#because i will fight you that hibiki's ending was perfect for what hibiki set out to be

[jenndubya]

For science!

[franstastic-ideas]

I guess I’m numbering these!!

LACONIC WANDERER. I learned a whole new word from you, honestly that synonym works better than saying “silent” or something, it adds a new layer of mystery. Maybe the style and spelling and vibe of the word. Ignis hehe, Latin for fire, that one sure is popular, granted I’ve only seen it used one other time, but def much nicer than other fire based English names.

Kotone, ah the Johto games always gave off a more justice vibe to me. I had to erase a whole spiel I accidentally went off on here, but it definitely captures the passion in those games. Even TR acknowledges that about the protagonist. Cute Pokémon name too!

Haruuukaaaa my 2nd fav, ugh weren’t those Pokémon Evolution episodes SO good for her and Leaf? Adventurous Darling!!! Oh she SO is, under the SEA into SPACE, the varied climate for Hoenn is BUILT for adventure. And v cute too, very lovable. Steven got roasted by his dad and Zinnia over the better newer Champ AND by Hoenn Radio, only game to have it too I think? I’m biting my lips to not launch into a rant about every girl and their region, you’re activating my Pokémon Fanatic side and this CAN get into deep meta territory if I’m not careful.

Candeloro!! Yes, Blaziken, giant candle, I can see it, very shaped. The whole loro at the end is very nickname-y, and I wonder if I feel that way bc of the nickname Toro by her manga counterpart from Pokespe.

Congrats to BW for being the only game to deliberately call the protagonist a hero of something of prophecy. Very battle-ready, good ol’ Unova where they demand active students for competitive programs but god forbid you actually fight for social change. You said every girl’s personality was different and honestly I see it, and it fits them and where they grew up perfectly. Throw them in a room together and it will be so interesting how the dynamics work. Gretchen? I had to look that one up, and it’s interesting. Even if someone didn’t know the meaning of any of these names, just the way they roll off the tongue feels like a name that matches each girl’s character. Vowels and consonants and all that.

I’m scared of this thing refreshing on me so I’ll continue in another ask.

So! Leaf was in fact the last of the girls to receive her title. I knew I wanted to use the adjective 'Laconic', but no matter where I looked, there wasn't a word to describe someone who happens to appear at the right place at the right time.

And that's kind of what she does? Leaf didn't set out to track down Team Rocket, she kept arriving at just the right moment to interfere. But Wanderer works well for her, because that's what she loves to do. Leaf travels at her own leisurely pace, that's her approach to life too. She enjoys stopping to sniff the Roselia, so to speak.

Kotone's was another one that took some time. I wanted a title that conveys her strongest quality, her compassion. She is ceaselessly gentle and kind, no matter how combative and rude Silver is towards her. Her patient attitude towards him also contrasts well with her friends' feelings. Hibiki is easily intimidated by him, and Kris thinks what the redhead needs most is a good kick to seat of the pants.

Even though Kotone is almost always shown with Chikorita as a partner, I think Typhlosion is best for this AU's incarnation of her. Kotone's Typhlosion, Eva (who is actually male), his name means 'life'. Fire doesn't have to only bring destruction. It can also bring warmth, and I feel that's something which matches Kotone's outlook. She tries to see the good in everything and everyone.

Haruka, I've always described how I see her as 'the perfect blend of tomboy and girly girl'. She can be both! She's traveled all across the region and has even gone to space, she's become the strongest trainer in Hoenn, she also collects Poké Dolls and performs onstage as a beloved Contest Star.

Similarly to Kotone more often than not being shown with Chikorita, Touko usually is given Tepig/Emboar as a partner. Without looking at who her partner is in Sisterhood, one may assume from her title that this is the case here as well.

However, a Serperior is her starter! The 'Hot-Blooded' in Touko's title pertains to her being Reshiram's Chosen instead. I think if someone were to tell her that a Fire-type suits her better, she would respond with something like,

"My partner may not have flames on the outside, but that doesn't matter! The flames of passion burn bright inside her!!"

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 34

Wolf’s Rain - You know shit’s hit the fan when the guy we thought was getting set up as the main villain gets offed at the start of the episode. Yeah, Lord Orkham got assasinated by the forces of the as of now unseen Lady Jaguara, and Hubb Lebewski, who was taken captive by the late noble’s forces, is now on the run, while his ex-wife is still held captive by our other main antagonist, Lord Darcia. And oh man, Darcia shows just how scary and efficient he is here, and by the end has Cheza back in his possession and has thwarted the four main wolves on what could’ve bene a clear pathway to Paradise.

Hunter x Hunter - Caught up to the second anime’s version of where the first anime ended, and then Chrollo used the fortune-telling ability he stole from Neon to read the futures of all Troupe members while Kurapika finally recieves Hisoka’s text message that the Spiders aren’t really dead. And so we’re approaching this arc’s real ending!

Fruits Basket - The episode that introduced Rin Sohma, the Zodiac horse who unfortunately does not meet our main characters this time and doesn’t even transform. The episode was mostly about how Hatsuharu was dealing with his and Rin’s breakup, and how his angst and potential danger to even his loved ones is paralleled with Kyo. Yuki also resolves to return to the Sohma family estate to visit Haru, which took a whole lot of courage and maturity on his part.

Rozen Maiden - My fears were confirmed - “middle school Jun” who has been communicating with adult Jun is not really middle school Jun, but Kirakishou decieving adult Jun into making a body for her. The real middle school Jun is trapped in another realm with Canaria and has been recieving adult Jun’s replies to things he never sent him to begin with! The one character who catches onto what’s really going on here is Suigintou, who of course proceeds to not alert Jun or Shinku to this because she wants to fight Kirakishou when she emerges so that she may claim her Rozen Mystica, oh you evil little shit! This is “Vegeta allows Cell to reach his Perfect form” stuff here! 

Fate Zero - Not much in the way of plot advancement this week, just more solid interactions between Saber and Irisveil, and between Gilgamesh and Kirei, who continue to provide some of the best stuff.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - 'Twas the series finale, what all can I really say about it? It was trippy and mind-blowing and eye-opening and heatwrenching and inspiring and...well, revolutionary! And I just loved the conclusion it came to. The Rose Bride/”princess” role truly is worthless to the girl who has it and only benefits the Prince, the “Prince” role itself is toxic and ultimately incapable of breaking through the Rose Gate, Anthy’s lack of self worth and internalized sexism failed her as much as Utena’s own wrong-headed idealism and aspirations to be a Prince failed her, what actually saves Anthy is Utena reaching out to her not as a Prince trying to save the damsel in distress, but as herself believing in her friend, as one young woman in need to another - one lover to another, as their hearts and hands connect. And getting to see Akio get exactly what he deserved twice was so damn satisfying. In the end, Utena did bring the world revolution, but not in the way Akio had ever understood or intended. Everyone’s own “world” is now in revolution, the Rose Bride is slave no more, and Utena is out there somewhere, waiting to be found...

Senki Zesshou Symphogear - The last thing I’d been expecting after last episode was Chris getting taken to Miku’s house and becoming her new friend, that was so sweet! And seeing Chris step up to protect Miku and other civilians put in danger from the Noise attack, Genjuro coming in to protect Chris (who takes off afterwards), Miku taking action to protect others including her estranged friend Hibiki, and of course, Hibiki coming to her rescue as the two of them rekindle their beautiful friendship afterwards. The OTP sails again!

AMC: Tengen Tonpa Gurren Lagann - Got to episode 5, which introduces characters that aren’t exactly favorites of mine, but had a central conflict that was interesting enough to hold my attention the whole way through. Kamina immediatey hating on the high priest due to him reminding of his old villages leader was hilarious, and while he’s left unable to really understand the ways of this village, he turns out to not be entirely off the mark - the high priest essentially is just the village leader disguised by religious doctrine and beliefs he doesn’t truly hold dear. By far the weakest part of the episode was the fight. I could barely make it out, the lighting was so dark and dull!

AND

Akudama Drive - Had to watch this in addition since I’d have no room for it anywhere later in the time remaining of this year. And yeah, I’ve certainly reached the halfway point of this one cours anime. I know this ‘cause main charactes have begun to fucking die!

[orange-demons-deactivated2024]

i know they're not in the game yet but:

-avatar x dan hibiki

OR

-avatar x poison

please?

Can I do Avatar x Poison? I think she’s super cool. And sorry for the long wait! When people request something outside of sf6 I do a deep dive into their character to get a feeling of their personality. also, I didn't know if you wanted a fic or hcs soo...here are some hcs.

You've probably seen Poison in the background of street fights or seen her staying close to the Mad Gear Gang.

When you ask to train under her, she'll laugh in your face and tell you to keep walking. She's in it for the big leagues and doesn't have time to babysit you.

But you kept coming back every time she shooed you off, so Poison would ask for you to spar against Hugo to see what you got.

Turns out, you have a lot of potential. Perfect for her Pro Wrestling organization.

She'll be your promoter alongside with Hugo.

So you better be ready, because she'll whip you into shape. Literally.

Speaking about the big guy, you don't have to be best friends with him but you do have to play nice. Or else, you wouldn't work out for her down the line.

When teaching you some of her moves, she actually gifts you a whip of your own. Of course, it's nothing too extravagant, but it'll get the job done.

She's not only smart, but she's street smart. So she knows her way around the underground scene.

Poison runs on her own time, so she’s busy planning the next big thing for her and Hugo's wrestling career.

She has the mentality that if you drag her down, she'll leave you behind. So as her pupil, you need to keep up.

What? Do you like her? Maybe she'll give you a chance if you can give her publicity and make her a butt load of money.

If you try to kiss her when she's chewing gum, she blows a bubble in your face to stop you.

If you smoke cigarettes, she'll lean in close to you with an unlit cigar and light hers with the end of yours.

Don't piss her off though, or else you'll get a cloud of smoke blown in your face.

When Poison flirts with people, it's usually meant as a taunt to tell them they're beneath her. And she'll do the same to you when you first get to know her.

Do you wear makeup? Because she would touch it up after she gets too rough with you when sparring. Poison would pull your face close with one hand and apply your lipstick with the other. Then give you a smooch for good luck.~

She's also the type to move around at night. So she is more accustomed to the nightlife.

She'll even take you to the club and chat with you over a drink.

No? You don't drink? Boo. She'll still get you a virgin mojito and call it a day.

She can get quite handsy when she's drunk, but it's more affectionate than anything else.

She will pull you to the dance floor and dance with you all night long.

You asked her once if she's ever fallen in love. And after a moment of silence, she told you there was this one guy, but he already had his heart set on someone else.

Poison didn't talk to you for the rest of the night.

She's a woman that comes with a high price, so how far are you willing to go for her?

When she kisses you, she pulls you closer by wrapping her arms around your neck.

And no, she has no shame if anyone sees her with you. They need to mind their business if they don't want to be wheeled out on a stretcher.

She's stronger than she looks, so she doesn't need you to stick up for her. Actually, she may take that as an insult. She's had her fair share of creeps so she knows how to deal with them.

Poison gives you small items that would benefit her in the long run. Hey isn't this jacket nice? Well, it also has the logo of her organization on it, cool right? Aw, don't be like that, she thought it would look cute on you. Plus, it's free advertising.

She would also invite you to hang out around a 24-hour diner to share milkshakes and burgers with you like they do in the movies. It's not an everyday thing, she does it after you make her a lot of money after collecting bets on your fight.

What's your deal anyway? You obviously know how to fight, so why come to her?

Huh? You want to learn about true strength? Well if you ask her, it's about squashing your opponents and coming out on top.

Poison also likes rock music, so if you didn't know. Now you do.

Her ideal date is to get tickets and watch the band members from the side of the stage.

The loud music and the energetic crowd are like ecstasy to her. And when you get her a matching band shirt with you, she'll play it off as you acting like a loyal dog. But you could tell she felt differently when you caught her playing with the hems of the shirt all night long.

Maybe you weren't so bad hot stuff.

ayesha x righteous

[starlight-ascension]

The girls as Power Quotes

Nagisa: “You could sooner divert a river from its course than deny my nature” 

Honoka: “You will be reduced down to a single atom once I am done with you”

Hikari: “I see now that the circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant: it’s what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.” 

Nozomi: “Impudent of you to assume I will meet a mortal end” 

Rin: “I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me” 

Urara: “Each comment is a prayer, bringing me closer to emerging from my cursed plane. Thank you for heralding the apocalypse this old god brings.” 

Komachi: “Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse in the body of others and makes them bleed deeper in something that’s larger than life, than his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized by the storytellers.” 

Karen: “The words of prophets are written on the subway walls” 

Kurumi: “In a world of blood and chaos, rabbits must hunt as wolves” 

Love: “Tonight you spoke with the devil. The devil looked a lot like you.” 

Miki: “Your boos mean nothing. I’ve seen what makes you cheer.” 

Inori: “No pet is perfect, it becomes perfect when you accept it for what it is.” 

Setsuna: “Can you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within? The fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. You cannot kill me in a way that matters” 

Tsubomi: “No one will know the violence it took to become this gentle” 

Erika: “Do you think God stays in heaven because he, too, lives in fear of what he’s created?” 

Itsuki: “I will seize destiny by the throat and force it into the shape of my choosing” 

Yuri: “God gave me depression because if my ambitions went unchecked I would have bested him in hand-to-hand combat by age 16” 

Hibiki: “Bury me shallow, I’ll be back” 

Kanade: “I hope your gods forgive you because we surely won’t”

Ellen: “I am a monument to all your sins” 

Ako: “The world should have protected you, but you have been asked to protect it. What an honor. What an injustice.”

Miyuki: “There’s no light at the end of this tunnel, so it’s a good thing we brought matches” 

Akane: “If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight just like I always have”

Yayoi: “There is not enough time to make all the things one’s imagination can conjure” 

Nao: “All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain” 

Reika: “Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.” 

Ayumi: “Our paths may have crossed briefly but you still had the misfortune of knowing me” 

Mana: “Whenever you look at another creator or an artist that you respect, you’re only seeing what took them a long time of work and doubt to push through. You never see the struggle behind it. So you think you’re the only one struggling, when in fact, everyone goes through it.” 

