if anything. I can normally peg what sort of rating a show will get by its first episode,because shows tend to be consistent about what they do.

Interesting to note they don’t use shigatsu here.

The picture book is “The Mermaid Prince” (<- update: “The Merfolk Prince” is a better translation, so my bad). It was pretty obvious by the swimming sequence in the OP that at least one of these guys is a swimmer, or at least a PE nut (as some of the other things on his table suggest).<br>

I’ve never seen a younger brother be a morning person and the one to wake up a sibling. It’s always an imouto or a mother…

Wasn’t this straight romance, and not Hitorijime My Hero romance? Towa really has that bromance thing going on for him, the way Suna and Takeo (Ore Monogatari) do.

CS I think is a reference to BS Japan, one of the TV stations that shows Boueibu. Update: It’s actually highly likely to be CS-TBS, which shows the show. By the by, Nishiyama is Miki.

The red keion announcement vaguely pisses me off simply because I know that’s the light music club. I’ve seen small snippets of K-On, and while it wasn’t enough to warrant marking episodes off, catchy songs aren’t enough to keep me coming back.

This first meeting seems a little hamfisted for some reason I can’t put my finger on. However, it’s great Miki’s getting a lot of lines right here, although it’s still a side role…

The background scenery is beautiful in this show…

Here we go again…(basically, I have a very low opinion of this show, just as I suspected I would have).

I’ve got the volume on to evaluate Nishiyama, but the high-pitched teasing voice Towa just used is not natural at all. It would’ve worked better in his normal voice.

I get why the girls are fangirling over books, but I didn’t get who Michael Ende was until “The Neverending Story” came up, haha.

Glasses girl (Mami, right?) is reading something called “Glasses Man”, haha.

There’s a lot of voiceover here, as if the anime staff don’t quite care about their show enough to animate lip flaps.

As soon as she stepped on his foot and he didn’t give chase, that’s when I realised I didn’t quite care about these people. The pacing in this show, during critical moments, is just too awkward, that’s why…

Well, that was subpar. It has an opportunity to get better next ep, but I don’t care to stick around enough. However, there’s an interesting thing in the ED – there’s credits for scripting “Merfolk Prince”, meaning that may show up in a later ep. This ED sounds Coldplay-turned-Japanese, which is cool.

Knight’s & Magic 1

If you didn’t notice already, I’ve become so complacent with the premieres, this is my biggest season so far. If I finish watching every first ep I intend to watch as of the count I did for this commentary, I’d have 17 documented (7 more than on my hype list) because I have time, plus I’m relying on ANN to find me the good stuff this time.

What’s with that apostrophe in the title? As someone who likes their grammar to be correct, I just don’t like it.

I get the appeal of programming as an IT nerd, but it’s an acquired taste, plus it doesn’t have much payoff when you get frustrated at problems within your own code because it’s all a bunch of words and punctuation anyway.

Oh, it’s that effect where you-letterboxing! That’s what I was thinking of! (Reminds me of Erased.) Also, the ambient light is nice here, but the angled letterboxing is just plain weird.

CGI…bugs? That’s a pretty bad choice for monsters, IMHO.

ANN people have commented Erni’s past went too fast and I agree. Also, it’s just cliché after cliché with this show, ain’t it? Including the need to kabedon a girl.

Why does red eyed girl look like Atsushi of Bungou Stray Dogs? Plus, the wear on the mechas is nice.

Not every man – or every woman or other kind of person – dreams of robots, y’know?

“Trandorkis.” That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard in a while, and not just because it has “dork” in it, mind you.

Well, the look is shiny, bright and appealing and I can see this having a niche appeal to those who like giant robots. However, the backstory was too fast and Erni is way too OP for this world, so I’m dropping it.

Chronos Ruler 1

I’m familiar with only the first one or two chapters of the source material, so I was surprised this got adapted to anime…considering it’s a Taiwanese creator on a Jump manga though, it was kinda inevitable these days with all the Chinese coproductions.

That was a pretty interesting intro, even if it seemed like I’d watched the PV instead.

The battle there was good but a lil’ rotoscopy…hmph.

The colour scheme’s a lil’ dark…it’s a bit worrying, because Chronos Ruler normally has some pretty bright colours. I don’t want this to come off as a completely edgelord work like Big Order. I don’t seem to recall this dog though…

I’m pretty sure I don’t remember the forced humour spot, either, though it’s not as bad as, say, Bungou, where the director is known for his distinctive style of humour. Then again, my memory on this stuff is kinda vague.

This thing is starting to show cracks in its façade. Some of the movements are stiff and the CGI, while integreated well, doesn’t quite work with the 2D (although that’s shown up since the battle with the Horologue). “Cabalet” really adds to the cracks.

Every time Kiri speaks, I think of Kunikida (Bungou), so Victo is Dazai.

Adding the music to the show really adds another crack. There is absolutely no singing going on in this one singing scene.

Cue bad time puns. Puns are one of my specialties, y’know, so I don’t mind ‘em. Why else would I run LOL Yeah Shinichi, eh?

Victo, you remind me so much of +Anima’s Senri…and that’s just beautiful. Not many shows remind me of that. To anyone reading this, if you can get your hands on the old Tokyopop releases, +Anima is a gorgeous series, so go read it!

If Victo’s cards can fire at Mach 10, then he can’t beat Koro-sensei, LOL. (Ouch.)

Kids, don’t wear your hats inside. That’s an etiquette thing you should never forget, okay?

That was…strangely a much better premiere than I expected a Chinese part-production to be like! It’s better than the bunch of premieres I’ve tackled already and since good premieres are scarce, I’m taking it!

Update: Here’s another sign that doesn’t bode well for this show – it’s got the same director as Chaos Dragon (Masato Matsune), which I dropped after 2 eps. Chaos Dragon is known to be the epitome of road apples around the internet…

18if 1

18if was initially the only thing guaranteed to be out of Amazon’s greedy hands, so it’s great to see something so visually exciting ifnally be here for me. I know it’s based on a mobile game, which tend to be bad, but…c’mon, I’m struggling to find a good lineup here with what’s basically the death of Kaito x Ansa (it debuted on the 12th, but still hasn’t come CR’s way). Katsugeki’s good though, so at least that’s a lock for the commentary…

Quick –is this thing meant to be fully English? Or is this just Funimation being annoying?

Oh no, what a horrible first impression! Someone who speaks from their *erhem* and a chicken, aka cock…*muffles laughter* How dirty of me to even suggest it, but…well, it’s what we’re working with here.

The more I watch, the more confused I get.

Couldn’t Haruto have run towards the door? Or is this one of those non-lucid dreams?

This 16 frame simultaneous animation doesn’t quite work for me, but it’s an interesting hallmark of this anime.

Katsumi’s a Looney Toons Cat, sort of kind of…

The production values are mostly quite good, but unfortunately Haruto looks eyesearingly bad and I still can’t quite grasp the narrative thread of this show…

I just realised I completely didn’t care about Haruto getting his arm chopped off, not only because this is a dream world where anything can happen, but because heck, that arm drop wasn’t dramatic in the least.

“Anything can happen in this world”, eh? Including headphones being sliced off with a head, it seems.

Wait, so Yuko’s from his school? Haruto, please don’t encourage Yuko to skip school, as cool as that is.

Okay, I can see this becoming a harem crossed with The Royal Tutor…which would pretty much make this the Monogatari series. Unfortunately, because I still can’t quite detect what’s happened narrative-wise and the production values aren’t as great as they seem at first glance, I’m dropping this.

Boku no Hero Academia 27

Finally, we get out of that pool of mediocrity to get to the good stuff. Let’s go!

This new amazarashi OP is…great! Absolutely great match for this show…but as a musical choice for me, it’s kinda dull.

This old man is great humour-wise, but man, he’s basically Speed of Sound Sonic as an old geezer, LOL. The vibes between “little bro” and “big bro” are just too much.

Gran Torino really is a great old guy, basically Yoda, LOL (I had to make the comparison because even though I’ve never seen Star Wars, Horikoshi’s a fan). He can see weakness just from watching Deku on TV, which is what every great mentor should be able to do, right?

What makes movement flexible? Belief in one’s own strength and no fear for repercussions (not quite in the way Deku’s doing right now, but rather going all out all the time without having a subconscious fear drag you down). Also of course exercise and youth works in your favour.