Rikka: “Take this gift, for the gods surely won’t” 

Alice: “The anger in your heart warms you now, but will leave you cold in your grave.” 

Makoto: “I’ve been through hell and I’ll come out singing” 

Aguri: “You kneel before my throne unaware that it was born on lies” 

Regina: “What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort” 

Megumi: “This is hell’s territory and I am beholden to no gods” 

Hime: “I thought there were no heroes left in the world” 

Yuko: “To feel sorrow is to deserve peace” 

Iona: “God may judge you but his sins outnumber your own” 

Haruka: “All knowledge is ultimately based on that which we cannot prove. Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?” 

Minami: “What the fuck is that, ‘act my age’? The ocean is old as fuck, it will still drown your ass with vigor.”

Kirara: “If you don’t like what I’m doing you can try to stop me, but given that not even God has succeeded yet I don’t fancy your odds” 

Twilight: “You are alone, child. There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army, and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished. You are strong, child, but I am beyond strength. I am the end, and I have come for you.” 

(yeah i did twilight instead of towa because this quote is incredibly badass and only fits a villain) 

Mirai: “Do I look like the kind of woman who dies?” 

Liko: “God is dead and soon we will follow” 

Kotoha: “To become god is the loneliest achievement of them all” 

Ichika: “Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sort of good at something” 

Himari: “What are you gonna do with that big bat? Gonna hit me? Better make it count. Better make it hurt. Better kill me in one shot.” 

Aoi: “I will face god and walk backwards into hell” 

Yukari: “I’ve heard it said that we only gain wisdom through suffering, and tonight I intend to make you very wise.” 

Akira: “Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have.”

Ciel: “My body may be a temple but I am the God to whom it is devoted. Do not presume to tell me how I may decorate my altar.” 

Hana: “Violence for violence is the rule of beasts” 

Saaya: “People say ‘phase’ as if impermanence means insignificance. Show me a permanent state of the self.”

Homare: “Do not let my origin story become yours” 

Emiru: “You can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.” 

Ruru: “One day you’ll decompose and I’ll be there to watch it happen” 

Hikaru: “No curse of mine shall befall you from my dying breath” 

Lala: “Pick a god and pray” 

Elena: “One day you will be face to face with whatever saw fit to let you exist in the universe, and you will have to justify the space you’ve filled” 

Madoka: “My father taught me as a child that if you shoot for the moon and miss, the cold vaccuum of space will suck out your eyeballs. Failure is not an option. Go kill them.” 

Yuni: “What are you going to buy in your lifetime that’s worth more to you than your own humanity” 

Nodoka: “I’ll do whatever you want” “Then perish” 

Chiyu: “You know what they say about healers and poisoners: similar skill set, very different philosophies”. 

Hinata: “The version of me you created in your mind is not my responsibility” 

Asumi: “There is no point being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes” 

[tinygamertris]

@nagiru It got super long again! Can we use Read Mores from now on to keep the length down?

Oh man re-reading every good YamaHibi fic there is I KNOW THAT FEEL. I am such a rarepair person and even the commonly known ships I am into tend to have minimal fic. There are some lovely fics out there for them though. The other main pair I have from DeSu2 is Saiduq/Hibiki because they are just darling, but Yamato and Hibiki are my first and most enduring love. (I’m the person who wrote male-Tico/Hibiki fic on AO3 in case you’re wondering. Look upon my works ye mighty BNFs and despair that you cannot comprehend the level I operate on.)

Yamato staying in the Akashic Stratum for the chance to make sure the new world will have Hibiki in it? I legit cry every single time I replay Record Breaker because it’s so beautiful. If that’s not the purest damn expression of love in gaming then I don’t want to know what is.

Oh man that anime. That goddamn anime. I own it on DVD and have watched it a grand total of once because I played the game first and spent the whole time going “WAIT NO THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS GOES!” I will admit the animation is incredibly high quality though, Everyone looks remarkably good and the battles are all top notch. Just a pity everything else completely missed the point of the game... 

(Although everyone who died disappearing from the end credits? That was fucking TOP NOTCH. And Daichi’s death was absolutely tearjerking.)

Yeah, that battle system is just awwwwful in the first two games. I should probably retry them now I have my contacts and the surgery but when I first played them I legitimately couldn’t read any of the in-battle text. And I’m pretty sure I played them before my vision started going downhill too... 

Shin Megami Tensei 4 and Apocalypse are bloody good games! I love them a whole lot, and I’m really sad that the final dungeon of Apocalypse is such a goddamn (hah!) nightmare because it keeps me from replaying it as much as I’d like to. But just. Goddamn. If Jonathan and Walter aren’t just a perfect illustration of why Law and Chaos is so much more compelling a dichotomy than Good and Evil. I could go for hours about the complexities of the plot and how terrible it is that the boys who accompany you to the alternative dimensions probably aren’t the ones you go back to your home reality with and how different everything would end up if Navarre came to Tokyo and just augh. I HAVE FEELS ABOUT THESE GAMES.

In Sofie’s story Sofie herself takes over as the primary Psi-element teammate. Lucca describes it as ‘taking the pain and turning it into a weapon’. She’s at her most dangerous when she draws on memories of Shinjiro, which should say everything about how I view the Psi element. It really is a pity that Haru is so easily written out, but it also says a lot about the writing team... 

I still haven’t played Persona 5 Royal. I know I should but a. I promised myself I wouldn’t until I finished the Sofie fic so I wouldn’t get bleedthrough and b. I’ve been playing a LOT of Elder Scrolls Online the last few months and every time I think ‘I should play it’ I end up thinking ‘BUT THAT’S LESS TIME WITH MY PRECIOUS BOIS IN ESO’ and not doing it. It’s been sitting on my game shelf since it released here in Australia.

I think Yamato and Miyako both have legal training but Miyako is the one with the right skills to really shine in court. Yamato’s bluntness and utter refusal to tolerate fools is not going to work well in a courthouse setting, as amusing as it would be.

The fight in question is the one when you have to fight Septentrione-Miyako to rescue Saiduq! There’s two options for winning the battle: thrash the crap out of Miyako, or get Yamato into position to release Saiduq with the Dragon Stream. As angry as I always am at Miyako at that point in proceedings I always pick the ‘rescue star fluff’ option.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Hey there everyone, sorry for the one week delay between posts. We are now up to the tenth episode in the first season of Ranma 1/2, and with it the last episode of Ryoga’s introductory arc. Once again, this is an episode that I’m not entirely sure about how it will play out, so I’ll see you all in the next paragraph once I’ve finished the rewatch.

You know, I hadn’t expected the ending to this Ryoga-centric arc would end with a nothing little story about him being kidnapped by a rich family. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just...underwhelming?

So, what exactly happened? Well, the episode starts right where the last one left off, with the revelation that the tiny black piglet Akane had found is in fact Ryoga under a curse. He tells Ranma how it happened. In chasing Ranma and his dad to China, Ryoga was lost for ages, searching the enormous country for his quarry. He’d almost caught up by getting to Jusenkyo, only to be hit by a red-haired girl running after a panda. The blow knocked him off a cliff and into a spring, cursing him.

To make things worse, the panda later found him and took him to the guide of the springs, who tried to cook Ryoga into dinner. Since then, traveling has become even worse, since his curse frequently embarrasses him or makes his journey more dangerous. Ranma gets indignant, though. Ryoga only blames him for this because he’d gotten there because he was chasing Ranma, but clearly whoever knocked him into the water deserves far more blame, along with the panda that tried to cook him.

Those words barely left Ranma’s mouth when the door to the baths opened and Ranma’s dad, in panda form, entered before noticing there were people there, and left. Ryoga, looking at Ranma’s cursed form, puts two and two together, realizing that Ranma was in fact also the one who cursed him. His rage flares up once again, but to avoid a naked fight Ranma uses cold water to activate Ryoga’s curse, making him a cute and harmless piglet.

Well, maybe not harmless. They fight anyway, and Ryoga runs out to Akane, who defends the tiny animal against the angry Ranma. To Akane, it just looks like Ranma is being a colossal jerk. Oh, and she kisses Ryoga on the snout, because she just thinks it’s a cute animal, unaware she’s kissing a hormone-laden teenage boy. She even takes him to bed with her, cuddling up with him like he’s a stuffed animal. She wonders why Ranma was so angry with this piglet, only coming to the conclusion that maybe he was jealous.

Whether it’s jealousy or not, Ranma is not having any of this nonsense. He sneaks into Akane’s room at night with hot water, ready to force Ryoga to change back and get out of there. But Ryoga avoids that and fights back, leading to Ranma falling onto Akane face-first, almost making it look like he tried to hug her in her sleep. This wakes her up, and after a moment of them just staring into each other's eyes really cutely, she goes ballistic on him for sneaking into her room and night and trying to get in bed with her. Ranma tries to defend himself, but doesn’t do a good job of it, and she sends him flying out the window.

At breakfast the next morning, it turns out everyone heard the ruckus, and assumed it was Ranma sneaking into Akane’s room to, uh, get busy. Nabiki doesn’t seem to have too much of a problem, aside from the noise level, while Kasumi disapproves of them doing that kind of thing while still underage. Their father, however, thinks Ranma doing something like that is a good idea, and gives him encouragement. Ranma is mortified, hating that everyone thinks he was trying to do something that he absolutely wasn’t.

Akane has nicknamed Ryoga in his cursed form P-Chan and basically adopted him as her pet, even taking him to school to show her friends. Ranma tries taking him to get him uncursed so they can talk, but Ryoga runs away leading to shenanigans. Eventually, with Hiroshi’s help, Ranma gets the piglet and hot water’s him, and they talk at the place where their fight had started before. Ranma points out that Ryoga has been so desperate to fight him, but now he’s running away.

Ryoga’s response is pretty simple. This curse has ruined his life, hence his intense anger for Ranma. But with Akane’s affection, and maybe even love, Ryoga is actually happy. He wants to just be P-Chan and stay with her, thinking they have some mutual affection for each other. Ranma tries to disabuse him of this notion, but that just makes Ryoga think Ranma loves her too. This doesn’t get a ‘No’ from Ranma, but instead a “Shut up, fight me!”

Too bad Akane shows up just as the sprinklers come on and turn Ryoga back into a piglet, leading to her once again thinking that Ranma was bullying her pet. In the ensuing chaos, Ryoga runs away and ends up getting picked up by a rich couple, who basically abduct him. They pamper him, but he just misses Akane, who is searching desperately for him. Even though he still doesn’t like the situation, Ranma tries to cheer Akane up. Oh, and the rich couple find out Ryoga is really a teenage boy, but they don’t mind and want him to be their heir.

As Ranma and Akane are walking home from school, Ryoga is trying to escape just as they pass by. Ranma jumps in to stop the servants of the estate from taking the pig back, but they turn out to be quite strong and they have weapons. Ranma struggles a little in the fight, but Akane helps and they win, taking P-Chan back. The rich couple accept this, walking away as they think that they’ll find some cute thing to replace him. In doing so, they pass Ranma’s dad in panda form, who is trying desperately to catch their attention by being adorable, but it doesn’t work.

That night, Ranma wonders why he even got Ryoga back for Akane, considering he doesn’t want him staying there with them. Then he tries sneaking into her room again, but this time she’s awake and alert, quickly knocking Ranma out again. The next morning, everyone is talking about Ranma doing it two nights in a row, and he is still embarrassed. The end.

This feels like a very patchwork episode. It resolved the cliffhanger from last week, introduced a dynamic that will be seen for basically the entire rest of the series (P-Chan and Akane), and then did a small story of him being kidnapped by rich people. There were definitely things I liked about it, but for the ending of Ryoga’s introductory arc, it definitely felt weaker than it should have.

Uh, let’s see...stuff to talk about...Well, I guess the big thing to tackle is something we’ll have going forward. P-Chan is both Akane’s pet and Ryoga Hibiki, and she doesn’t know that. To her, he is just an adorable little pig. Thing is, this feeds into Ryoga’s need for affection which is desperately unfulfilled, and causes him to fall in love with her. Which must be weird for her, because she barely knows him.

Then you’ve got Ranma, who is actually aware of what’s going on. It must be galling for him to have to watch Ryoga, who is normally the unluckiest person in the universe, stumble into what is kind of the perfect set-up. It makes sense that Ranma’s immediate reaction is to reveal Ryoga’s inadvertent deception so everyone knows what is happening. The fact that keeps failing means that he looks more and more like a creep, which just makes it worse for him.

The ethics of all of this are honestly kind of interesting. Is Ranma doing the right thing? After all, he’s going to big lengths to try and unmask Ryoga, breaking into Akane’s room at night, and even if he succeeds it will hurt both Ryoga and Akane in the process. But shouldn’t Ryoga be stopped? Sure, being Akane’s pet is very fulfilling for him, but she doesn’t have full knowing consent for everything going on with that. There is, after all, a good reason he doesn’t want her to ever know who he really is: she could possibly find that breach of her trust unforgivable. It’s messy stuff, and while I don’t necessarily love it, I am seeing more to it than I have before.

That being said, I am not really a fan of some of the conflict this subplot generates. I do not really enjoy Akane and others getting angry at Ranma and calling him a pervert, not believing any of his attempts to explain what’s really going on. I understand why, but as the viewer I know he’s actually right, and that creates a kind of uncomfortability that I’m not really here for.

Part of me likes both the scenes where the family has drawn the completely wrong conclusions to the sounds coming from Akane’s room. It’s funny, and I didn’t expect it. That said, there is some ambiguity to how they talk around what they mean. Do they think Ranma sneaked into Akane’s room so they could consensually bang? Do they think Ranma went up for a secret midnight rendezvous where he tried to talk her into doing sexy stuff? Do they think Ranma was trying to do certain things to Akane, whether she wanted him to or not? I genuinely don’t know, and some of those options are something I find hard to just wave off, especially when Akane’s dad is so supportive.