Deku likes katsudon, LOL. No wonder he’s basically Yuri Katsuki’s little bro as well as Saitama’s, hahaha.

Best Jeanist is basically Aoyama gone pro (I’ll say ouch for Bakugou in advance).

Oh! Uwabami! I know she came from Oumagadoki Zoo, so it’s nice to see her animated!

Gahaha, Gran Torino is such a Mr Miyagi (even though I’ve never seen the original Karate Kid).

“Omazan”, LOL! This ep just keeps getting better and better!

Gahaha, I just made a comparison of Yuri Katsuki to Deku, and suddenly here come the food metaphors. This show became superhero!YOI with better comedy, and that’s just even more fantabulous than before.

This fairy tale AU, I dig it. Unfortunately, Mercy (@mercysorrows) spoilt prince!Shouto for me, but yes, this AU is just as great as the ep itself. Kaminari looks great in this, although I’m disappointed I couldn’t see Tokoyami. What a great twist at the end though, for it to be 1-A’s festival album…is that foreshadowing for a later arc, perhaps? (The All Might fire is both a fitting and a sad analogy, because All Might’s force is literally Deku’s sword and shield and All Might’s presence is what makes Deku a hero, yet it suggests Toshinori’s time as a buff man is limited…*feels all sad inside*)

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan 1

This one actually seems like it has some promise, and because I was a Detective Conan fan a few years back I’m a sucker for any new seasonal mystery series. By the way, let’s just call this “The Vatican Anime” and leave it at that, okay?

“This story is a work of fiction…” – The Vatican’s real, though, right? By the way, “succor” is, according to Google-sensei, “assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.”

The shaky camera doesn’t quite do it for me…There was similar stuff for Chronos Ruler, only that time they overdid their spinning.

I thought the door was an elevator, that’s how deceiving that doorbell was. Sheesh though, Hiraga looks like the dude from 91 Days when he’s tired (which is not a compliment!).

The Game of Angels and Demons seems to be reversi or something, Google doesn’t give me anything good on it.

*points at undressed Hiraga* Unnecessary, but wowee. Me likey.

“I’m the one who came up with the game.” – Oh, that explains why I had no proper hits on it…*sighs*

Biometrics? I thought we were in the 91 Days era, or at least another period in the past. Turns out we’re in the present (or somewhere very close to it).

Comparison to Youkai Apato here – both shows take care to state the obvious, but well…they’ve all got a good dose of (at least somewhat good looking) bishies, so I can live with that.

Okay, wait…they show Mexico on the map, but Google just keeps getting me hits for New Mexico (slightly off from the shown section of America) when I look for “aliens America 1945”, and Roswell was 1947 so uh…this really is a work of fiction, after all.

The most widespread religion where I am is Christianity, so it was optional for me to take RE back in the day. I’m not too familiar with Catholics (although there should be some if I bother to look for them), but…this smacks so much of my old RE classes yet doesn’t give me the same nostalgia as the recent Saiyuki did. Maybe it’s the cracks of subparness and the stating the obvious that are doing this.

This Jacob guy looks brainwashed. More than the other procession of priests we’ve just been introduced to, at least.

Bad CGI…then again, I keep these gripes because even Chronos Ruler does better than this and because Kado is its precedent.

“…follow the way like a little child would.”

So the show finally shows some promise! Why did it only start pulling out its big guns now? Probably lazy writing…

I know the AB negative blood is rare, but couldn’t there be someone else with that blood type around the Church? It’s not impossible, y’know?

Can someone verify the correctness of the Italian in this email?

I think we met Johannes already, so…it seems like this show has a propensity to introduce the viewer to a person twice over. That works when things are like Detective Conan (one story spread over 3 eps) but doesn’t work for 1 ep.

I get a sense of feeling of blasphemy from you guys (Hiraga and Nicolas) too, although I’ve pointed out my reasoning.

It’s a good thing it seems like the staff went out to the Vatican to get something that looks realistic, eh?

Wait, is Lauren a man?! Oh my…Also, from my version of the video (from Hidive/Sentai) I get the feeling the next ep preview got blended into the ED. Or was that just time constraints?