Hey, first time in a few weeks with a new character getting the focus! Well, not a ‘new’ character per se, but someone I haven’t done a spotlight on before: Akane’s father Soun Tendo. The head of the Anything Goes Martial Arts Dojo is definitely the most tertiary character I’ve covered so far. He hasn’t gotten a lot of development, and while the occasional episode with give him more to do later on, in general Soun is definitely a background character, far more than his friend Genma Saotome.

For voice-acting, both of his actors do a very similar thing, and they do it well. They give Soun this baritone, serious, kind of traditionally masculine and fatherly voice, which they make more humorous by going over the top with how sentimental and affectionate he is. In Japanese he’s played by Ryusuke Obayashi, who hasn’t done a lot of other voice acting work, while in English he’s played by David Kaye, who apparently has played Megatron (I don’t really watch Transformers) and is the announcer on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which is crazy to wrap my head around.

I don’t actually know how much blood I can get out of this stone. Soun loves his daughters dearly, though he can still annoy them by making decisions without consulting them first. His wife is dead, though how much that contributes to his current nature we don’t really know. He trained with Genma, becoming such good friends to the point where they made the promise to join their families together one day, and doesn’t seem to have any problem hosting Genma and Ranma for free.

Speaking of, he’s really well off, especially compared to his old friend Genma. The guy owns a pretty large chunk of the block, and while there are occasional comments about the freeloaders from Nabiki, it doesn’t seem as though taking two extra mouths on to feed has really affected his finances. I’ve got no clue where his money comes from. Inheritance? Something marital arts related?

Speaking of, presumably he’s a pretty good martial artist himself. Perhaps not as good as Genma, since he doesn’t train as much these days, but you’d think Soun is a pretty strong dude. As far as I can recall, he never enters any fights, which feels like a bit of a waste. In general, I feel like Soun is a bit of missed potential. I enjoy how he’s so comfortable being emotional, especially compared to some of his friend’s toxic masculinity, and there are occasionally moments where it seems like he tries to help mentor Ranma that I like. But on the whole, Soun is mostly a background character. He has been so far, and I don’t remember him really stepping outside of that too much. I can only help my memory is once again mistaken.

Okay, so, where do I rank this episode? Aside from the parts I liked, on the whole this was a bit of a slog. It wasn’t bad necessarily, but the back half especially was so dull for me that I kept mentally checking out, it was difficult to pay attention. That’s why I’d honestly put it at the bottom of what I’ve covered so far.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Hopefully, next week we get something better as we move on to a new arc, which introduces a character I didn’t think appeared until quite a while later in the series. Come back next time when I’ll be talking about “Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!” See you then!

[aion-rsa]

10 Best Fighting Game Movies

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Once upon a time, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly, and John Saxon visited a crime boss’ private island to compete in a fighting tournament and it was awesome. The 1973 movie Enter the Dragon is basically the prototype for the fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. And when those fighting games became popular, they inspired their own movies that either tried to emulate Enter the Dragon or do something completely new.

The ‘90s gave us the cheesy live-action fighting game movies from Hollywood and the animated movies from Japan. There have been several live-action Mortal Kombat movies as well as a few animated ones. There have also been multiple Street Fighter movies, four attempts at Tekken, a trilogy of Fatal Fury films, and more.

Are most of them bad? Yes. But did we pick our 10 favorite fighting game movies anyway? You bet. Here are our picks:

10. ART OF FIGHTING (1993)

Eh…it’s harmless.

The Art of Fighting series is mostly defined by the twist that the first game’s final boss is the main character’s father and the second game’s final boss is a younger incarnation of the villain from Fatal Fury. Take away those aspects and you’re left with a rather lowkey storyline for a fighting game where a teenage girl is kidnapped by a mobster and is rescued by her brother and her boyfriend.

Wait, I said that weird. It’s two different people, I swear! Except in Capcom, where Dan Hibiki is literally both of them merged into one character.

In the 45-minute Art of Fighting movie about Ryo and Robert, who are like chiller and dopier versions of Ryu and Ken, we watch as the duo gets sucked into a plot about stolen diamonds, martial arts criminals, and angry police lieutenants. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s a fine, breezy watch.

Ryo’s incorrect hair color kind of irks me, though.

9. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA: THE ANIMATION (1999)

This movie suffers from the same problem as Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. It features a cast of heroes from a fighting game taking on a villain created for the movie instead of the villains we actually give a shit about. But the movie does also have some brief but awesome cameos (Kim Kaphwan and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury and Dan Hibiki and Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha) to brighten up a less-than-stellar plot.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation does at least get by because the original characters play up Ryu’s whole fear about being overcome by “the Dark Hadou.” This leads to some cool animations where Evil Ryu looks like a mindless, shambling zombie but also an unstoppable fighting machine.

The movie’s main storyline is about a kid named Shun who claims that he’s Ryu’s long-lost brother. He too is a fighter cursed with an inner dark side, which is used as a red herring to suggest that Shun’s father (and presumably Ryu’s father) is actually Akuma. That ends up being bupkis and Shun is just linked to some scheme by a mad scientist or whatever.

Probably the funniest thing about this movie is the directors’ infatuation with Chun-Li’s midsection. She’s wearing her form-fitting Street Fighter Alpha costume and there are dozens upon dozens of random close-ups to her lower torso from the front and back. If this were a drinking game, it would kill you.

8. FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE (1993)

Of the Fatal Fury movie trilogy, this one is easily the best, even if it makes all the good guys seem like a bunch of overly-serious crybabies. The basic story is that after having avenged his father’s death, Terry hits rock bottom, dusts himself off, and comes out the other end stronger. Good, good. Going Rocky III is the perfect direction for a follow-up.

The problem is that Terry comes off as a bit of a whiner and the other heroes try way too hard to vilify the movie’s main antagonist, who hasn’t actually done anything that terrible. Krauser shows up one day, challenges Terry to a fight, wins, and says, “Okay, when you get better, train and fight me again.” Krauser isn’t trying to take over the world or murder orphans or whatever. He’s just a dude with huge shoulder armor who wants a good fight.

But everyone acts like Krauser’s the absolute worst. Terry starts drinking and falls to pieces while his buddies hope to get revenge. What a bunch of jerks.

While a fun romp, the worst thing about this sequel is how they redesigned Krauser. Gone is his mustache and forehead scar for the sake of making him seem younger. Kind of a bullshit move, considering he’s supposed to be the half-brother to middle-aged Geese Howard.

7. TEKKEN: THE MOTION PICTURE (1998)

This hour-long anime is almost great but just can’t stick the landing. It runs into the same problem as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation where the game series tells a specific overall story but the movie cuts corners to tell the same story. Tekken: The Motion Picture covers the first Tekken while setting up Tekken 3 and skipping Tekken 2 completely.

It means that everything’s well and good until the confusing and rushed finale. Otherwise, the movie is a fine use of the Enter the Dragon formula. Heihachi Mishima has a special island fighting tournament and the entrants include his vengeful son, a couple of cops investigating the situation, a gigantic robot, an angry Native American girl, two feuding assassin sisters, and a bunch of awesome characters who only get about three full frames of appearances each. Really would have liked to see something from Paul, King, and Yoshimitsu, though.

Other than Kazuya being pissed at everything, the best scenes are the over-the-top ones. When Jack does crazy robot stuff, when dinosaurs show up and start eating people, and that memorable sequence where Heihachi catches a hatchet with his mouth and then shatters it with his jaw.

6. STREET FIGHTER (1994)

I know this movie is just a GI Joe script with Street Fighter names pasted over it. I know it’s a cheesefest of dopey ideas and Belgian accents. I’ve long accepted that. Thing is, the movie is still a total blast to watch. What it lacks in faithfulness to the source material, it makes up for with pure camp and ham.

The 16 characters from Super Street Fighter II are represented here, except Fei Long is replaced with the forgettable Captain Sawada. How ironic that the movie star character isn’t even in the movie!

In general, the movie features some head-scratching depictions of classic Street Fighter characters. All-American Guile is played by Jean Claude Van Damme, Charlie Nash and Blanka are the same character, Dee Jay is an evil hacker, Ryu and Ken are comedic conmen, and Dhalsim is a frumpy scientist.

It’s Raul Julia’s M. Bison who keeps this guilty pleasure afloat. He’s to Street Fighter what Frank Langella’s Skeletor was to Masters of the Universe. He gives 110% and his performance is easily the best reason to watch this movie. It’s truly a wonder to behold.

Read more

Games

The Forgotten Fighting Games of the 1990s

By Gavin Jasper

Games

King of Fighters: Ranking All the Characters

By Gavin Jasper

The movie is infamous for inspiring a fighting game based on it, but you know what nobody ever talks about? The Double Dragon movie also had a fighting game based on it made by Technos and released on the Neo Geo. And Double Dragon wasn’t even a one-on-one fighter to begin with!

Anyway, if you intend to sit back and watch Street Fighter, make sure to add in the RiffTrax commentary.

5. DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (2006)

Enter the Dragon meets Charlie’s Angels is a heck of a concept, but DOA: Dead or Alive is so confidently tongue-in-cheek that it succeeds as an action comedy that’s way better than it has any right to be. Part of why it works is that Dead or Alive has never had much of an overarching storyline, but is more defined by the individual characters (plus, you know, all the cheesecake). Enough of those characters appear in what’s your regular “fighting tournament on a mysterious island” setup.

The whole thing moves with such energy that it’s easy to get sucked in. It’s the opposite of the live-action Tekken movie, where even though the film features accurate versions of all the characters, everything is so drab and lifeless that you just can’t wait for it to be over. In DOA, the combatants spend their downtime playing cartoony action volleyball with Fake Dennis Rodman on commentary, while in Tekken everyone mopes about dystopian capitalism.

Other than Helena’s character being “important dead guy’s daughter,” most of the main characters are charismatic enough to keep your attention during the 3% of the movie when fights aren’t happening. It must suck for Ninja Gaiden fans that Hayabusa is depicted as a total dweeb, but he at least gets to do some cool stuff here and there.

The movie also has Kevin Nash playing a character based on Hollywood Hogan and he’s so likeable that I’m genuinely bummed that he peaces out about halfway into the movie. Luckily, the movie is entertaining enough that I didn’t even notice until after it was over. It helps that during that time, we get more of Eric Roberts, his amazing hair, and his special sunglasses that turn him into the ultimate martial arts master.

Spoiler alert, but the secret to defeating him is, get this, removing his sunglasses!

4. MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SCORPION’S REVENGE (2020)

It took a while, but Warner Bros. Animation is on fire these days. After that Batman vs. TMNT movie and Teen Titans Go vs. Teen Titans, the studio appears to be hitting more than they miss. That’s exactly the kind of team needed to put together the latest animated Mortal Kombat movie.

This is the umpteenth retelling of the first game’s story. Not only does it have to compete with the first live-action movie, but also the events of Mortal Kombat 9, which depicts the tournament in cutscene format. Fortunately, Scorpion’s Revenge has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, it puts Scorpion in the forefront as the protagonist. He was barely a character in the original movie and the game just had him kill Sub-Zero and feel bad about it for the rest of the story mode. Now he feels like a character in a crossover, making a mark on the original story instead of being put in the sidelines.

We also have the wonderful stunt casting of Joel McHale as Johnny Cage. More importantly, Jennifer Carpenter plays Sonya Blade, which is such a step up from Ronda Rousey’s voice acting in Mortal Kombat 11.

This cartoon has a very hard R when it comes to violence. From the very beginning, Scorpion’s origins are gruesome and grisly. Once Jax is introduced, it doesn’t take long until we realize, “Oh, that’s how they’re dealing with THAT plot point in this continuity.” Then there’s a surprise villain death late in the movie that not only comes as a shocking development, but it’s so graphic and nasty that you can’t help but be taken aback.

Scorpion’s Revenge is a fantastic first chapter of what is hopefully a series of animated movies, but it does have its pacing issues. Scorpion being the protagonist may be a welcome change, but at times it does feel like a square peg being crammed into a round hole.

3. TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE (2011)

One of the best things about the Tekken series is the endings. While the cutscenes from the first couple games haven’t exactly aged well, these CGI epilogues have become a staple in nearly every installment. What better reward for your time and success than watching a rocking action sequence with Yoshimitsu and Bryan Fury killing each other in the jungle?

And so, to play to the series’ strengths, Bandai Entertainment released a Tekken movie that’s really just one big ending cutscene. It’s not canon, but it feels at home with the games.

Since Tekken’s main conflict is with two ruthless megalomaniacs (Heihachi and Kazuya) and a disgruntled nihilist (Jin), it’s hard to treat any of them as a real protagonist here. Instead, they go with Ling Xiaoyu, who is portrayed as the person who sees the good in Jin and wants him to see the light. She’s given a robotic BFF in Alisa Bosconovitch because Xiaoyu is kind of a tame character and needs someone with chainsaw arms and a jetpack to liven things up.

The first hour or so is good enough to keep your attention and its lightened up by a couple appearances by Tekken’s best character, Lee. But once it gets to the third act, it just becomes a completely awesome Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin fight, with Xiaoyu taking a backseat to watch all the crazy shit going on. It’s a full-on fireworks factory, as we not only see Devil forms of Kazuya and Jin but a very special final form for Heihachi that’s a true delight for Tekken fans.

2. STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE (1994)

Let it be said that for someone who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, finding a faithful cartoon adaptation of a video game property was not easy. Link and Simon Belmont were unlikable sexual harassers. Mega Man was a more annoying sidekick than Scrappy Doo. Mario and Luigi teamed up with Milli Vanilli. Power Team was…a thing. When we got an animated movie based on Street Fighter II, it was mind-blowing. This was a movie where the very first scene was Ryu tearing Sagat’s chest into a bloody gash thanks to a well-animated Shoryuken.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, but at the same time, nothing is going on. By this point, there were 17 characters in the various Street Fighter II games, and outside of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Akuma cameo, it feels the need to include every single one of them. Some get minor roles, like Cammy and Dee Jay. Then there’s Zangief and Blanka, who fight each other for no reason other than for the sake of giving them something to do. Even Ryu vanishes for a huge chunk of the runtime.

Once everything funnels into the third act, this movie is great. And the earlier fight scenes are straight fire too, including the memorable Chun-Li vs. Vega brawl. Even though the movie already feels true to Street Fighter II, it’s even better when you realize that it’s all supposed to be a prequel to the game itself.

Or at least I hope so. Otherwise, all Sagat gets to do is get his ass kicked by Ryu and get chewed out by Bison.

1. MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

The stars truly aligned for this one. Mortal Kombat Mania was at its peak, so it makes sense that this movie was a retelling of the first game’s story with added aspects from the second game, all while hyping up the arcade release of the third game. CGI was such a novelty in Hollywood in the ’90s that even if it looked primitive, it still looked cutting edge at the time. It was the perfect time to release this movie.

But Mortal Kombat isn’t perfect. Reptile is embarrassing. Scorpion and Sub-Zero being relegated to goons still stings. I still roll my eyes at the part towards the end where Sonya is suddenly the damsel in distress and Raiden flat-out verbally buries her by saying she couldn’t beat Shang Tsung in a million years. Otherwise, it’s the perfect storm of ‘90s action garbage.

There are so many over-the-top and charismatic performances here. Johnny Cage, Raiden, Shang Tsung, Kano, and even Goro are a blast to watch. All 10 characters from the original game are given something to do and, most importantly, they realize how uniquely weird the game’s story is and actually dive headfirst into it. The movie isn’t embarrassed to be a Mortal Kombat movie but handles itself well enough that we aren’t embarrassed to be watching a Mortal Kombat movie.

Even with a PG-13 rating, the movie was violent enough. Kano talked up seeing a pile of frozen guts in the wake of a Sub-Zero fight, Scorpion got his skull sliced apart with demon brain goo spewing all over the place, and Shang Tsung got impaled to death.

With the reboot being rated R, going for the gore could very well be the right route to go, but for the love of the Elder Gods, don’t forget to have FUN. All I’m saying is, if even Johnny Cage isn’t hamming it up, then what’s the point?

The post 10 Best Fighting Game Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[venus-says]

Symphogear XV Episode 02

I swear here that I will never break. 

Symphogear is back and BOI. This episode was heavy, this episode was very heavy. I had to take a 2 hours break after I watched the episode of how heavy it ended. This just proves that XV isn’t here to play and this season will probably be the best season ever (I hope I’m not wrong on this).

So starting off, OPENING AND ENDING!

I thought symphogear would never be able to top Synchrogazer, and until AXZ I was right. But then XV came and BOOM! This opening is so good, not just the song but the actual opening animation was amazing as well. They’ve done such a good job with it, I’m legitimately impressed. And Metanoia, oof what a great song. The first time I heard the song, when they released the short PV on Nana’s channel, I was scared, though I had loved the song, I had no idea of how they would make a good OP with the song, and I was even more concerned with how they would use it as the final attack in the season finale, but now after seeing the actual OP I’ve thrown all my fears away because now I’m sure they can deliver it.

The ED, on the other hand, wasn’t as successful with me. The visuals are awesome, I dare to say it's the best ending visually, but the song... The song is so meh, I was really disappointed by it. But we got this beautiful shot at the end so I’m not as mad as I would normally be.

Now to the episode itself. They used the same formula from next week with having the episode set on the present but with a flashback section in the middle. I like this format, but this one is very dangerous because it can get boring very fast, I hope they use it well from here on now.

I was a little throw off when they showed that adorable moment focused on Chirs and her normal daily life. Don’t get me wrong, I did like everything that was shown there, especially the picture Chirs keeps from her birthday party with the girls (I hope we get to see it sometime in a flashback), and as weird as gloves are as a present I do like that interaction between her, Hibiki and Miku on their way to school.

The thing that gets me off is that watching this first part I felt like we were going heads in into a Chirs episode, but then a few minutes later we see that no, the focus on this episode is Tsubasa, which on itself is not a problem, but the show had set up something with Chris coming up and I was very interested in seeing that since AXZ left me with a little bit of a bitter aftertaste when regarding to Chirs.

Even though that was a little problem I had I still enjoyed Tsubasa’s story from this episode, but before going there let’s focus on the flashback fight for a moment.

Kirka and Shirabe‘s fight was pretty awesome. I know working together as one is their thing and it has been their thing since the first time they appeared in G, but in this season they’re doing it to perfection. From the ice skating moment from the last episode to their dance move as a couple on this one everything has been done amazingly and the final result is great, and I hope they keep doing this and making it better and better as the season goes on.

But sadly things can’t be always perfect and this flashback gave me two problems.

Now, I admit, complaining about this is symphogear is kinda useless at this point but... the sexualization they’re doing to young girls here’s is just way too awkward to me. Not to say that sexualization in general is fine, but still, it really bothered me.

Like, if this whole pole dance transformation was with any of the older girls, it wouldn’t make it fine per se, but it would at least be less uncomfortable to watch. Like, Kirika’s what? 15? 16? This is so wrong.

Then there’s the Alchemist, I believe her name is Elisa or something, I like her concept and using different tails as weapons is quite interesting, but I know that every time we see her power in action we gonna see her butt and even if she’s not a teenager she still looks like a kid and is quite disturbing to look at.

And again, I know that bringing this up doesn’t have a lot of purpose, and this is stuff Symphogear has been doing for 7 years, and maybe they’ve done worse in the past and I’m just not remembering it (I do have a terrible memory, everyone knows this), but it really bothered me as I was watching, especially Kirika’s transformation.

Thankfully that was the only low point from the episode and everything else was top tier.

SO, first few questions, is Maria now Tsubasa’s bodyguard? Or is she another manager like Ogawa? Or is she there just because she wants to see her girlfriend? Regardless, she looks amazing in that suit and I hope we see her more in that outfit.

With that out of the way, do yall allow me to scream? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT I’M GONNA DO SINCE THE BIG DUO LIVE PERFORMANCE TRADITION IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!

I had lost my hopes for symphogear ever doing this again seeing that AXZ lacked a performance and episode 1 of XV was just battle, BUT THEY GAVE US ANOTHER PERFORMANCE AND I JUST WANNA SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, Angelic Remnant isn’t my favorite song from these lives, this spot is still owned by Seiten Galaxy Cross, but this sure is the best live scene the show has ever put out for us in its entire run. The camera work makes it hard to take a good screenshot from Maria and Tsubasa together to illustrate this post? Yes, but still, that was amazing, a true work of art.

Cooling off from the excitement a little bit I wanna put a light on something Maria thought right after the performance ended that got me very curious.

She says that the performance they just did was “like the miracle the song of my homeland caused that day“. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure all we know from Maria’s past is just from the point in which she and Serena got to the orphanage. We know they’re Ukrainians but that’s just because one of the writers revealed that on a tweet in Serena’s birthday, right? This has never been mentioned on the show.

So are we gonna get more background information on Maria and maybe Shirabe and Kirika as well?? We already got some hints on AXZ about Shirabe origins so... is this what we’re gonna get to build more development for the ex-FIS girls this season? Uhhhhh I’m excited!

Now it has come the time to talk about what made this episode SO HEAVY.

The alchemists' attack to Tsubasa’s concert was a low move, and I don’t say this as a bad thing, I say this because it was really low to make her revive the same terror she lived when Kanade died. THIS IS CRUEL, IT HURTS MY HEART, and I love that they’re doing this because I’m assuming they’ll make great things from opening this wound again.

And thank God for the production this season being so damn good and for Nana being amazing at her job because we can feel Tsubasa getting more lost in despair each time the camera focus on her and is so heartbreaking but the animation is so fluid and make things so beautiful, THERE’S SO MANY EMOTIONS GOING ON.

Now to the other alchemist that was shown in this episode. When I first saw the concept images I had in mind that the pink furry girl would be my favorite alongside the cutie honey looking girl, but after seeing her in action I absolutely love to despise her.

She was a pretty good villain in this episode, and she has done a thing that I think we’ve never seen in this show so far. If I remember things correctly, all human deaths so far (not including villains) were caused solely either by noise or magic and even if people were controlling those things we’ve never seen another human directly killing anyone using their own hands before. I think Maria attacked some US officers in G but she didn’t kill them, right?

And as much as I’m pretty used to seeing horrible deaths happening in fiction and most of them don’t phase me anymore, this one got me to flinch. I’m used to people turning into dust and disappearing in this series, not to have an innocent body being pierced right in the chest. That was fucking heavy, especially with everything else that was going on in this fight.

Now murders aside, I’m quite interested in what this new alchemic power is that apparently is invading a “seal”. This is probably what gonna force a gear update in the middle of the season, which if you checked my other symphogear reviews you know, that I don’t like, but this one piqued my interest and I think for the first time I’m excited about a new power-up that isn’t the X-Dive.

We had the post-credits scene with that relic recovered from the coffin again, and I’m even more thirsty for information on this thing. I don’t need an info dump, but they could keep releasing bits of information of what the relic is in scenes like this throughout the season till we reach the point in which it will become more relevant and I’d definitely love to see it being done.

And this was episode 2 of XV. This one was a huge step up if compared with last week’s episode. I’m just as broken as Tsubasa is right now, this is how good this episode was. Now I’m gonna go to bed because I need another break after revisiting all of this. See you guys tomorrow~

[incorrectdevilsurvivorquotes]

Ask for Yamato! Lol I really want to know this one XD

YOU GUYS ARE OPENING PANDORAS BOX WITH THIS ONE I HOPE YOU ARE READY

THE BIG MAN YAMMY HIMSELF CHIEF HOT-SUIN

First impression: Ah so this is the leader of all the piss yellow fashion disasters running around Tokyo. Why does he get to look like a sleek white haired anime pretty boy when they all look like that???

Impression Now: I. LOVE. HIM!!!!! He’s one of my favorite characters, though I am trying my best to keep my bias at bay for you guys. This will not become Incorrect-Yamato-Hotsuin-quotes if I can help it. He’s such an interesting mix of stubbornness, dedication, naivety (on some topics), anger,and confidence. I enjoy his refusal to allow the world, he’s forced to sacrifice himself for, to be anything less than perfect. It’s interesting to dive into how much of Yamato’s personality stems from his isolation both from his upbringing and his excellence. He comes off as dreadfully lonely in a way. From his inability to connect to others, to being confused by the concept of friends, to his quick attachment to Hibiki the moment he believes there could be a relationship there. I can’t help but want to help that. (I could ramble forever about him but I already know I’m going to be rambling in the rest of this.)

Favorite Moment: There are so many. From the takoyaki scene, to “at last you yearn for me as I yearned for you,” to the declaration of sworn friendship in the Triangulum arc, to Miyako roasting THE SHIT out of him. They’re all good but Strong Breaker hit me the hardest. (Well tied with The Takoyaki Scene cause that was cute as all hell. Like this serious government leader that could kill you with a snap of his fingers is literally shoving his face with junk food like a child. That was so surprisingly cute.) Strong Breaker I think really gets to the heart of Yamato’s loneliness. It’s such a clear portrayal of his desperation to keep the only person who’s ever connected with him, his stubborn refusal to yield to anyone, and in part his isolation as he refuses to even acknowledge the rest of the cast as worthy of speaking with him. While that’s definitely Yamato at his worst, it’s a nice look into his character that I can’t help but appreciate. And when he asked if his “personality was what drove” Hibiki away my heart broke a bit. It was a stunning moment of self deprecation from a man who up until that point seemed extremely self assured. To see Yamato brought to a point where he’s blaming everything, including himself for Hibiki leaving because he can’t believe Hibiki wouldn’t want to be at his side, hurts. Where The takoyaki Scene and Roadtrip promise are sweet reassurances of friendship, Strong Breaker is such a wrought and painful scene with the kind of drama I’d love to explore. (Honestly both sides must be really conflicted during that fight, I can’t imagine Hibiki, especially one who’s pursued Yamato’s fate events, would want to fight Yamato, but his friends safety comes first. And Yamato as stated is a wreck. I’d love to see a fic exploring both their perspectives during that scene)

Story idea: I really want to write a fic set a few years after the Admin Hibiki ending, where Canopus rejects the concept of a human Administrator after it eventually reboots. Reading it as an error in the system. This leads to Hibiki having to flee from the Akashic stratum into hiding, and the world to fall into another apocalypse. Alcor contacts the past survivors who have no memory of Hibiki, to help him solve this Crisis and find their lost Administrator. The fic would follow the alternating perspectives of Yamato and Daichi as they slowly regain memories of the previous Worlds and Hibiki, as they both have to work together to track Hibiki down as the others are holding off Canopus and working damage control. Tensions run high due to the situation, and both of their mixed feelings about Hibiki’s choice.

Unpopular Opinion: I’m never really sure if Yamato is a fan favorite or a divisive character in the fandom, especially now that it’s shrunk. I can see where he’d definitely put off a lot of people, he is an ass a lot. So potentially even liking Yamato?

Another one would be, I definitely don’t believe he as extremely controlling as some people portray him as. I lay 90% of the blame of that take on the anime who made him into some ooc power hungry puppet master, but Game Yamato is very intent on allowing you and your group choice and is impressed with people who choose to better themselves. He allows the group to investigate into JPs with little issue, and let’s people form opposing factions without complaint. He’s not like Anime Yamato who refuses anything outside his plans and opinions, and he certainly wouldn’t restrain Hibiki from making choices since he views him as an equal. I mean the man let Hibiki become a god, even after he spent an entire game just trying to make sure Hibiki could be back with them again. If he let Hibiki make that choice despite his wishes, he’s not going to restrict Hibiki very much at all.