Wait, there’s a Horror Bunko? If I knew a Horror Bunko existed, why haven’t they started adapting stuff from it until now? I think people have been complaining about the lack of good horror works in anime…(Oh, I could probably answer my own question there – horror isn’t that popular in Japan itself. It’s popular in the West though…)

All in all, it’s not quite as Scooby-Doo as some people have pegged it to be, but not inspiring enough to continue.

Katsugeki 2

I’m pretty scarce on choice, so I’m doing what was previously never ever done before – I’m picking up one of my worst rankers (Hina Logi) to have a second look at. Mind you, we’ve had an overall stinker of a season so far.

(insert “Come at me, bro!” joke for Tonbokiri)

Huh, interesting – I’ve used female pronouns for the saniwa due to the female VA, but now that I properly listen to them, they do seem more like a dude. Does that mean that Touken Ranbu is specifically trying to go for a larger audience than just fangirls? Of course, for the fangirls, there’s Hanamaru, but Katsugeki’s way better.

Okay, Mutsu. 6 bullets is overkill, calm your gun-totin’ farm. Mutsu’s much like the typical anime protag and while he’s an alright sword, I never have been able to understand the appeal behind him. Maybe he’s for the people who like muscular bishies…? Tonbokiri and Yamabushi probably do that better than him…

LOL, these two. However, just comparing their stats, Kane-san edges over Mutsu a bit for everything aside from range…and that’s only because most swords have a short range.

When you talk about Tonbokiri, you often hear the legend, so it’s no surprise to hear it here. I’m just not good with sorting these swords chronologically though, so…Tonbikiri comes from the age of Nobunaga no Shinobi, huh? Interesting.

Daifuku.

The reason Mutsu carries a gun is because Ryoma Sakamoto was around during the dying days of the age of swords.

It’s kinda hard to hear what Mutsu’s saying from the way he talks, but the hot pot is specifically a nabe.

Noting that Tonbokiri’s ben out about 50 times, this saniwa really is a rookie and this era is probably the second or third map. Yagen isn’t too rare though, so he’s probably the biggest veteran here in regards to this saniwa. However, Mutsu’s number means that this saniwa’s starter wasn’t him…who was it, then?

Mutsu’s statement about daifuku is a pun on the fact “daifuku” means “great luck” as well as being a name for this mochi-like item.

Mutsu, weren’t you going to eat…?

What even is a Historical Restraining Force? Is that the group the saniwa is part of?…My bad, they just explained it.

One of the things that make Touken Ranbu so great is the propensity of it to go from battle action to serious drama or poignant melancholy at the drop of a hat.

This ED…was an odd choice, but has a nice singer. I realised the shots of people I don’t recognise show the swords when they were…y’know, swords. I still love the style of the next ep preview though (it’s even got the same BGM as the game!) and as expected, the citadel at the end of the ED is gorgeous.

Hina Logi 2

Good anime are scarce this season and magical girl shows that can be put through the commentary are scarcer, so…here we are.

“Rice Balls Over Flowers” is hana yori dango. Plus, hina means chick and since chicks are cute, I guess that’s where the aesthetic of the show comes from.

Someone likes the Osomatsu-san ED aesthetic, it seems.

How can you walk and not notice those breasts??? That’s exactly why I didn’t want to pick up this show again.

A qipao is a type of Chinese dress, the sort that normally has a slit up the leg and a skirt that doesn’t quite go to the knees.

Interesting, they’ve incorporated the panda hair accessories into the Trance.

For some reason, the production values here are quite nice, meaning either luck and Logic sells well in Japan or Bushiroad put a lot of their funding behind this…it’s probably a case of both.

She wants to stay with Nina, but unless she was either bored or maltreated at her home castle (which I don’t think was the case) I don’t really get Lion’s motivations…

Well, it actually was a rice ball (onigiri)! Geez, these puns…

Nina needing a logical answer is of course appropriate for a show based off Luck and Logic, LOL.

I seem to remember this Veronica lady from the original, which is funny, because I don’t remember Nina and Luck and Logic was very forgettable…

*tries to sneak away* Gratuitous boob shot? On a high schooler? Yeah, nah.

“small little town” – Small and little are the same thing though…

Trying to entice the lolicons with this ED is not good, y’know.