Favorite Relationship: Yamato and Hibiki, no surprises there. Hibiki definitely brings out the best in Yamato, and I’m a huge sucker for relationships where one character restores another’s faith in the world and that’s these two in a nutshell. The way that Hibiki invites Yamato into the real world and allows him to see the good and the bad, ultimately changes Yamato into a better person and I enjoyed seeing that process. To see Yamato slowly unravel from his isolated shell to the point where he can accept and wants to explore the world he used to condemn, is astonishing. Hibiki allows Yamato to no longer be alone and just honestly makes his life better. In turn he provides Hibiki with anything he can, praise, opportunities, rewards, and staggering amount of trust. I mean, Yamato straight up wrote himself out of existence for Hibiki. That’s devotion right there! It’s a very sweet friendship/relationship that is very nicely summed up in the line “I’ll show you.” They both want to be able to see what the world has to offer together, and with the Record Breaker ending they finally can.

Favorite Headcanon: I like to think the dragon stream has leaves an invisible dragonlike seal on its current wielder that envelopes most of the users body. Like a tattoo of sorts, with it only becoming visible in times of extreme use of the dragon stream.

(A joke Headcanon is that Yamato is baffled by but supports the story of Legally blonde and Hamilton. Because both are stories of people working their way to excellence by their own hard work despite adversity, hardship, and a system working against them. Its exactly his kind of content if he wasn’t confused by the purpose of musicals)

[cantusecho-archive]

(Episode 5 thoughtsssss.

OKAY. I took forever to write this one up since I couldn’t process my thoughts correctly, and still can’t. But going to try!

Episode starts with the government taking over S.O.N.G headquarters.

Thing about this is, it’s clear that Fudou is using his power and influence to stop them, but why? That’s at the end of the episode it seems and the reason I think is hinted here;

Honestly, the second he said this, it made me think of him wanting to make it into a sword for Tsubasa to use it. However, she clearly shouldn’t be able to handle it since she can’t wield divine power? Maybe Fudou thinks he can wield the power instead? He’s crazy strong, but does he believe he can handle it? It’s possible he does but his exact ideas/plans are still fairly in the dark.

And Noble Red really are just pawns for him. So, if they didn’t agree to his terms, then they would die since that blood is the only way they could live. Basically, this humanizes our villains, as to be expected, since they’ve been abused and experimented on against their will.

However, I’d still be happy with them not being forgiven for their actions (Millaarc especially) because of how much it’s effected everyone, especially Tsubasa. But that’s later on in the episode.

(also it’s interesting that they’re hiding within the remains of Carol’s Chateau)

Now the scene between Genjurou and Yatsuhiro is actually really really nice. It’s nice to see the two of them interacting more, but they’ve also come to a conclusion that it’s pretty much clear that Fudou may be behind Noble Red’s actions. Yatsuhiro says that they can’t jump to conclusions just yet despite being suspicious. Of course WE as the audience already knows that Fudou is behind it. But in terms of the characters, who don’t see what we do, it makes sense.

Also heard a small tidbit about this scene on twitter; according to people who actually know Japanese, one of the documents on Yatsuhiro’s desk is basically hinting to another name in the Kazanari family. The people who could read this made all the connections about Genjurou and Yatsuhiro’s names (they have characters in their names that mean numbers? I can’t remember them offhand but I think Genjurou at least means ten) and said that it’s very possible that Fudou has like...ten+ children. LOL.

Like, he had sooooo many kids, probably hoping one would fight for him, until Tsubasa was born. I can’t find the twitter posts that actually explain all this in much better words so yeah, sorry. Just some interesting stuff.

Moving on! Because of all this investigation stuff, all the Gear users are on standby and are literally left with nothing to do whatsoever.

Eventually, this gives everyone the idea to at least take a break. And so what Hibiki decides to do is invite Tsubasa, as well as Elfnein, to have fun in the town. This is really just a huge callback to S1 episode 9 where Hibiki and Miku take Tsubasa on a date. Lmao.

What’s cute about this is that Elfnein ACTUALLY TAKES A DAY OFF LOL. 

AND SHE SINGS.  ABOUT CAROL PRETTY MUCH.

But what’s clashing in this scene is that while Elfnein is singing and literally having fun, Tsubasa finally opens up and admits how she’s been feeling lately.

This is particularly sad because she literally said in episode 2 how much she loves singing. Before all the chaos in the concert and Fudou tearing down something she loves doing, Tsubasa was happy to sing and enjoy herself by spreading her music throughout the world. It’s taken a long time for Tsubasa to get to this point, even after the Zwei Wing disaster. So for her to feel this way is just really sad to hear and see.

And this sets up the brief argument between Hibiki and Miku. 

Now my feelings on this scene is a lot but I’ll try to be brief as possible; personally, I don’t think Miku was in the wrong. This has been building up within her ever since season 1. However, was her outburst at the best time? No, it wasn’t. Miku isn’t a perfect person (in my opinion), no one is, but that’s what makes her interesting to me.

Even before S1, she’s been dealing with this guilt of hers for so long, so many years. And because she related to Tsubasa’s feelings of guilt and fear, it all came bursting out all at once...so she calls Hibiki selfish. I can see if people think this is rushed or literally came out of nowhere, or Miku’s wrong but it’s not as if Hibiki hasn’t done things wrong too.

Hibiki’s heart is always in the right place, yes, but she’s not perfect either. Normally, pulling people into her rhythm or ideas is fine and ends up working out really well. Her energy is enough to brighten those around her...but not all the time. Sometimes pulling people into doing something you think might help might end up hurting them instead. If you ask a person how they feel, maybe that way you’d be able to figure things out more. 

But Hibiki didn’t ask Tsubasa. This isn’t to say that Hibiki doesn’t care about Tsubasa’s feelings, she cares deeply for Tsubasa, but she technically pulled her along into something that’s really only reminding her that she can’t enjoy songs. It’s hard to explain what I mean haha.

So even though Miku calls Hibiki selfish, which is debatable within itself but I don’t have time to explain it all lmao, I can kinda see her point. I don’t think Hibiki nor Miku are right or wrong here. It’s really just a clash of emotions and miscommunication. At least in my opinion.

And then having Hibiki ask her this question finally gets Miku to openly admit how she’s been feeling for years.

Can I say as a side note how crazy it is for Hibiki to raise her voice back, like she’s actually frustrated so she stresses the words? It made me feel so uneasy, no joke haha.

Moving on, Miku finally admits her guilt, and I think it’s a legit worry. A lot of things wouldn’t have happened in Hibiki’s life if she didn’t invite her to that concert. She wouldn’t have almost died. She wouldn’t have been harassed. Her family wouldn’t be as broken as it is. She wouldn’t nearly be dying all the time from fighting. Hibiki probably wouldn’t be fighting at all.

It may sound unreasonable for Miku to blame herself for all of this, but I can understand that blame somewhat so I guess I’m a bit biased in that regard lol.

Hibiki, who didn’t see all this guilt Miku’s been having, is surprised by her admission. Again, I don’t see anyone in the wrong for this exchange because of the miscommunication; Miku was too afraid to admit her feelings because she thought it would be a burden.

Hibiki, in my opinion, never once blamed Miku for the incident or never saw it in that light before, so she didn’t think Miku would have feelings like this.

I don’t intend to ever write Hibiki doing things right all the time. I enjoy writing her making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

So I’ll leave it at that. After this, there’s Alca-Noise summoned into the city, so everyone separates. Hibiki tells Miku they’ll talk later as Miku takes Elfnein and herself away to safety. 

Now this whole fight just shows how unstable Tsubasa is and possibly what that ability Millaarc used is effecting her still.

Side note: her song and transformation are REALLY good. Tsubasa’s transformation is really high if I had to rate them because it’s so beautifully animated. I love how special each transformation feels for each character this season. They’ve always been special and unique, but these intensify that to the max and I love it.

ALSO, during this scene, Hibiki makes a comment of thinking that the Alca-Noise are possibly a distraction. However, due to these other people from the government that took over, they don’t take her gut feeling seriously, which I think plays a part in the end.  My child was being smart for once and they didn’t listen FFFFFFFFFF

Okay, but Tsubasa fighting.

She starts seeing Millaarc as her and Hibiki are fighting the Alca-Noise.

This is where Tsubasa starts attacking relentlessly.

Tsubasa is the most experienced out of them all, and to see her lose control over herself and nearly do all these huge attacks that start destroying the town instead is really the thing to see.

And all it really is is Tsubasa seeing the Alca-Noise as Millaarc. This is concerning because what if she ends up seeing one of her friends as Millaarc instead, and possibly ends up hurting them? I honestly was really worried that she would end up hurting someone with all these attacks. Luckily not. And she created a lot of damage to the city because of this.

It really feels possible that Tsubasa will have to sit out of fighting for a while. Not sure if they’d actually do that in the show, but it seems fitting. It may not make her feel any better though.

Now the cliffhanger;

Miku and Elfnein are still making their escape before being cornered by Millaarc and that same government man from earlier. Their goal was clearly to get Elfnein out of HQ so they could take her. I could be wrong, but I assume it’s because Fudou needs her help possibly to help turn the Vambrace into a sword? Or whatever else he wants done to it.

But they didn’t come for Miku, and Millaarc wonders what she should do with her before getting a “call” from Vanessa.

There’s no telling what Vanessa told her until probably the next episode I assume, but it ends on a large geyser of blood, making it seem as if Millaarc killed Miku. 

I HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt this for multiple reasons; ---It’s just like episode 8 in G where people probably thought Miku died when the explosion at the tower happened. ---That random dude was there and it’s more than likely him being killed and seems the most obvious choice. ---Killing Elfnein seems pointless (unless she ran out in front of Miku even though Miku was protecting her at first) because they needed her. ---Would they really kill a main character only 5 episodes in?

I think that if Miku got hurt, they wouldn’t be showing so much blood coming out because that seems excessive. Or if she was actually hurt, I think it would have been sooooo much better if they actually showed Miku getting hit. That would make for a better cliffhanger in my opinion. But oh well. If they actually hurt Miku, I’ll be surprised. But for right now, unless the episode proves me otherwise, I don’t believe it at all.

What happens after this is a mystery; because if it’s actually the dude Millaarc killed, then what does that mean for Miku and Elfnein? Will they still hurt Miku another way? Possibly take her with them or just Elfnein? Would they get away? 

I kinda doubt about them getting away because Hibiki literally saying “we’ll talk later” feels like “We’ll try to talk later but we won’t really because shizz goes down to prevent us from talking for a while” LOL.

But yeah, two more days until the episode to see how it all went down. Preview will be tomorrow so that can help stir some thoughts. 

That’s really all I got haha.)

[nosakkayuuma]

A Request [Gouenji/Kidou]

Merry Christmas, @fanfictionbymimnim! I was your Secret Santa. I wrote you a fic, I hope you like it!

Title: A Request Summary: Kidou may be a tactical genius, but even he needs help from Gouenji sometimes. GouKi, Secret Santa gift for Secret Sakka 2017! Word count: 1,558 Notes: Thanks to my Gouenji expert friend Ise @tsuri-ouji and my awesome nuance picker upper friend Clem @oiyama for reading an earlier version and giving their thoughts, it helped a lot to refine the portrayal of Gouenji especially.

Fic below the cut:

A Request

It was, for all intents and purposes, a normal session of club practice, but the way with which Kidou approached Gouenji at the end of it was anything but.

"Kidou, you need something?"

The sense of purpose with which Kidou was striding towards him unnerved Gouenji slightly. Had something happened in practice that he’d missed? Did Kidou still have some pent-up energy left to burn? Normally, Gouenji would be happy to kickabout with Kidou a bit more after practice, but today was a little dicey, since the party was tomorrow and unless he wanted to disappoint Yuuka he had to go and…

"Hey, Gouenji," Kidou said, and was that a hint of hesitation in his voice? The last time Gouenji remembered Kidou sounding this unsure had been back in second year, right after Teikoku had lost to Zeus. It was not exactly a time he wanted to revisit.

“What’s up, Kidou?” Gouenji asked again, because Kidou definitely had something he wanted to say, but seemed to be having trouble getting the words out. No lie, it was getting a little weird.

Kidou’s expression turned rueful. Every brain cell Gouenji possessed was yelling now that this entire situation was strange and he really needed to go, but it was too late. He was well and truly involved in Kidou’s current predicament. Whatever it was, anyway.

“I have something to ask you,” Kidou finally said. His words were confident, like he was giving the team a pre-match briefing. If it wasn’t for the long pause that preceded his words, Gouenji would have been fooled. Instead he was confused.

“Ask away.”

“I plan to get Haruna a Christmas present.” The words spilled out of Kidou’s mouth, and he almost stumbled over them. Seeing their normally capable tactician like this was unexpected, to say the least.

“That’s great,” Gouenji said. Otonashi would appreciate that. What a nice thing for Kidou to do. Was this what he had been trying so hard to say? “What’re you getting her?”

“That’s the thing,” Kidou said, frowning. “I have absolutely no idea. I need your help.”

What? That Gouenji could be an authority on what to gift Haruna was news to him. “Kidou,” Gouenji said, as gently as he could, “I barely know your sister.”

“Yes, but you get yours gifts all the time, you must have an idea.”

“Kidou,” Gouenji said, half-tempted to look for hidden cameras around them. Kidou coming to him for such a simple thing had to be a prank. “Yuuka’s eight. Haruna-san is only one year younger than us. It's completely different, you know?”

“Of course I know that! Are you going to help or not?” A faint blush coated the tips of Kidou’s ears, and he gave Gouenji an indignant look that Gouenji was more charmed than reprimanded by, not that he would ever admit that, of course.

“Kidou.” Gouenji put his right thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose as he thought of how best to phrase it. “It’s just a matter of thinking what she would like. It’s not that hard.” You had to be a pretty rubbish brother not to understand that much, was what Gouenji wanted to add but thought better of. He wasn’t the one who had been separated from his sister for 8 years, after all.

In that context, Kidou’s uncertainty was understandable and almost even adorable.

Gouenji let his hand fall back down to his side.

“Fine.”

“Fine what?” Kidou’s tone was dubious.

Gouenji didn’t deign to answer him directly. “I was just heading to the shopping district to see if I could get something for Yuuka. Want to come?”

To say the shopping district was packed was an understatement. The throng of shoppers had them fighting just to stay standing, and the jostling of the crowd rivalled the most annoying defence Gouenji had ever faced on the pitch.

When he had carved out his position on the avenue, he looked around for Kidou and managed to grab hold of his sleeve just before the crowd pushed him to the other side of the street.

Kidou’s eyes were hidden by his goggles, but his dreadlocks were askew and beads of sweat dotted his forehead. “It wasn’t this busy the last time we were here.”

“It is the day before Christmas,” was all Gouenji had to say. Of course it would be busy today, now that he thought about it! If he had known, he would have come earlier. He’d never procrastinate buying Christmas gifts ever again.

“I… see,” Kidou said. He probably didn’t come to Inazuma Town much to shop, since he could just ask his butler to get whatever he wanted. Actually, it was the same with Gouenji and his housekeeper, but since Kidou had been the one to ask him for help he didn’t want to appear inexperienced. Kidou wouldn’t figure out that he wasn’t familiar with the area either, not over his dead body.

To give the impression that he had visited the shopping district more than once since the last time they’d come, with Endou to the candy store, Gouenji craned his neck upwards and looked around. A multitude of different stores dotted the street, the signs a healthy mix of old and new. It was surprising that such a street still existed in Inazuma Town. Places like this had been fading for many years, or at least that was what his father said on the rare occasions they went out together.

“So,” Kidou said, sounding a bit less overwhelmed now. “What are you getting Yuuka-chan?”

Gouenji shrugged. “I’ll just get another stuffed toy. Yuuka’s really into rabbits right now.” Where he would get it was the question, but there had to be a toy shop somewhere in the area.

“That must be nice, to have something you know your sister will like no matter what.”

Ah, yes… at the corner at the end of the road, Gouenji could just make out a sign saying ‘Toys Terao’. There we go. But before that, he had something to clear up.

“Look, Kidou,” Gouenji said, turning to him and looking him in the goggles. “It’s not like that. I know I said to get Otonashi-san what she would like, but that’s not all there is to it. You’re the one giving the gift, aren’t you? It’s a two-way street.”

He set off towards the store, and Kidou fell in step behind him, protesting all the while.

“What are you saying? What’s the point of buying something Haruna won’t like?”

“Obviously don’t buy something she’ll hate.” When Gouenji woke up this morning he sure hadn’t expected that he would be giving Kidou, of all people, a dose of sibling counselling today. “But don’t feel too much pressure to get the perfect present. Wait, look.” He pointed at a particularly distinguished-looking storefront, with muted wood décor washed darkly brown and a white sign engraved with calligraphy reading ‘Shirousagi Honpo’. Kidou liked sweets, didn’t he? “See that place?”

“Oh, I know that brand,” Kidou said without missing a beat. “Delicious confections. I love their snow rabbit rice cakes. Father has boxes of the stuff at home all the time. I’m surprised there’s a branch here in Inazuma Town.”

Sometimes it was unbelievable how Kidou could be such a rich kid. “Well, what I’m trying to say is, if you got a box of sweets, and picked the ones you wanted Otonashi-san to try, I think she would really appreciate it.”

“Hmm.” A frown crossed Kidou’s face again. “Really?”

“Really,” Gouenji assured him. “As long as you put true thought behind it, it’ll shine through. Otonashi-san is observant. She’ll understand your feelings.”

“Perhaps,” Kidou said, but he was already walking towards the store. Clearly he was now a man on a mission. Gouenji tapped him on the shoulder, gave him a wave that went unreciprocated, and went to buy Yuuka’s present.

After their first practice after Christmas, Gouenji waited for Kidou to emerge from the changing room.

“How’d it go?” To be honest, if Gouenji were Otonashi-san he would have been happy to receive anything from that expensive store.

“I did as you said,” Kidou replied. He was smiling, which was a good sign. “I picked out twelve sweets I thought she would enjoy.”

“And?”

“She loved them. She sent me a text message this morning saying they tasted really good. Thank you for the suggestion.”

Gouenji returned his smile with a lazy one of his own. “Glad to help.”

“How’d you know it’d be perfect?”

“Well…” Gouenji trailed off. Perfect was a strong word. It had been luck, honestly, that they’d happened to pass that store, but it hadn’t been all luck, either. “Well, I know you like food. The whole team knows after that time we went to Coach Hibiki’s and you looked about to confess to your ramen.”

“That did not happen,” Kidou interjected, but Gouenji ignored him and continued, “And you two are siblings after all. Not too big of a leap.”

After a silence that stretched a bit too long, Gouenji glanced over at Kidou. He was frowning, but Gouenji knew him well enough to figure out that he was just deep in thought.

Eventually, Kidou said, “Thank you, Gouenji.”

Against his will, the edge of Gouenji’s lips tugged up into a wry smile. “Anytime.”

Notes: Sometimes it was unbelievable how Kidou could be such a rich kid, Gouenji thought, without realising that he, too, was a rich kid. Oh well! Merry Christmas!

[putschki1969]

Welcome to “Book Concierge” Hikaru’s home! Vol. 1 📚

Note: Here’s the third section I translated, it’s time for Hikaru’s part. Sorry, this took longer than expected >_< Manga/anime related stuff is so hard for me to translate T_T Oh well... Without further ado, enjoy! 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Hikaru’s love for reading is well known, she always ends up recommending various mangas according to certain themes. To commemorate the first issue of this magazine she shall introduce us to some works with the theme of “summer” in accordance with the current season. Maybe you will discover something you find really interesting? Something you will come to love?!

Speaking of summer, the following works come to mind: Natsume's Book of Friends by Yuki Midorikawa Colette Decided to Die by Alto Yukimura xxxHOLIC by CLAMP Re-Kan! by Hinako Seta

I tried choosing works with refreshing world views that will hopefully make you forget the humidity and heat in the midst of summer.

1. To start things off, my first recommended work is 「Natsume’s Book of Friends」 by Yuki Midorikawa It is a story about a boy who has the ability to see spirits. I watched the anime adaptation but this is originally a manga series which is still ongoing. My first encounter with this work happened when I watched the sixth season of the anime which aired this spring, 「Natsume's Book of Friends Six」. Originally I was a little worried, I thought the topic of “spirits and ghosts” might be too scary, also, since I would have to start at the very beginning of this super long series I was worried whether I would be able to catch up with everything. But then a staff member from our label told me that the stories in each volume get wrapped up nicely so you can start reading wherever you please. That’s when I first got into it...It was really intriguing! Spirits, ghosts, things that you cannot touch, they can be truly scary but after reading this manga I realised that there were lots of kind and gentle spirits, that there was a reason for them being here. You are just not scared of them anymore. I started watching the anime during its sixth season and I am now in the midst of reading the orginal work, that’s where I am currently at *laughs* As for the characters, aside from the protagonist Takashi Natsume-kun, there are lots of other great characters and spirits, Natsume-kun’s self-proclaimed bodyguard Nyanko-sensei is super cool! Then there’s Tanuma-kun who is also a great character, he is the son of a shrine priest and he is always there to help out Natsume-kun, he is very kind-hearted and sensitive. He cannot see spirits but he has the ability to sense them, that makes him one of the few people who can actually understand Natsume-kun. He is always at Natsume-kun’s side and wants to protect him. Always concerned, a very nice boy indeed! In this work, both humans and spirits have very complex characters and they are each dealing with a multitude of difficult situations. I feel like one of the highlights of this work is that each character that appears is very likable. Certain parts will unexpectedly move you to tears and others will make you feel all warm and fluffy. If you are like me and are slightly intimidated by ghosts, please don’t worry, this work won’t scare you. That’s it for this manga.

2. My second recommendation is 「Colette Decided to Die」 by Alto Yukimura This work is currently being serialised in the monthly magazine 「Hana to Yume」, I guess the genre is fantasy. The heroine Colette is a young docter who unexpectedly ends up in the realm of the dead...there she meets Lord Hades, the king of the Underworld, due to many other encounters she matures and becomes a proper adult. The story feels very fresh as Colette continues to travel back and forth between the world of the living and the dead. Many strange incidents occur in the town she lives in as well as in the Underworld so she is very busy trying to find solutions for them. Colette is the kind of girl who will give her all, no matter what, I really admire that kind of attitude. Many different characters can be found in the Underworld, first of all there’s Lord Hades, then there are many skeletons and various other beings that are completely different from humans but Colette treats them all equally, she doesn’t discriminate against any of them. She has love for both Lord Hades as well as the skeletons, she treasures them all. Just because they are different, she won’t reject them. In his position as the king of the Underworld Lord Hades pretends not to care about anything in heaven or hell but Colette quickly realises tha he is actually very kind. There is some friction between Colette and Lord Hades but this story is ultimately about the two of them respecting each other and making each other a better person, I can really recommend it.

3. The third work is a manga by CLAMP! 「xxxHOLIC」「xxxHOLIC・Rei」 by CLAMP! Of course this list wouldn’t be complete without CLAMP! This story is almost like a character study based on the premise that there exists a shop for people in need where all wishes will be granted for a certain price. Many of the customers visiting that shop have darkness in their hearts. Most chapters are dedicated to purifying that darkness, within these stories you’ll get to dicover emotions that you have never felt before, you will start thinking differently than what you are used to from your every day life. There are many scenes that will make you tremble with emotion. This work has a great educational value, you can learn a lot from it, it makes you question whether it is really necessary to have your wishes granted, it showcases and reveals the innermost thoughts of human beings such as jealousy, love, hate or obsession. For the most part the world in this work can be seen as an occult fantasy but there is also a lot of realism in it. You can get truly absorbed in this manga I love all the characters in 「xxxHOLIC」 but above all, I really like Yūko-san. She is a witch with the strong ability to change destiny, she will do crazy things on a whim, she will joke around and she is very selfish, she will always play around with the main character Watanuki-kun *laughs* However, underneath all of that, she is hiding a caring nature, she is very determined and always gets things done...I admire her. Midway through the story, Watanuki-kun takes over the shop from Yūko-san but by all means, I’d love it if you started reading 「xxxHOLIC」 from the very beginning.

4. And now the final manga, 「Re-Kan!」 by Hinako Seta Lastly, a work about souls and spirits *laughs*. 2-3 years ago I watched the TV anime based on a four panel manga which is still being serialised, I found the anime really interesting so I started reading the manga. It is a story that depicts the interactions between Hibiki Amami-chan, a high school student with the ability to see ghosts, and her family, friends as well as many ghosts. I’d say that more than half of the main characters are ghosts, there really are quite a lot of them. However, since this is a comedy, the ghosts aren’t depicted in a scary manner *laughs* The ghost of a samurai, the ghost of an old man bound to the place where he died, the ghost of a hip teen-age girl, the ghost of a cat, they are all completely different. Hibiki-chan is very kind and polite to everyone, no matter if it’s a human being or a ghost so all the ghosts end up flocking to her. Many interesting incidents occur involving Hibiki-chan’s friends who cannot see ghosts, due to these events they become much closer. For the most part the genre is comedy but once in while there will be stories with heavy content, stories that will move you a lot, those are really great too! One of my favourite stories is in Vol.1, it’s about Hibiki-chan’s friend who goes to the park and gets to play with some ghost kids. That friend doesn’t have the ability to see ghosts but in that very moment she is able to see them and play together with them. That story was great!

That’s it! Four recommended summer lectures by Hikaru! I tried choosing works that have everything, stories that take place in an ordinary setting, ones that take place in a completely different or even slightly occult setting, stories that depict spirits, ghosts, beings of the underworld, the darkness within a human heart, worlds in different dimensions. Each of these works will leave a gentle feeling within your heart once you get immersed in them. It would make me very happy if I managed to make you curious about any of these works, even just a little.

Works that will restore your power (some extra content!) Here are 4 titles overflowing with power to fight off the summer heat fatigue 「Haikyū!!」 by Haruichi Furudate 「Chihayafuru」 by Yuki Suetsugu 「A Perfect Day for Love Letters」 by George Asakura 「Tanaka-kun is Always Listless」 by Nozomi Uda

◆ 「Haikyū!!」 by Haruichi Furudate I first got hooked after watching the anime and then I started reading the manga it was based on. This manga which is bursting with fighting spirit tells the story of members of a high school volleyball team and their growth into adulthood. It can be enjoyed both by students of the same age as the protagonists as well as by grown-ups. In this story, none of the characters are perfect in the beginning, they all have a long way to go. The main character, the team mates, the rival team members, the teachers, the coaches, they all overcome their hurdles, one by one...They all get stronger, both as individuals and as a team. Each character has unique traits and each team has a certain charm that makes you want to root for it. While you are reading through the manga it makes you feel like you also wanna do your very best

◆ 「Chihayafuru」 by Yuki Suetsugu  This story full of fighting spirit takes place in the world of a handful of young competetive “Karuta” players. There are many scenes depicting the joys and sorrows of love, it’s really great! Not only the heroine’s life is shown in detail, the conflicts and love lives of the surrounding characters are shown as well. As a reader you gain strength seeing how everyone is trying their very best to reach their goals.

◆ 「A Perfect Day for Love Letters」 by George Asakura I really love George Asakura-san’s works! The first manga I read by her was 「Piece of Cake」. Her style is very edgy and many of her works deal with quite serious subjects so it’s somewhat hard to easily recommend anything but among all of her works,  「A Perfect Day for Love Letters」 is a comparatively easy read. It’s a collection of short stories so it’s easy to get into it and you can just start reading wherever you want, this also makes it very easy to recommend it to everyone *laughs*. George Asakura-san’s work is so powerful because her art conveys so much energy, it’s amazing! Give 「A Perfect Day for Love Letters」 a try and see if you enjoy her unique literary style and art, if you do I’d be happy if you joined me on my journey into her realm. I can really recommend this work as an introduction to George Askakura-san’s world.

◆ 「Tanaka-kun is Always Listless」 by Nozomi Uda This work really stayed in my mind because I could totally relate to the attitude of the main character, “How long can I get away with being utterly listless?” He doesn’t want anyone to talk to him, he just wants to preserve his lazy lifestyle. It’s not like he is the type that won’t study for a test but he also won’t aim to get the best results, he is the kind of person who will study to get an average result *laughs*. However, in a way he is a real professional. When it comes to things he strongly believes in he will throw himself into it and do anything within his power to achieve it. It’s a manga that conveys such devotion.