There really seems to be something hinted about Kagura-sensei, y’know?

I’ve termed this season “the race to the bottom”, but it was interesting to actually pull out a low ranker and give it a second chance. While I’m still not into Hina Logi as a whole and I gave it a 30 first time around, it’s probably better than that stinker Konbini Kareshi.

Hina Logi 3

*shakes head* Only in anime would someone ride a rocket like this. Only in anime.

I can’t see what Lion’s pointing to…

I am screaming profanities at my screen and shaking my head. Only in anime would a plotline like this happen. Only in anime!

I kinda understand Lion’s plight, since my dad used to go to my school to help out every now and again or have parent teacher interviews. Of course, that was when I was much younger, so…yeah. I think the staff are trying to get more younger girls involved in this by bringing in a “sexy dad”, but my tastes don’t skew that way.

Oh, now I understand Lion, but I still don’t get Mahiro, Yayoi, Karin or Karen.

Doesn’t spasibo mean “thank you” in Russian?…Yep. So Liones (country) is based on Russia, then.

Oh gosh, it’s one of those “There are two trains” questions…they bore me to death so much (and I can never solve them!) that as much as I like solving anime board questions, I’ll pass on this one.

The subber at CR decided to put their sub out of the way at the expense of being able to read the question. However, not being able to read the sub of the dialogue is a major problem! So I have absolutely no idea what the teacher was saying during the time she had that math problem up! (Also, that Foreigner question would depend on if you defeated the monster on impact or took extra time to properly defeat it.)

When there’s that screen with the four visuals on it, there’s a girl with a horned hoodie. I recognise her from the original series, but I don’t remember her name.

Here’s something on ezhiki, although there also appears to be a cookie variant.

Little kids always want their own independence, to the point where running away is one of those things most kids do, but then they come back. I don’t think I ever ran away from home, though. I was always too busy with studies and piano to run away…

I know these eyecatch-style screens are meant to be funny, but still…I never laugh at them…isn’t that sad for a show that wants to be a funny slice of life/fantasy…thing?

Last time I saw a bear in anime, it was Armed Girls Machiavellism…

Why would you ever need a bear repelling machine???

Who’s Belle?…Oh yeah, Belle is the squirrel.

Dasvidanya = goodbye. I’ve learnt more Russian because of anime than I ever would have without it (I read the entirety of Crime and Punishment thanks to that gorgeous Fyodor in Bungou Stray Dogs, y’know).

[nikfix]

Rocking With The Dawn’s Francis Reyes and Rommel “Sancho” Sanchez

I've seen and heard many Filipino bands, but no other band (in my opinion at least) in the country stood as strong as The Dawn. This band celebrates 32 years of making and playing music. I had the pleasure of watching them perform live at the Philippine Digital Convention 2017, where I handled tech booth duties. I am honored to feature the band’s guitar players, Francis Reyes and Rommel "Sancho" Sanchez.

How did the band evolve ever since you guys got in the band and did your musical influences change along the way?

Francis: I think every guitar player who has been with the band—from Teddy Diaz to Atsushi Matsuura to myself to Kenneth Ilagan to Sancho, and some of the duo guitar times— changes the sound of the band, but it always manages to sound like the band. When I first joined in ‘89, I was heavily into Living Colour and injected a bit of that. Living Colour has hard rock and funk in equal footing, plus jazz, prog, pop, and every other element that can inject into their music, and The Dawn has always been like that as well. I mean, listen to the first The Dawn album and there’s a lot of things going on, even if the image and overall tone was supposedly “new wave.” I got into other things when the band went on hiatus and when we reconvened in late-99, I was into Drum ’n Bass and Trip-Hop in general— and JB was into house music— and injected a wee bit of that.

Sancho: I guess it was natural for me, growing up in Olongapo City where there were a lot of good bands, and I would see them play live during the then annual Mardi Gras festivities. My father also had a collection of vinyl LPs and then cassettes so inherited it assimilated his love for music. 

Francis: Sancho and I still haven’t really explored what we can do together, but the possibilities manifest whenever we jam or rehearse. Exciting times!

I try to keep an open ear with what’s current in music and if I like whatever it is, it does influence me to an extent and I bring it back to the band. The Dawn is like a lab and playground for me… well for all of us really.

The other stuff may inspire or motivate you sometimes, but the spark, that desire to express something should only come from you.

What got you guys into music? And into guitar playing in particular?

Francis: Queen was the first band that I absolutely fanboyed over; still do actually. However, Brian May didn’t inspire me to pick up the guitar. His stuff was beyond guitar—I mean he simulated horn sections and string sections with that Red Special of his— and therefore way beyond my teenage aspirations. Then I heard Ritchie Blackmore’s wild reckless intro to “Speed King,” and THAT got me hooked.

It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve attempted to learn some Brian May licks. His tone has always been a reference point though, and The Edge too.

Sancho: As part of an extra-curricular activity in grade school, I joined the rondalla and a chose the guitar as my instrument, having seen my father play kundiman on the guitar. It was love at first strum.

Let's talk guitars. What do you guys usually bring live aside from the ones here?

Francis: The Tokai Les Paul Custom-type is the only one I use live. At home, I have another Tokai, a Strat-style and I used to bring it too but I snapped off the vibrato arm. I love Stratocasters, and I love using the vibrato so it’s at home until I can get the vibrato block replaced. I also have an MIJ 57/62 Reissue Fender Strat and sometimes I bring it as a backup and a beautiful Tele Thinline from Vinci Montaner of Parokya Ni Edgar. It’s on a long-term loan, and only because he’s a friend and a wonderfully generous person.

Sancho: My main axe is a yellow Yamaha Revstar. I have a Japan-made Barclay guitar as a backup in case I break a string mid-set.

I gotta say, your rigs are really cool. Tell us more about how they work, which ones you can never do a gig without, and how you use everything during the sets.

Francis: My pedalboard is basically three different distortions plus three delays. I used to have a multi-effects unit which has its own set of advantages but I like combining different pedals to get, hopefully, unique sounds or tones. I also have a Budda Wah and a Digitech Whammy Pedal.

I have a little Zoom Multistomp for ambient delays and synth-like washes, a Line 6 DL-4 for basic additional delays and looping, and the Tech 21 Fly Rig’s Delay section for an “always on, tweak on-the-fly”  delay. The Fly Rig’s Amp sim is always on; I set it flat so whether through an amp or straight to the board, I get a consistent signal. I also have a Tech 21 Liverpool which is my go-to distortion/overdrive; I can’t live without it! I also have a Z Vex Fuzz Factory to get Hendrix-y octave-up sounds when cascaded with either the Fly Rig’s Plexi distortion or the Liverpool.

Sancho: I have a simple rig. I have a Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah Pedal going into a TC Electronic Polytune and the Xotic RC Booster, then to a Boss Overdrive, then into a Tech21 FlyRig which I use for its amp simulation, as a secondary drive, and for its nifty analog delay section. That goes into a TC Electronic Nova System for various modulation and pitch effects, then into a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay. I won't survive a gig without the Giga Delay.

What amps do you use at home?

Francis: A 3-Watt Blackstar Fly. It’s the best micro-amp, ever! Big tones on that. I have a little Hotone Ravo Multi-effects Unit if I want to explore textural ideas, plus a Pedal Pimps Nitro distortion made by Jay Padua. Pedal Pimps pedals are Philippine-made, and they rock!

Sancho: I use Blackstar amps at home.

What do your kids listen to?

Francis: My kids are into my songs and riffs and I hope they listen to each other and make sense together! LOL!

Sancho: No kids, only two cats and they listen to whatever I listen to. 

What is your advice to people who want to play their music out there and do their thing, as well as aspiring guitar players?

Sancho: If you don't love what you're doing, don't do it. You're out there to entertain and please the crowd but you should also be having fun doing it. If you're not happy with or don't believe in the music you're playing, your bandmates and the audience will feel it.

Francis: Love it for the music, and don’t let the other stuff —fame, vices, female fans etc. LOL— get in the way. The other stuff may inspire or motivate you sometimes, but the spark, that desire to express something should only come from you.

Learn how the industry works. And it will not always be a pleasant experience.

Keep your ears open.

Pray: for clarity of mind, spirit, and gratitude.  

And learning is forever… there will always be a challenge: technical, theoretical, tonsorial… LOL!

What did you learn for being in the OPM world for a long while?

Francis: Patience. LOL!

Sancho: OPM is far from dead, really.

Catch The Dawn on their Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/TheDawnRocks.PH/

And some of their coolest songs below:

Enveloped Ideas

Iisang Bangka

Salamat

Photos Courtesy of PLDT Enterprise.

Special thanks to Bernice Aspillaga for helping out.

[gamerzcourt]

How A Pokemon Card Is MadeHow A Pokemon Card Is Madevideo games

New Post has been published on https://www.gamerzcourt.com/how-a-pokemon-card-is-madehow-a-pokemon-card-is-madevideo-games/

How A Pokemon Card Is MadeHow A Pokemon Card Is Madevideo games

Creatures, Inc. is an often-overlooked arm of the Pokemon machine. The developer has worked on spin-off Pokemon games for years, starting with Pokemon Stadium in 1998 and most recently Detective Pikachu–as well as 3D Pokemon models for various games, including Super Smash Bros. But the company is also responsible for much of the Pokemon Trading Card Game, which consistently sees new series and expansions after over 20 years.

We recently had a chance to tour Creatures Inc.’s Tokyo, Japan office to learn about the process of creating Pokemon cards. During our tour, we spoke to Atsushi Nagashima, game director for the TCG, and Mitsuhiro Arita, a longtime freelance illustrator responsible for over 500 Pokemon cards–including the infamous holographic Charizard card–about how cards are conceived and then illustrated. We also talked to Satoru Inoue, the test room lead at Creatures, about how cards are playtested and how balance problems and broken cards are addressed by the team.

There are three main parts to making a new Pokemon card: coming up with the idea for the card, commissioning art, and testing the card with the current TCG rules. This involves a team of game designers, over 70 artists, and 19 playtesters working full time to create and execute new card series and expansions.

Step One: Pick A Pokemon

According to Nagashima, the most important thing when coming up with a new set of cards is variety. There needs to be a mix of art styles and types of cards; some need to have strong competitive potential, while others need to be appealing to collectors. But the first step to creating a new set is deciding which Pokemon to use.

“Near the beginning of a new series [based on the latest video games], we really try to take care to stay true to the video games that we’re basing the card series on–for example, the Pokemon that were featured heavily in that video game or had a big role in the story, we’ll make sure they’re kind of at the center of the set we’re making,” Nagashima said. “But once we’re kind of mid-way through the series, we start focusing more on play environment overall…and decide which Pokemon to put in based on that.”

A lot of those choices come down to what the game needs to feel more balanced and what Pokemon suit those needs, Nagashima said. But the team also considers which Pokemon don’t get a lot of love in the games or anime, the ones kids might find cool, or even Pokemon they themselves like.

“One of my favorites is Darkrai, and I think you’ll notice that there’s a lot of strong Darkrai cards,” he said, laughing.

Nagashima at the Creatures office.

There are also background stories and themes for each expansion, though that’s not really communicated to players. “In the [XY Breakthrough expansion], the theme we had for that was two parallel worlds. They both featured Mewtwo, so there was a Mewtwo that was in this advanced world…and there was a Mewtwo that was more old-fashioned,” Nagashima explained. “These two parallel worlds collide and then the world goes into chaos and is destroyed as a result of that.”

According to Nagashima, one of the team’s biggest challenges is maintaining the spirit of certain characters and Pokemon while putting their own spin on things. Because the card game is closely tied to the video game, it can also be tricky to translate certain game mechanics into ones that work in the TCG–like Mega Evolution, for example.

“In the trading card game, you have your basic [Pokemon]. You evolve it to Stage 1 and [then Stage 2], so there are two steps to get to your final evolution in general. If we added another step on top of that, you just wouldn’t have enough room in your 60-card deck to really make that feasible,” Nagashima said. “So we took the approach of only having Mega Evolutions for cards that were already really strong–so there was already an EX card and then that would evolve to the Mega-EX. We tried to reduce the number of steps in that way.”

Ultimately, Nagashima says, the TCG team is always trying to keep things fresh and varied while still paying attention to the competitive meta, and it’s a complex balancing act even from the beginning.

Step Two: Illustrations

Once the team has decided on the kind of card they need and who (or what) will be on it, it’s time to get the art process started. Creatures currently works with 73 different illustrators and artists to ensure sets are varied. One of the most prolific of them is Mitsuhiro Arita, who’s been working on the TCG since the beginning and has illustrated 537 cards to date.

Above: Arita at the Creatures office. Slideshow: Mewtwo-GX, Giovanni’s Scheme, and the Lurantis card, all mentioned below.

Arita showed us his workspace at the Creatures office, part of a pod of desks set up for freelance artists to work on confidential designs. Each desk is configured based on the artists’ home offices, usually with tablets for digital art and coloring. He walked us through his illustration process for a recent Lurantis card, paying special attention to dynamic shading and bright background colors to capture the spirit of the Pokemon.

Creatures sends the artists details about the card: what the Pokemon is, the kinds of moves it will have, and any important background information, especially when the Pokemon in question is in a game that hasn’t come out yet. This also applies to Trainer cards, and even the vaguest instructions influence the art; for example, Arita received instructions for a Giovanni card with an “imposing” feel, so he gave it a more classical painting style rather than a cartoony one. For holographic cards, Arita will usually specify which parts of his art should shimmer, though the final holo design is a collaboration with Creatures staff.

In the Red and Green days, Arita and the other artists only had the in-game sprites and limited official artwork to work off of when creating cards. Still, he’s responsible for some of the most iconic cards from the original series, including holographic Charizard and the original fat Pikachu. In a binder filled with all his designs so far, the first few pages could have been any Pokemon-obsessed kid’s collection in the late ’90s.

“Specifically this Charizard and that Pikachu are some of the most memorable cards for I think a lot of people who played the game originally, and I always thought that I’d probably never be able to draw cards that people would like better than those two,” Arita said. But a Mewtwo-GX card he recently designed is his new favorite, and he says he’s been getting good feedback on it.

Unexpectedly, the same artist is unlikely to work on every Pokemon in an evolutionary line. In the original card series, Arita illustrated Bulbasaur and Venusaur but not Ivysaur (which was done by Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori). While there are some cases where a consistent style is called for across an evolutionary line–like these adorable Tepig family cards–they’re usually usually split up between artists, presumably for variety or time efficiency.

Efficiency especially is key, since many of the cards go into the testing phase even before the art is finished.

Step Three: Full-Time Playtesting

At Creatures, there’s a special room dedicated to testing the card game. It’s in the back of the small office, and it’s filled only with tables, chairs, and drawers upon drawers filled with years of Pokemon cards. Seven hours a day, five days a week, 19 playtesters play the TCG to see how new cards fare. (The odd number doesn’t seem to be a problem, apparently.)

Because they’re mostly testing cards that haven’t been released yet, the playtesters have to work with what they have. Work-in-progress cards are actually stickers put on old cards so they can still be played in normal decks; if the illustrations aren’t finalized, these stickers will use generic art of the Pokemon (or whatever the card subject is) with the complete moves, name of the card, and suggested effects, HP, and damage.

According to test room lead Satoru Inoue, those smaller adjustments happen “extremely often,” while they’ll usually see at most two or three drastic revisions before cards are finalized. Nagashima noted that competitive players will sometimes use released cards in completely unexpected ways, in which case the card has to be banned–he specifically called out Lysandre’s Trump Card, which was banned in 2015 for making games severely imbalanced.

Even with all the playtesting, competitive players regularly surprise the team. Nagashima cited Shintaro Ito’s Mega Audino deck, which won him the 2016 Pokemon World Championships in the Masters Division, as a recent example–he didn’t expect the card to be nearly as viable as it was.

Inoue, Nagashima, and Arita in the Creatures lobby.

Nagashima’s favorite strategy, though, is one he himself was heavily involved in designing: the infamous Night March deck, which dominated much of the competitive scene in 2016 and won the US Nationals that year.

“I was only making it with the assumption that it would maybe make it to the finals, but not take the entire thing!”

Walking back through the office at the end of the tour, nearly every desk is filled with Pokemon toys and merch. It’s very clear: From the design and art to the test room, the most important thing for Creatures’ TCG team is loving Pokemon.

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