[pinklinksandkinks]

Meredy Incarnation AU: Blue Pegasus

Age: 21 Dress: She tends to wear a very chic, flattering red dress with a black leather jacket and belt and heeled boots. Her headwraps tend to change with the flow of the “fashions” but are some variation of red and black to match her outfit. Her fingernails are always painted, she wears makeup to highlight her features and uses jewelry as her favorite accessory. Personality: Cheerfully cunning but overly excitable and sometimes loses her cool because of it. She does put up a Dumb Blonde front fairly often because she’s well aware she’s good looking, so she’s also mildly manipulative and extremely flirty. However, she also has a bad habit of going through guys “like tissues” according to Jenny. Relationships: Jenny is her mentor and closest friend, the Trimens are her big brothers, Ichiya is an honorary uncle and she views Master Bob as the best guildmaster in the world. When FT comes back, she re-kindles her friendship with Juvia (and Gray) instantly. Lyon is the easiest mark she’s ever seen and she can’t resist teasing him. She and Sherry are on good terms but she hates Chelia. Magic: While Meredy is part of LS, she’s registered as a non-practicing mage and doesn’t go on missions. However, while her good looks make her an excellent model, it’s her magic that makes her the perfect host. Her large, specially customized bangles cover both wrists completely and mask her magical signature. 

Amazing Art: Here and Here and Here

The prickly sensation didn’t go away, making the man feel itchy and ill-at-ease, which was not a new feeling in this guild, but it was definitely more intense since Jenny and her protege returned.

“Kindly desist,” he finally said, turning slowly, with dignity, to face the young woman leaning over the bar with her chin in her hand. Leisurely, she twirled a lock of hair on her index finger, emerald eyes sparkling with mirth and intense focus that made him squirm internally and straighten externally, “From staring.”

“Studying.”

“Pardon?” Freed’s eyebrow went up, not expecting the answer, eyes fixating on the strange, glowing runes wrapping around his wrist. The matching set was blatantly just across from him, rotating with each twirl, lazy and sensual.

“I’m not staring; I’m studying you. You’re fascinating, Freed Justine, and I want to know more about you. Don’t you know the secret to being a good host is knowing what makes people tick?”

Finger twirling, lips pursed, she considered the offer for a long moment before breaking into a charming smile that took Cana by surprise.

“I’d love to have my fortune told!” leaning forward she added happily, “I had no idea Fairy Tail’s mages dabbled in such things!”

Brow scrunched and face darkening, Cana shuffled the deck, hard, before putting the cards out with excess flourish before ordering, “Take two.”

Face shifting from annoyance to apprehension, Cana ordered a reshuffle, and then another reshuffle, making Meredy’s face cloud over with worry.

“Ha! Now who believes in such things?” Cana smirked at the pink haired woman earning a sheepish grin and an apology.

To say the man was uncomfortable was a gross understatement, as he was backed against the wall (flat against it really) and doing his best to look unaffected by the fact a woman in a really skimpy bikini was hitting on him.

“Do you - must you - why are you in a bikini?” he finally managed to get out, nodding internally at how reasonable and calm the question sounded, ignoring the most minuscule squeak at the end as she pressed against him to get a closer look at his hidden face.

“What… oh, Jenny and I are going to that new waterpark with the guys. Do you like it? I said it makes me look fat, but Hibiki assured me that’s not the case. But I really feel like I should ask a stranger’s opinion because, well, you know how older brothers are, right? I mean, it’s so sweet, but he doesn’t look at me that way, you know? You look like a man who has a good eye…”

Jellal had two good eyes in addition to the knowledge that Ultear did as well, and there was only one safe way to answer this question.

“Hey! Come back!”

Natsu’s blank look didn’t change despite her best attempts, and frankly, Meredy had never been good at pursuit of a man who didn’t seem interested in the sale. However, no one could begrudge her a little cheating lubricant in the middle of a battle right? It was a battle…

“Okay, I give up,” she smiled flatteringly, the small, glowing circle growing on her wrist. Natsu froze mid-grin, eyes widening, before dramatically dropping to the ground clutching his stomach and howling in desolation.

Brushing off her hands, she smirked, “Guys don’t know true pain. I expected better, to be honest.”

“I don’t see why Natsu is being such a big baby about it. It’s not like she stabbed herself in the leg or anything. Now that hurt like hell. What could possibly be worse than that?” Gray grumped, leaning over the balcony railing with his chin in his hand and an unsympathetic scowl on his face.

The two older women of Team Natsu, however, had expressions of elated horror and deep sympathy, subconsciously rubbing their own bodies soothingly.

“Well Gray,” Lucy began when a particularly vicious howl emitted from the arena and Natsu thrashed forcing her to wince, “Ooo, Erza, can you imagine fighting a battle right now?”

“Indeed. It is a nearly impossible task, but I believe she has used it to her advantage quite nicely,” Erza replied before adding off-handedly, “Of course, it would not be nearly so effective on another woman.”

“What… hey, what are you two even talking about?” Gray straightened, not liking he was missing out on the joke. “What’s that chick doing to Natsu? Isn’t she just hungry or some shit?”

“Just… hungry…” the scandal that saturated Lucy’s voice made the last word rise a bit in outrage, “Just hungry, he says.”

Erza’s look never wavered but she pointed out in fairness, “It is a plausible pain for Natsu.”

Wendy looked between the three and asked, “Is that what I think it is?”

Nod.

The small Dragonslayer paled and squeaked, “Oh.”

Silence fell over them as Gray digested that little bit of information, his face paling to match Wendy’s and his eyes wide. Swallowing, he ventured, “So it… hurts that much…huh.”

Down in the stadium, Natsu’s wails had finished as he fetal curled into whimpers and Meredy dusted off her hands,  “Guys don’t know true pain. I expected better, to be honest.”

“I think you’ve got something in your eye…” a slow wink, pursed lips, fluttery eyelashes, it should have been obvious what was going on yet the man looked clueless. Just how old was he that he didn’t know when someone was flirting with him? Still, she was undeterred because he was hot and surprisingly sweet, in a doofy sort of way, not to mention she liked a challenge, “Never mind, that’s just your sparkle~”

Pausing, she took a moment to appreciate that all of him sparkled, finally taking the hint and lighting up with confidence and… sparkles. Real sparkles. Reaching forward, her fingers brushed towards them wondrously, before catching herself.

“Tell me when heaven wants you back because the sky seems to be missing a twinkle~”

Puffing up, he muttered, “Well, I am a star…”

“You know,” the young woman mused, staring openly, “You are quite pretty. Oh, no, not like that! So suspicious… or is it hopeful?” Tongue-clicking playfully, she leaned up to rest her elbow on the other woman’s shoulder, “I was just admiring your hair; how silky and smooth it is.”

Kagura expression flickered with confusion at the compliments and casual touching as she tried to duck beneath the arm without much success.

“Oh, and a bit of color would rosy up your complexion nicely,” Meredy gushed with a friendly pinch to the cheek. “Jen, what do you think?”

“I think there’s enough women in Blue Pegasus without your recruitment, Dee.”

Meredy blinked, thick lashes brushing against her cheeks rapidly, at the large hand thrust beneath her pert nose.

Curiosity made her tip her chin back, way back, to look the owner in the face. Totally serious, he wiggled his fingers under her nose to remind her of the task at hand.

“Sit, sit!” she gestured flamboyantly, tugging his muscular arm and earning a dark glare from the woman in the green dress. “Give me your hand. Oh, lovely! Ever, why didn’t you say your boyfriend has such gorgeous hands? I bet they can do magical things~”

Smirking at the nose tweaking of the other woman, she went to work on Elfman’s nails with precise and practiced strokes and snips.

Gray and Natsu were hovering slightly to the side, huddled together, suspiciously shuffling their feet and muttering. Meredy ignored them, humming as she finished with a pat to the hand.

“Isn’t that like… girly?” Gray finally offered, and Meredy arched a well-manicured brow, “There’s nothing girly about good hygiene. You’re confusing it with godly, which is understandable. There is something divine about a perfect manicure, right Elfman?”

“MANLY!”

“Right, so who’s next for a man-icure? On the house, so you boys can realize what it’s like to truly slay and feel fabulous while doing it.”

[animeotakuidol]

Fuuka Review

Let’s see here a awkward shy guy and a spunky girl wanting to start a rock band together and oh look pretty songstress idol. What do you get drama, romance, and music. Okay not my best monologue but anyway this is the Fuuka review.

                                       SPOILER WARNING

Synopsis

A spin off to Suzuka

Haruna Yuu an awkward shy guy who likes to spend time on Twitter, has just moved to Tokyo. While going out to buy dinner he bumps into a mysterious girl name Akitsuki Fuuka. She breaks his phone after mistakenly thinking he took a picture of her panties. Little did Yuu knew she was going to change his monotone life into a world full of music. While on bridge of meeting Fuuka, Yuu also reconnects with his childhood friend Hinashi Koyuki who’s now a popular idol and has been in love with Yuu ever since they were kids.

Characters

The Fallen Moon

- Akitsuki Fuuka

The main heroin and the vocalist of the Fallen Moon Fuuka is energetic, friendly and mysterious. She lives her life wherever the wind will take her and has a passion for music. While watching her in the beginning of the anime I thought she was going to be a tsundere and I don’t usually like tsundere female characters. (Except Maki from Love Live) However I was wrong she’s not a tsundere I mean she will get mad at times but she will forgive and forget. I love Fuuka she’s so spontaneous and full of life. Even though she kinda forced Yuu, Makoto, Nachi and Sara to join her band. She did make everyone come out of their comforter zones in a time when some of these characters were going through a hard time in their own life. Fuuka is a wonderful girl and I love her singing voice it’s just an amazing, edgy, rock voice, you can easily get drawn to her.

- Haruna Yuu

Main protagonist and bassist of the Fallen Moon Yuu is awkward, shy and unsociable. Yuu in the beginning would rather be on Twitter than interact with his peers in the real world. However after meeting Fuuka he starts to change for the better. He starts to gain little more confidence, finds his own love for music and starts to enjoy real life instead of the internet. I will admit Yuu is a pretty generic character but that’s how he starts off in the first 5 episodes. I did started like Yuu a lot better when he was brave enough to perform their first concert, especially after getting hate and threats from Koyuki’s fan. After a picture of him and Koyuki goes viral. His relationship with Fuuka and Koyuki are different. With Fuuka it’s bittersweet they start off as a possible attraction to each other, to becoming good friends only to lead them to falling in love with each other. With Koyuki it’s kinda of a nostalgic and sweet rekindling with a childhood friend. I know it was wrong of him to date Koyuki out of pity, but at least he didn’t cheat on her and confessed to Fuuka after they broke up. He does see how talented both girls are and encourages them both to follow their music dreams. He’s a pretty okay main character I’ll give him that much.

- Mikasa Makoto

Keyboardist of the Fallen Moon, Makoto is popular, charming and openly gay. Makoto is in the same class as Yuu and Fuuka. He’s also a very talented pianist and has won awards in the past. At first he was mistaken by Yuu as Fuuka’s crush until he admits “he’s not interested in girls.” Unlike Yuu who refused to join the band Makoto doesn’t mind at all and is willing to help Fuuka out. He’s a pretty cool guy I like when he teases Yuu and Nachi with his “hot guy” language. Plus he always looking out for his friends like when he helped Fuuka and Yuu when they were in an argument. I thought that was clever. He goes with the flow and he has a secret love for music. His backstory was mentioned very briefly that I kinda wish we would have found out more. Basically he moved out of his rich family’s home to persuade music. Like I said it was only mentioned briefly. Still I think he’s one of the most likable characters in this anime.

- Nachi Kazuya

Drummer of the Fallen Moon, senpai and somewhat leader of the band Nachi is stubborn but pretty nice sometimes. During the first few episodes Nachi tries to recruit Fuuka to join the track team, but Fuuka refuses. After hearing Fuuka singing for the first time and getting an approval from the HEDGEHOGS. Makoto notices Nachi tapping to the rhythm of the music and Nachi reveals that he used to play drums for his brother’s band. To which Fuuka then makes him join the band as well. At first I didn’t like Nachi, but later on as the band was getting ready for their first concert and he stared to become a goof ball I stared to think he was okay. I think I like him better whenever he and Makoto have their moments.

- Iwami Sara

Guitarist of the Fallen Moon, another senpai, and unsociable. Sara at first came off as a cold hearted person. However after she and Yuu find out they are Twitter friends her personally changes to a much more open girl. She is Hisashi’s (a member of the HEDGEHOGS) little sister, after he introduces Sara to the others Fuuka then insist she joins their band and agrees to join without hesitation. Like Fuuka I thought she was going to be a tsundere but was surprised to see her change after she and Yuu find out they were Twitter friends. She’s pretty cool and like Yuu she’s unsociable except she kinda gives people the wrong idea about herself. She even start to like being a part of a band for the first. Especially after getting fired from three other bands. I also think both Sara and Yuu bring out the best in each other as well. She somewhat has a crush on Yuu, but it’s nothing serious like Fuuka and Koyuki. Which is fine I guess.

Hinashi Koyuki

Sweet, passionate and loving. Koyuki is Yuu’s childhood friend who has now become a famous idol and wants to confess her feelings for Yuu. She and Yuu usually refer to each other as Tama-chan and Nico-kun after their favorite members of the HEDGEHOGS. Koyuki is a pretty nice girl and I love her singing voice as well it’s so soothing like her music. I am amazed that she has been in love with Yuu for a long time mostly because they haven’t seen or spoken each other since they were kids. Her love for Yuu is sweet and passionate. I mean most of her songs are all about him, however I almost started to dislike her near the end of the anime. Mostly because she kinda was being insensitive to Yuu when the Fallen Moon broke up. I see how important their friendship is, but I kinda wish Koyuki didn’t have high hopes that she and Yuu were going to end up together forever. After all Yuu was kinda becoming a different person and she could’t keep up with him or his friends. Don’t get me wrong I still like her and I am glad that she was able to move on from Yuu I do hope they at least stayed friends. Their friendship is so precious.

Yuu’s Sisters (Maya, Hibiki, Chitose)

Yuu and his little sister Chitose used to live with their parents in the country side. However their parents move to American for a business job, so they decide to move to Tokyo with their older sister Maya and Hibiki. I don’t have much to say about these sisters other than Hibiki and Chitose tend to tease Yuu a lot which is pretty funny at times, and Maya the eldest sister is the mother figure of the household. I do like that they support Yuu and his band even after the hate and threats he got from Koyuki’s fans. I say they are pretty good sisters.

The HEDGEHOGS (Tomomi, Yahagi, Hisashi, Tama and Nico)

The HEDGEHOGS are Fuuka, Yuu and Koyuki’s favorite band. While Fuuk, Yuu and Makoto were working at Yahagi’s beach restaurant Nachi arrives with Tomomi and Hisashi to try to recruit Fuuka to join the track team again. However this leads to Tomomi, Hisashi, and Yahagi revealing are members of the HEDGEHOGS. They soon then become their mentors in helping the Fallen Moon prepare for their first concert. I don’t what to say about this band other than Hisashi is cute and does help them with instruments and advice. Plus that was pretty clever of Tomomi to do it’s like she was setting up her own students. Plus I kinda like how Yahagi was looking out for Yuu when it was time for them to perform their first concert. I mean we don’t see them perform except in the OP if that counts. Especially since two of their members, Tama and Nico, disappeared which made the band go on hiatus. They eventually do appear in the anime, but for only two episodes to announce they want the band back together. However, I will admit they seem pretty cool and judging by their songs “Climber’s High!” and “Hoshi no Furu Machi“ I can see why Fuuka, Yuu and Koyuki look up to them, and how they got inspired to be just like them. One more thing Tama singing voice is so cool and edgy.

Episode Reactions

Episode 1

And we meet our main girl Fuuka 

Wow her voice is pretty 

The scenery in this anime is pretty 

Wow Yuu’s sisters are so shameless 

Fuuka is so spontaneous 

A date already 

I like this girl so far 

Episode 2

A famous childhood friend

He’s pretty cute

Wait what? He’s no interested in girls. Okay

Ah so Koyuki is in love with Yuu

Koyuki voice is beautiful

Wow Fuuka’s voice is amazing

Staring a band sounds like fun

Episode 3

Yay they are starting a band but first they need money for instruments

A beach episode already that was fast

A summer job at the beach sounds like fun

Yuu do your best

Wait Koyuki is going to the beach too

Oh no Fuuka

Oh no Yuu wake up

Fuuka and Yuu are so shy it’s kinda cute

Yay Yuu and Koyuki finally meet each other after such a long time

Oh my what an ending

Episode 4

Oh no Fuuka it’s not what you think

Kinda depressing seeing Fuuka and Yuu fighting

Even Makoto wants to them make up

Oh Nachi shows up

Uh this again trying to recruit Fuuka again

Wait WHAT? They the HEDGEHOGS

Oh now I see the band in the OP is them

Yay Fuuka and Yuu made up thank you Makoto

Wow Fuuka’s voice is perfect for a rock band

Episode 5

So Yuu DID had a crush on Koyuki

Oh the OP changed

A yaoi love triangle okay

First band rehearsal

A guitar as a weapon cool

Wait What? Sara is Yuu’s twitter friend

What a surprise

Nachi is so stuborn

They sound pretty good

I can’t wait for their first concert

Episode 6

Aww little Koyuki and little Yuu are so adorable

Poor Koyuki

So they wanted to be in a band together

So sad why Koyuki left

Nice they renewed their promise

Oh Fuuka and Koyuki finally meet

Fuuka fangirling over Koyuki is so adorable

Fuuka not in love I guess she doesn’t know yet

Oh no a picture of Koyuki and Yuu

Episode 7

Almost time for their first concert yes

Oh no the picture went viral

Did Koyuki just confess her love for Yuu to the public and Yuu of course

Haha Nachi rolling on the floor

Oh oh Koyuki why did you showed up

This is going to turn into a riot

This is it time for their debut

I hate cliffhangers but I hope everything goes well

Episode 8

Oh my god this is it I’m getting so excited

Oh no Yuu got hit

Koyuki no don’t reveal yourself

This is bad

Well that’s one way to calm down a crowd with music

Wow I love their version of Climbers High

Fuuka and Koyuki duet amazing

They finally have a band name The Fallen Moon

Haha Fuuka you did drag everyone to join your band

Oh no Koyuki can’t sing

Yuu and Koyuki’s last scene was so sad and beautiful

Episode 9

Aww Yuu and Koyuki on a date so sweet

Writing their own original song

Yay more new music

Judging by Fuuka’s humming I think it should be a good song

At this point I love how everyone in the band is so close

Plus practicing a lot for their first original song

Is Fuuka staring to realize her feeling towards Yuu

What Fuuka got scouted

Glade she said no Fuuka is so dedicated to The Fallen Moon

I knew it Fuuka is falling for Yuu

Episode 10

Fuuka starting to notice 

Is Koyuki getting a little jealous of Fuuka 

Fuuka finally said it she loves Yuu 

Time for another concert 

What Tama and Nico showed up yes I was right

Are they getting the band back together 

Fuuka don’t die 

Oh my god she’s fine I almost couldn’t breath

I love the new song so fantastic 

What Fuuka don’t leave the band

Episode 11

No don’t break up the band 

This is kinda depressing 

I knew it The HEDGEHOGS are getting back together 

Nachi back on the track team 

Sara joined another band 

Makoto gave up on music 

Koyuki is kinda being selfish 

Yuu get the band back together 

Yay they showed up the band is almost back together 

Fuuka please come back 

Episode 12

Fuuka please come back

Oh Fuuka and Koyuki finally meet again

Where’s Fuuka

Yes Yuu finally found her

Oh my god Yuu said I love you

Yay Fuuka and Yuu finally confessed to each other

Yay the Fallen Moon is back together

Very sweet ending to Fuuka

Minami’s Final Thought

You know that feeling you get when you don’t know if you’ll like an anime or not, and then after a while you realize how much you love it. Well that’s the feeling I got from Fuuka. Yes I know Fuuka did have some flaws like the characters development, not going into detail with some of the other characters backstories. Yuu’s back and forth relationships with Fuuka and Koyuki, and of course the anime being different from the manga. I haven’t read the manga yet, but after watching the anime I am interested in reading it. I don’t know if I’ll do a review of the manga or not. Despite all these flaws I still ended up loving these characters. The story was pretty basic, but in a good way. Yes they came up with their band name a little too late but hey I’m just glad they have a name. I don’t think you have to watch Suzuka first to understand Fuuka. Fuuka is it’s own story, but you do get to see Fuuka’s parents who are the original characters from Suzuka. Just be aware it is a sports anime, so totally different story. At first there were only two seiyuus I was familiar with in this anime Saito Soma and Okitsu Kazuyuki, but then my two favorite seiyuus Ono Daisuke and Hirakawa Daisuke joined the cast which was a great surprise for me at least. As for the music it was amazing. Most of the singing is done by three seiyuus Lynn, Hayami Saori, and Numakura Manami. The HEDGEHOGS only had two songs (one of them being the OP song), but they were really cool songs I love “Climber’s High!”. Koyuki’s songs were great as well so emotional and beautiful my favorite would probably be “MEMORIES”. The Fallen Moon was so awesome I love their version of “Climber’s High!”, “For you” and “Fair Wind”. I always got like an adrenaline rush when every the Fallen Moon played. As for the ED song “Watashi no Sekai” I thought it was a sweet and calming especially after watching an intense episode. To me Fuuka was a really good anime I know some anime fans didn’t like it, but to me I thought it was sweet and unique in it’s own way.

Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟

I gave it a 4 stars rating even though there were some flaws I still enjoyed watching this anime the story and characters were pretty good, but the music was awesome.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 2/27/17

Anne Happy, Vol. 4 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – I am beginning to wonder if the goal of this class filled with luckless idiots is not so much to improve their bad luck as to simply get them to find joy in little things anyway, as this fourth volume mostly involves a school trip that ends up in a giant keep away gave of tag, with the losers sleeping outside and foraging for food. Take a wild guess which team ends up losing. There’s also Karaoke (Anne breaks the equipment by merely attempting to use is) and woodcarving (Anne is quite good, but it shatters fairly easily). In order to appreciate these sad sacks, one must turn the brain off, but if you do, it can be cute and adorable, and a culture festival sounds fun. Recommended if you like moe stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Fate/Zero, Vol. 4 | By Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon, and Shinjiro | Dark Horse – One of the biggest reasons to read Fate/Zero is too see the contrast in heroes between Shirou, the naive, hardheaded yet lovable hero of Fate/Stay Night, and Kirutsugu, the cool, pragmatic, “greater good” protagonist of Fate/Zero. And while Saber falls pretty hard for Shirou, it’s pretty clear that Kirutsugu fills her with rage and disgust, which is very well drawn here by Shinjiro. I also enjoyed seeing Irisviel’s attempts at being his balance, which I suspect are doomed to failure, and was weirded out by Sola-Ui, possibly as she looks like Bazett and has a crush on Lancer like Bazett. Oh yes, and we have more lovingly detailed child murder. Fate/Zero is classic Gen Urobuchi, which is to say death and pain, but so well-written. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 8 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – In general, most sports manga that revolve around “it’s our chance to win the big tournament” invariably involve losing in the first tournament they try to win, because otherwise the manga would be quite short. And so it is for Haikyu!!, as despite various stratagem, and almost having a shot, our heroes still go down to defeat. But they can learn from it and let that frustration fill them with the desire to improve. And the graduating teammates may stick around a little longer after all, if they get permission, because yes, college is important, but this is volleyball. All that and we get cool poses, facial grimaces galore, and so much sweat you could float down it in a boat. Haikyu!! is powerful and fun to read. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 23 | By Julietta Suzuki | VIZ Media – I’ve always enjoyed Kamisama Kiss, but I was never particularly excited about it. That has officially changed with this volume. Suzuki-sensei manages to strike the perfect balance between action, plot resolution, and feelings. Instead of the focus being on Tomoe and Nanami’s relationship, it’s on the friendship Tomoe and Akura-Oh once shared and how both of them were able to change through coming to love and understand humans. It’s quite lovely, actually. Creepy Yatori, who still looks like a villain out of Basara, is still in play, though, so our heroes are not entirely out of the woods yet. Having a high-quality ending like this really bolsters my opinion of the series as a whole. – Michelle Smith

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear, Vol. 3 | By Masume Yoshimoto | One Peace Books – Kuma Miko is becoming a lot less weird and a lot more moe. Unfortunately, this has the effect of also making it far less interesting, as the story beats it’s hitting are ones that we’ve seen done better elsewhere (albeit with fewer talking bears). It also means we pay more attention to the interpersonal relationships, which can be somewhat creepy (Yoshio towards Machi, which is thankfully called out by Hibiki) or disturbingly co-dependent (Machi and the bear). We do get an occasionally funny gag (“they’ll throw rocks at me!” seems like country naivete till it gets a callback. I’m beginning to be reminded of another series set way out in the country, Non Non Biyori, and am asking: is there a point to this? – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 7-8 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – The crushing defeat from last volume still weighs on both Kuroko and Kagami, and Kuroko in particular is finding it hard to move past and get to the next level. Luckily there are ways to fix that, such as INTENSE TRAINING. We get sand basketball, which is as rough as it sounds, and poor Kagami running and running and running and then running some more. And then we get to watch more of the winner’s in the tournament, as the battle between Aomine and Kise, which is incredibly badass, and also helps to show that yes, Kuroko and Kagami DO have a ways to go. Luckily, we’ve a number of volumes to go as well. Having this and Haikyu!! coming out at the same time means we’re hitting similar beats, but they’re both good. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 22 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – The heroes of Magi are filled with shiny shonen idealism, and they run up hard against the cynicism of the real world in this volume. Even Sinbad, who’s been presented till now as at least a reasonable ally, is starting to show signs that he may be, if not just as bad, certainly just as problematic. Alibaba is not yet strong enough to refuse offers that he can’t refuse. To the rescue comes Aladdin, who gives everyone a giant flashback to show what happened in the universe he’s from, a parallel one where humanity is fighting evil Mr. Potato Heads, and we also get Solomon and Sheba, because I was wondering when they would show up in this manga clearly influenced by Biblical as well as Arabian Nights myth. Magi is terrific; you should know this by now. – Sean Gaffney

Maid-sama!, Vols. 13-14 | By Hiro Fujiwara | VIZ Media – Y’know, Maid-sama! is certainly not a great manga, but damned if it isn’t immensely satisfying when things finally happen! I suppose that’s owing to the fact that Misaki is a stubborn tsundere, which can be frustrating, but I cannot deny that her confession of love and Usui’s reciprocation, followed by their becoming an official couple and eventually revealing their status to the school is all the sweeter because it took so long. There’s plenty of other stuff in this volume, including a school trip with appearances by random supporting characters and more boring drama about Usui’s family background, but even the plot wherein he transfers schools for his final year is redeemed when Misaki is 100% not cowed by some rich girl claiming Usui is her fiancé. The endgame is afoot! – Michelle Smith

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 6 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Yen Press – I suppose it might seem like an insult to say that this volume of Nozaki-kun is pretty much the same as the others, but I actually mean it as a compliment. Tsubaki continues to spin out amusing scenarios for her characters with no dip in quality. In this volume, Nozaki is doing a lot of research into horror themes, in anticipation of having to incorporate some into his manga, but there are other silly gags like Wakamatsu being transformed into a confident guy via an eye patch, doing summer homework at Nozaki’s house, and finding a suitable girl to pretend to be Mikoshiba’s girlfriend in order to persuade a persistent admirer to back off. Each new volume of this series is like the best kind of brain balm and I’m grateful for it! – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith