#been binging the manga recently

[blossom-works]

Opposites Attract

A/N: I have no knowledge about technology & engineering so don’t come at me internet...😐

Who would have thought that Ego Jinpachi’s cousin is the secret lover of the world’s best striker, Noel Noa? Certainly not Chris Prince. Or anyone in the Blue Lock as a matter of fact. And the cherry on top is that you, Noel’s fiancé and Ego’s cousin, are responsible for building this state-of-the-art facility. You are a tech geek and was able to geek out at the request of your cousin. Since Blue Lock began, you have been behind the scenes to make sure everything is running smoothly. No one but your cousin, Anri, and the money grubbing fucks of the JFU knew about you. Now, a large group of footballers know about you since someone decided to mess with your technology. 

“Honestly! How did you manage to pull out multiple fuses! And how did you get into the control center?!”

Chris Prince scratches the back of his head in semi-shame. “I got curious and wanted to know what does what.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re here!”

In frustration, you try to reconnect the different fuses to the appropriate ports, but it seems that when Chris pulled them out, he damaged the chords attached to them. How that is possible, you do not know. Your phone starts buzzing from the back pocket of your pants. Answering, you hear your cousin, Ego, on the other side. Demanding to know what you did wrong. 

“I didn’t do anything, dipshit! - One of your genius masters decided it would be a good idea to pull out multiple fuses. - Chris Prince. - I don’t know how he managed to do that! - Well he isn’t that smart if he pulled them out because he was just curious. - The fuses he pulled out powered Blue Lock Man and other training material. - Yes, that means advanced training will be out of the question. - Maybe two days? Three max. - That’s your job to figure out! - Oh shut up and stop complaining, dumbass.” You hang up the call with a huff and gather the broken fuses to properly dispose of them. When you turn around, you are surprised and annoyed that the Englishman is still standing there. 

“What are you still doing here?”

“Uhh...are you single?”

His question catches you off guard which makes you drop one of your poor babies. Dumbfounded, you ask the striker to clarify. 

“Are you taken?”

Now, you are a bit more ticked off than you already were. You put the fuses to the side, and place your fists on your hips. “Let me get this straight, you come into my command center and play with creations because self-control is obviously nowhere in your vocabulary. All of which forces me to rearrange my already busy schedule, and you have the audacity to hit on me? Did I miss anything number two?”

Chris looks at you for a few seconds before he proudly responds “Nope!” with a flashy smile.

Exasperated, you point to the automatic door (which you will have to rethink). “I’m already engaged. Now get out.” 

Instead of obeying like a good boy, Chris tries to use his charms on you. 

“C’mon, I bet your fiancé isn’t that great. Compared to me at least.” He winks. 

“I would have to say otherwise. Compared to you, he is great.” And before Prince can say anything else, you push him out the door and lock it before anyone else can bother you. Once in peace, you make a couple of calls to order more fuses and to hire a team to help you further develop Blue Lock’s technology. Engrossed in your work, you do not hear someone knocking on your door. It takes one loud knock to bring you back to reality. Jumping out of your chair you unlock the metal door. 

“Ego m'a dit que l'entraînement ne serait pas possible dans les prochains jours.“ Noel asks. He has on his usual tracksuit and has a cup of freshly made coffee in his hand. Ego told me that training would not be possible in the next few days.

Since basically everyone got a translating earpiece, you chose to answer him in your native tongue. When the Neo-Egoist Phase began, you partnered with the Mikage Corporation to advance their earpiece. While the device cannot translate all languages, it can translate a good handful when preprogrammed. Though, you are not sold on the idea of talking to intergalactic beings.  

“Basically. The world’s second best striker and the world’s first dumbass messed with my technology. All of which powered the Blue Lock Man and amongst other things. You guys can still train the o’fashion way and the kids can still workout, but advanced training is off the table.”

“I see. How long until the system is up and running?”

“Three days max.”

Noel nods and hands you the cup of hot caffeine. You take the Blue Lock mug and silently thank him. You take one sip and plant the mug on a surface away from the monitors. Like he expected it, Noel catches you when you quickly jump on top of him and nuzzle your nose against his cheek. 

“But I missed you! I haven’t seen you since you first got to Blue Lock!” You complain like a child. 

“You saw me this morning, and the mornings before.”

“So! We haven’t spent any time together though.” You move your face slightly away from Noel’s so he can see your puppy dog eyes and pout. The Frenchman sighs like he is tired of your antics, but you know better. If he was truly tired of your childishness, he would have put you down but Noel has yet to do that. Instead, Noel keeps his hands under your thighs to hold you up. A small sign of his that lets you know he misses you too. Childish antics and all. 

“You can’t just leave your fiancé hanging around like this! Having me wait around to get some well-deserved attention is just cruel!”

Noel says nothing as you hop off him and drag him to sit in your chair so you can sit on his lap. Sticking to your silly behavior, you pepper Noel’s face with kisses like the lovesick woman you are. You take his face in your hands and plant a big kiss on his sightly chapped lips. Immediately the Frenchman reciprocates the kiss. Another way he silently admits that he misses you too. Happy that you are getting the attention you have been craving, you pull back a bit to see the thin strand of saliva break. Letting out happy squeals, you nuzzle your face against Noel’s while wiggling your body like an excited puppy. The striker lets you have your fill of him (not like that you rotten minds) before he goes back to the Germany part of the building. 

Of course, he does not leave the control center without paying a kiss(es) fee. Noel leaves planning a new training schedule and you stay in your little nook happy as a schoolgirl who got the number of her longtime crush. Honestly, it never ceases to amaze you how a cyborg like Noel Noa lets you get away with acting like a child. Looks like being his significant other has its perks. 

Three Days Later:

Clapping yours hands, you quadruple check your handy-work. (No) Thanks to Chris Prince, you had to install the fuses inside their own boxes so no one can take them out again. You also installed a lock to the control center. People can only enter when they have the passcode. Updates have also been installed into Blue Lock tech so the club masters can get more creative with training. Now all you have to do is make sure that each club is running smoothly with the new installments. One by one go through each building for thorough check-ups, and secretly cheering on the Blue Lockers. Since you saved the best for last, you skidded on your way to Germany’s Bastard Munchens. 

But, all good things must come to an end. 

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Ms. Tech.”

“Dear god, what do you want Prince?”

“I want to know who your loser of a fiancé is.”

Feeling a little smug, you decide it is best to give the Englishman what he wants. 

“If it’ll get you to leave me alone, then so be it. I’m on my way to meet him anyway.”

For some reason, pride makes Chris puff out his chest like Superman as he follows behind you. He is even walking like he is some sort of a hero. How amusing. With the tablet in your hands, you go through the new data it has been collecting. Since Ego is the man in charge here, you need to compile a report of the new tech you installed, and the cost. If it was still the first phase of Blue Lock, the amount of money used to create the program would be equivalent to how much debt the United States is (that is a bit exaggerated but you get the picture). Now that you guys have sponsors and BL TV, money is streaming in like cryptocurrency. 

“Hey, isn’t this the way to-”

“Noel!”

Said man turns around only to be tackled by a woman half his size. Thank goodness for his physicality or else you both would have fallen onto the ground. Like you always do, you nuzzle the side of his face with your nose. 

“What are you doing here? We’re in the middle of practice.”

“Oh, I came to check on how the new update is fairing. Just following routine to make sure things are going smoothly.” You say as you get off the man. The commotion gets the players’ attention. Too busy showing Noel what is on the tablet, you do not realize that Noel give his players a glare. Telling them to get back to training like their lives depend on it. 

“Prince? What are you doing here?”

“So, I’m finally acknowledged by the great Noel Noa.” Chris sarcastically says. “If you must know, this little lady is taking me to meet her third-grade fiancé. But I guess she’s going to finish her work beforehand. Now hurry up so she can see how much better I am than whoever she’s engaged to.”

The albino raises a brow before uncharacteristically scoffing and goes back to ignoring the world’s second best striker. 

“What? You know, you think you’re all high and mighty but you’re not.” The petty Prince states. He only aggravates himself further as he starts a one sided argument with Noel. Meanwhile, you busy yourself with examining how the players are using the new and updated tech. 

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

“Ah, Yoichi Isagi. I’m just here to make sure that everything is running smoothly so I can give a report to Ego. Don’t worry, I won’t get in your team’s way.” Before you can explain more, you notice a small tweak in the Blue Lock Man which prompts you to halt practice. You got a few hisses and groans but ignored them all. Out of thin air, you take out a couple of screws, a small hard drive, and a screwdriver. 

Taking a panel off the wall, you plug in the hard drive and start typing away on your tablet. One of the players tries to ask you what you are doing and how long you plan on being here, to which you just hold up a finger, telling the player to wait. A couple more clicks and you are happy with your work. Pulling the hard drive out and putting the panel back on the wall, you tell Bastard Munchen “Alrighty! There shouldn’t be anymore issues for you guys.”

“But...there wasn’t any problem to begin with...”

“Ah ah.” You wave your finger in a “no-no” motion. “It was only for a split second but the Blue Lock Man you were using had a glitch to it. It wasn’t noticeable to the untrained eyes, but since my more than qualified eyes caught it, I had to fix it right away. If I left the Blue Lock Man as he was, then future problems with it would arise. Prohibiting further training.”

Most of the team looks at you in awe at your explanation (mainly the Blue Lockers). 

“Woah! Are you some tech guru?”

“Have you been working here this entire time?”

“How old are you?”

More and more questions are being bombarded towards you. Smiling at their curiosity, you answer some of their questions. You bow to them in a formal greeting. 

“I’m an employee here at Blue Lock. I’ve been working here since the very beginning. In fact, I’m the person who created and designed this entire facility. From the infrastructure to the technology, that was all me.”

Like Gru’s minion, they all let out a “Woah”. You should have known that your introduction would only lead to more questions. Thankfully, Kaiser comes to your rescue. Albeit, rudely. 

“Hurry up and get into formation. There’s no need for a maintenance worker to overstay their welcome. Now leave. You’re becoming a pest.”

A little ticked by the boy’s attitude, you put on a polite smile. “I thinks that’s best too. Afterall, the main actor needs to keep practicing or else he’ll always have to rely on his co-stars to make up for his shortcomings.” Your patronizing tone and pleasant smile pisses Kaiser off and before he can say anything more, you walk away, bumping the teen with your shoulder on “accident”. You spot your fiancé antagonizing the Frenchman with his dry humor. 

“I’m done with my inspection!” You cry out as you jump on Noel’s back to perform your ritual of nuzzling. “I wish I could stay longer but Ego would have my head if I’m late with my report.”

“I thought you were on your way to see your fiancé. Wait a minute, did you just make up a lie cause you’re too shy to go on a date with me?” Chris asks while raising both his blonde brows. 

Still on Noel, you blink confused for a quick second. “Oh, I wasn’t lying. If I’m being 100 percent honest, you’ve already met my fiancé but didn’t know it’s him.  You still haven’t found out who he is even though I’ve made it clear about three times now. And this ring doesn’t lie.”

Three.

Two. 

One.

Now that Prince has caught on to your behavior he blurts out incoherent sentences, pointing at you and Noel. Happy with how things are turning out, you get off Noel’s back and pull him down so you can kiss his cheek. 

“I’ll see ya, cher!” and you are off to Ego’s cave of egoism. All the while leaving behind a stuttering Chris Prince, a shocked Bastard Munchen (who have been watching the whole thing play out), and an unbothered Noel Noa. Dear.

When you pop into Ego’s cave, you give him all of the data you have collected and what he and the masters should be looking out for. 

“Alright. You can leave now.”

“Awe! Don’t be like that cuz! I did all this work and rearranged my schedule for the next two weeks. You should at least thank me.” You pout. 

“You’re getting paid are you not?”

“But that’s not the same ~ C’mon! Give your little cousin a hug! You haven’t even congratulated me on my engagement to Noel!” You open your arms out and slowly get closer to Ego. You are determined to get your hug from him whether he likes it or not.

“Another step and I’ll fire you.” Ego warns. Seriously, how the fuck are you two related. He swears that you are adopted cause there is no way in hell. 

“Oh, shut up and hug me you bastard!” And that is how you and Ego end up running around in the room like small children. An older brother who is trying to get away from his annoying and unwanted younger sister. A younger sister purposefully annoying her straightedged, older brother. A perfect duo if you say so. In the midst of your chase, one of you accidentally presses the button for the intercom that connects to the entire building, prompting everyone in it to listen to your pleas and Ego’s cursing. 

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Ego and that chick are related!”

“Are they okay?”

Are some of the few questions the players have until they hear, “Aren’t you excited to have Noel as an in-law?”

Noel swears on his entire career that the whole building shakes when everyone yells, “What?!”

A/N: How’d ya like my Noel Noa story? I wrote for him cause there’s not a lot fanfiction of him. For my readers who have been patiently waiting for another Kylian Mbappe story, I haven’t forgotten about you! I can’t say when the update will be, but I hope it’ll be before September ends. I know it is a long wait but the story I’m working on is longer than I anticipated. 

[dbphantom]

I have a friend who is watching all of one/pie/ce with me as his first time through and I'm so happy right now I could cry

[eyalees]

//

[thornybubbles]

Fourth Wall (JJBA Yandere Scenario)

Scenario: Recently, you’ve moved on from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to a different anime series and fandom. You realize that this was a terrible mistake.

Note: This is based on a prompt I saw on Tumblr ages ago. I just expanded on it a bit. 

Warnings: Typical Yandere behavior, threats, abusive behavior, possible harm towards reader, mental distress, anti-comfort. Remember that you alone are responsible for what you read. 

-----------

Changing fandoms wasn’t that unusual for you. You would find a new anime, fall in love with it, then it became your new hyperfixation. After a while, the process would repeat. This is what happened with you and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It wasn’t that you didn’t like the series anymore, you just moved on to a new anime/manga. Still…it felt different this time. You weren’t sure why, but ever since you moved on to your new favorite series, you had this unexplainable feeling of guilt wash over you every time you watched an episode of your new favorite anime or read the latest chapter of the manga. Stranger still, there was an underlying feeling of dread as well. 

As many times as you’d changed fandoms, you’d never experienced such feelings before. It was uncomfortable and you wished that you could move on to your new obsession without any strings attached. It was ridiculous, really. Why should you feel guilty about a change of taste? You weren’t hurting anything. No one would be affected by it. And yet, you still felt unnecessary shame over changing fandoms. You guessed it had something to do with the lingering attachment you had for certain characters from various parts throughout the series. It almost felt like you were leaving them behind somehow. Another silly notion. They were fictional characters and did not exist outside of the world within JoJo. They had no knowledge of you, much less having knowledge of your “betrayal”. You decided that it was stupid to dwell on it and dived headfirst into your new favorite series. That guilty feeling would surely fade after a while. 

You got the perfect opportunity to binge your new favorite anime one day. It was one of those days when you were fortunate enough to have nothing to do. All of your responsibilities had been dealt with and you had no plans other than to sit on your ass and watch your new favorite show until bedtime. Sure, you could go out with friends, but you really just wanted to chill by yourself for the day. So anime binge party it was. You made a comfy nest of blankets and pillows on the couch and set up your laptop on the coffee table. You got some snacks and a drink, made yourself comfortable on the couch, and pressed play on the screen. You relaxed into the softness of your pillows and blankets and immersed yourself in another world for a few hours. 

About ten episodes in, you had to go to the bathroom very badly. All of that soda you’d drunk was taking its toll on your bladder. You paused the video, untangled yourself from your blankets, and stiffly power-walked to the bathroom. Once you relieved yourself, you washed your hands and went back into the living room. You snuggled back into your blanket burrito and reached over to start the video, but something wasn’t right. On the screen wasn’t the anime you’d been watching. It was the first episode of Phantom Blood. 

What…???

Did you accidently click the wrong thing in your haste to pause the video and rush to the bathroom? 

That had to be it. 

It was the only thing that made sense. 

You clicked off of the JoJo episode and went back to the previous page which took you back to the episode of the new anime you’d been watching. You found the place in the episode that you left off on and pressed play. You settled back in your comfy nest and watched the rest of the episode. You watched for another hour or so. During the opening of one of the episodes, you suddenly found yourself watching the opening for an episode of Battle Tendency. You sat up straight and stared at the screen in shock and confusion. 

“What the fuck?” you muttered under your breath. 

You refreshed the page and the episode started properly. That’s the second time your video was suddenly changed to an episode of JoJo. The first time you assumed that it was because of an accidental click but now you weren’t so sure. You hadn’t been touching anything when it happened the second time. All you were doing was staring at the screen when the switch happened. Why did it keep happening? Some kind of glitch with the streaming service? You didn’t know, but it was a bit annoying. You hoped that wouldn’t be a constant thing while you were trying to watch your show. 

The rest of the day went by without further incident. Eventually, you noticed that it had grown dark and you decided that your day of doing absolutely nothing needed to come to a close. You closed your laptop and reluctantly pried yourself off of the couch. As much as you wanted to just lay there in your blanket nest, you knew that you’d get a much better sleep in your bed. So you hobbled off to your room; your mind on nothing but getting a decent night’s sleep. 

You woke up a few hours later with a dried out mouth and an aching throat. You swallowed a few times, wincing at the sandpapery feeling of your tongue against the inside of your mouth. Well that’s what you get for sleeping with your mouth wide open. You flung the covers off of you grumpily and climbed out of bed. You stumbled into the kitchen, not daring to turn the light on and submit your sleep sensitive eyes to an onslaught of painful luminosity. You made your way over to the counter, grabbed a glass, and staggered over to the sink. As you were filling the glass you suddenly had the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. You assumed that it was your sleep fogged brain at work. After all, part of the reason you woke up was because you were having a disturbing dream. You tried to remember what the dream was about, but you couldn’t piece the memories together to get a full picture. You just remembered being in a place that made you uncomfortable and meeting someone that was familiar to you, but their presence frightened you. You just couldn’t remember the details. It kinda made you want to stay awake for the rest of the night but you decided against that. You knew you’d feel like shit the next day if you didn’t get back to sleep. There was nothing worse than waking up with a splitting headache due to lack of proper rest. You downed the glass of water and put the empty glass in the sink. 

You suddenly became aware of a strange odor in the air. What was that smell? Smoke? God, was something burning?! You took another sniff of the air and recognized the smell as specifically cigarette smoke. Okay, so that meant that your house wasn’t burning down. That was good news, but why would you be smelling cigarette smoke? The only way you would be smelling cigarette smoke is if it were coming from in the same room as you…

You heard the sound of rustling fabric from somewhere behind you. You spun around and immediately spotted the outline of someone sitting at your kitchen table. You could also make out the small glow of a lit cigarette sticking out of their mouth. As your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you could make out some details of the figure. They were large, broad shouldered, and wore a long white coat, and on their head rested an oddly shaped hat. In the miniscule amount of light in the room you could make out the glint of gold accessories on both their hat and coat. 

“No way…” you gasped in a quiet voice. “No way in hell…” 

The figure lit a lighter and held it to the wick of the candle that was located in the middle of the table. Once the candle was lit fully, you could see the figure better. It was as you expected, Jotaro as he appeared in part four was sitting at your kitchen table, glaring at you as if you were less than dogshit. 

“You recognize me?” he scoffed and took another drag from his cigarette. “I’m surprised. I thought you forgot all about me… about us….” 

You backed up against the counter, unable to believe what you were seeing and hearing. 

Jotaro glanced down at the cigarette in his hand. He held it up in front of him. 

“This is your fault, you know.” he sneered. “I quit smoking, but after you abandoned us, I started the habit again. I’ve been tolerant so far because I was stupid enough to think that you’d come back eventually. Maybe you were just taking a break and you’d come back when you were bored… that was my stupidity. I’ll own up to that. But when I realized that you’d thrown us aside like trash, well, I got pissed. I guess I took up smoking again just to stay sane…” 

You were so appalled at the fictional character seated at your table that you hadn’t been paying much attention to what he was saying. Slowly the words began to filter into your mind and of everything he said, one thing stood out the most…

He said “us”. He said that you had abandoned “us”...

That’s when you became aware of the other figures lined up behind Jotaro. 

You could make out their shapes and features in the candlelight. Jonathan stood there looking as utterly brokenhearted as a man could be. Joseph had a smug grin on his face as if he’d just caught you committing a crime. Josuke’s face was contorted in a vicious snarl while his fists were clenched by his sides. Ever so often his left eye would twitch indicating that he may be on the verge of a psychotic break. Giorno offered you a placid smile that was off putting when set against the coldness of his eyes. 

Your eyes darted nervously from one face to another before finally settling back on Jotaro’s. It was too much. You pushed away from the counter and ran out of the kitchen. A voice that probably belonged to Jonathan called out for you to stop but you paid it no attention. Luckily the kitchen was right next to the front door. Once you were outside, you could run to the neighbor’s house and get them to call the police. You wouldn’t dare tell them the truth. What would you even say? You couldn’t tell them that five fictional characters from an anime had invaded your house. They’d think you were on something. You would just tell them that someone had broken into your house. That’s all. Honestly, you didn’t know what the hell the police could do against them, but you didn’t know what else to do. You reached the front door but your hand froze just as you were about to unlock the door and yank it open. 

Two people were staring down at you from the window in the front door, two people you recognized. Kars looked down his nose at you with a haughty expression. He looked ever so much like a strict parent that had just caught his kid trying to sneak out of the house. DIO on the other hand had the most sadistic smile on his face. He made a “come-hither” gesture with his clawed hand as if he fully expected you to just open the door and throw yourself at him. Their eyes glowed with a hellish light and you couldn’t take the sight of them. You screamed and backed away from the door. As you stepped back, you saw two other familiar faces staring at you from the windows on either side of the door. Doppio had one hand pressed against the glass while the other hand held a rock from the garden to his ear as if it were a cell phone. One of his eyes had changed to a jade green color and glared at you with intense rage. His other, normal eye had a pitiful, disappointed look in it. From the other window Kira stared at you with an utterly emotionless expression. You didn’t dare speculate on what kind of thoughts could be going through his head at that moment. You screamed again and started to turn and run towards the back door…

“Star Platinum!” 

Suddenly you were held tight in an iron like hold. An invisible hand covered your mouth preventing you from screaming anymore. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that you were being held in place by Jotaro’s Stand. Struggling in Star Platinum’s grip was useless so you just hung there in midair as Jotaro approached you. 

“We weren’t done talking.” he snapped. 

He leaned in slightly and you got a whiff of cigarette smoke mixed with cologne. 

“Now you listen and you listen good,” he started to say. He held up a single finger.

“One. Just one more chance. That’s all you get. Come back to us and there won’t be a problem. Leave us again and it will get ugly.” he said, glancing up at the villains peering through the windows. His upper lip curled in disgust when he locked eyes with DIO and Kira, but only for a moment before his eyes were back on you. 

“Is that understood?” he asked. 

You nodded your head, whimpering behind Star Platinum’s invisible palm. 

“Good.” 

You don’t know what happened after that. You just woke up in your bed with a pounding headache. 

“Fuck…” you groaned, pressing your hands to your temples. 

You felt awful. You could only guess that you just simply didn’t sleep very well. Damn nightmares. What was with that dream? Was it all because you felt guilty about leaving the JoJo fandom? You grumbled and rolled out of bed. You were going to need to take something for that headache. First you needed to get a glass of water. You stumbled off to the kitchen getting an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu. The moment you entered the kitchen, your eyes glanced to the kitchen table and you nearly fainted. 

The candle was out, but it was smoking as if it had only been put out mere moments ago. The cigarette butt that rested on the saucer that had been used as a makeshift ashtray was also still smoking. 

That night you made it a point to sit down and watch a few episodes of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure starting with Phantom Blood. You planned to rewatch the entire series from the very beginning all the way to Stone Ocean. With each episode you watched, you noticed that ever so often a character’s eyes would slide over towards you as if making sure you were still there, watching them. Sometimes it would be one of the main characters. Sometimes it would be one of the villains. Sometimes it would be a side character. Regardless, they all kept checking to see if you were watching. Every day, you would make it a point to watch at least one episode of JoJo, no matter what. You didn’t dare skip out on your daily dose of JoJo. You also never went back to the other anime you’d been watching after you left the JoJo fandom. No, you learned your lesson. You were familiar enough with Jotaro’s character to know that he only gave people one chance and no more. Just like with Rubber Soul and Steely Dan. He gave them both a chance to leave mostly unscathed but they both decided to turn on him at the last minute. They both were punished severely. You weren’t going to make that same mistake. 

So you sat there on the couch, stiff and terrified as you watched your “favorite” anime… 

… like a good little fan should…

[intheticklecloset]

Pushy (My Hero Academia)

One Shot

Summary: As Deku and Todoroki grow closer in the early days of their relationship, they learn things about each other they find rather adorable.

A/N: It's been a while since I posted an MHA fic, and since I had this one waiting patiently for its turn in the spotlight, I decided now is the time! Enjoy! ^^

Word Count: 901

~~~

Something that Todoroki didn’t know about Midoriya until after they started dating was that the greenette loved play wrestling.

The first time it happened was on a Saturday afternoon when they were at Deku’s mom’s apartment while she was at work. They had lunch and then sat to binge a new anime they gotten into together, and the next thing Todoroki knew, Deku was pushing at him playfully. Todoroki, of course, being new to dating and not wishing to disappoint, did the same. From there it evolved into full-on wrestling, their anime long forgotten.

Todoroki wasn’t sure why his urge to win was so strong; under any other circumstances he’d likely have given up well before things got out of hand, not wishing to spend the energy on it. But with Deku, things were different. His competitive side rose up like never before, and his wrestling was genuine.

Thanks to Deku’s quirk, though, the greenette eventually gained the upper hand, flopping Todoroki onto his back and pinning his wrists down, counting to three quickly so he could win their spontaneous game.

“Gotcha!” Midoriya giggled, his freckled face beaming down at his boyfriend, swinging a leg over to straddle him before letting his wrists go. “Hmm…what should my prize be?” He faux contemplated before leaning down to kiss him, running a thumb along Todoroki’s cheek.

Todoroki also learned something about himself that day. Not that he planned to admit it to anyone.

~

A couple of weeks later, back at the dorms, Todoroki was reaching into the fridge to get a water bottle after having trained most of the morning. But before he could open the door all the way, a hand grabbed him from behind and whipped him around, pushing him against the fridge.

Todoroki barely had time to register that it was Deku before his partner reached up to grab his face and pull him down for a kiss. Though Midoriya had gone through a growth spurt recently so there was no longer too much of a height difference between them, the peppermint boy still felt his heart racing as he allowed himself to stoop down to match him, hugging him closer, ignoring the sharp poke of a magnet digging into his back.

Who needed water when Deku’s kisses were available, anyway?

~

The next night, Todoroki was lounging in his dorm room watching an anime based on one of his favorite manga series when his boyfriend knocked, then entered when beckoned. He expected Deku to sit beside him and cuddle up to his warm half like he usually did.

Instead, Deku moved right in front of the TV and sat in Todoroki’s lap facing him, smirking mischievously.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Todoroki replied. He absentmindedly ran his hands along Deku’s thighs, totally unbothered by the interruption. “Did you come to cuddle?”

Deku shrugged. “Eventually. But first I want to ask you something.” The greenette leaned in so their noses were touching. “Do you like it when I get a little pushy with you?”

Todoroki didn’t even know how he was supposed to respond to that, other than let out a little gasp. “I…I, um…what?”

Midoriya gently took Todoroki’s wrists away from his thighs, then tightened his hold and shoved them behind his head against the back of his seat.

Todoroki’s eyes went wide.

Deku grinned. “You light up when I do things like this. Remember yesterday when I kissed you by the fridge? You seemed to enjoy it when I pushed you up against it. Did you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Todoroki protested.

Deku responded with a finger in his side, wiggling gently but insistently. Todoroki sputtered and tried to scoot away, but there was nowhere for him to go with his boyfriend sitting on him.

“M-Midoriya!”

“Be honest. You like it when I mess with you.” The freckled boy giggled, switching from poking to pinching along his partner’s side.

Todoroki let out a little giggle of his own, whining despite himself. “Nohohohoho! You’ve gohohot it wrohohohong, Midohohoriya!”

Deku hesitated, letting up, frowning a little. “I do? Then…why do you look so excited when I push you around a little?” His frown smoothed out into a tiny smile. “And why do you look so disappointed that I let you off easy just now?”

“I…! I mean, you…! Ugh, fine. All right, all right.” Todoroki averted his eyes. “I kind of like it when you mess with me. Just a little, though, you know? Like, I don’t want you to start being a jerk, it’s just…fun when you do…well, stuff like you’re doing now.”

The finger was back, tickling closer to his underarm now. “Stuff like this?”

“Hehehehey!” Todoroki snorted, giggling steadily now. “Don’t gehehehehet cahahaharried away!”

Deku chuckled. “This isn’t carried away!” He shot his tickling hand down to his boyfriend’s thigh and squeezed, tightening his grip on his wrists at the same time. “This is.”

Todoroki burst into laughter, trying to buck Deku off of his lap, but he was stuck tight, and yes, all right, he had to finally admit it – he liked Midoriya playfully taking charge like this.

“Aiiieee! Plehehehehehease, Izuku!”

Deku snickered, letting his wrists go to tickle both his sides at once, kissing him in the brief moment before his partner started pushing at his shoulders, squirming in his seat. “Good thing I like watching you get all flustered, then, Shoto!”

[greatwyrmgold]

Dungeon Logistics

Between the currently-airing Dungeon Meshi anime and my recent binge of the manga (I finally got past the 40% mark), I've been thinking about the logistics of long-term dungeoneering.

The Problem

Military theorists and historians have some rules of thumb about what soldiers can be expected to do and need. [citation] For instance, they usually need around three pounds of food per day and can carry around 90-120 pounds of stuff. (The total varies less by strength and more by how much of that strength you can convince soldiers to use carrying stuff the general cares about.)

Theoretically, this means soldiers can carry a month or two of food; however, hardtack makes a pretty terrible weapon. Most of their carrying capacity is taken up by inedible (and also important) gear; the standard rule of thumb seems to be that soldiers can carry about ten days' worth of food.

The same is presumably more or less true for dungeoneers. A wizard's robe, staff, and spellbook probably weigh less than a sword and a suit of armor, but that space is going to get taken up by the miscellaneous tools you need to survive in a dungeon that aren't necessary for armies walking through inhabited lands.

In short, in the absence of Senshi, dungeoneers can only spend about a week and a half in the dungeon. Obviously, you need to set aside time to return to the surface, so you can't go deeper than five days. Well, you can—starvation doesn't kill you instantly—but you really shouldn't.

Extra Cargo

What if we added some people who only carried food? That would help some. Including two porters per three dungeoneers would roughly double the group's operational endurance, from ten days to twenty.

But the number of porters grows rapidly as the desired trip into the dungeon grows longer; operational endurance to 30 days requires four porters per dungeoneer. Even if the dungeon is spacious for a party of dozens to be possible, having that party be 80% or more noncombatants is a recipe for disaster.

What about pack animals? Mules require about five times as much food as humans (assuming they can't graze in the dungeon), but they can carry close to 300 pounds of supplies. One mule per three dungeoneers extends operational endurance from 10 to 15 days, a second to 17.

That's not bad, but pack animals work better when they can graze. If the dungeon has grass or equivalent foliage, one mule per three dungeoneers increases operational endurance to about 26 days, a second to 35, and one mule per dungeoneer increases it to 39. But most dungeons don't have much to graze on.

For the spendthrift dungeoneer, pack animals have one advantage over porters: You can eat them.

Butchery

I can't find any actual data about how much meat you get from butchering a mule, but combining other data lets me estimate 300 pounds (with large error bars).

So you could theoretically buy a (relatively) cheap mule at the surface, bring it with you through the dungeon, butcher it when you'd eaten through the supplies on its back, and live off its meat for a while. In this case, you probably don't even need to feed it on the way down! I have been informed that you do, in fact, need to feed it.

Five dungeoneers could live off the supplies carried by an increasingly malnourished mule for about 19 9.5 days. The mule would probably lose weight during that time, but the butcher could probably get at least a hundred pounds of decent meat off the poor critter. That would give them at least a week of extra rations, plus whatever they carried on their own backs, for a total operational endurance of at least five three and a half weeks.

This strategy probably works best if the adventurers are planning to go establish a camp after a few days and linger there for a few weeks. That would let them slaughter the mule as soon as they reach their base camp and free them from somehow carrying a whole mule carcass worth of food around afterwards.

This kind of strategy could enable supply depots relatively close to the surface. If we increase the party from five dungeoneers and a mule to five merchants and twenty mules, they could supply adventurers going a bit deeper. They'd need to charge a pretty hefty surcharge—at the very least, they'd need to cover the cost of killing so many mules!

It's also possible to create supply depots without slaughtering pack animals, but they would need to be smaller, closer to the surface, or both.

It would, strictly speaking, be possible to make a deeper supply depot, supplied by a larger depot. It would probably be impractical, though.

Conclusion

Dungeoneers weighed down by their own equipment can only spend brief periods of time exploring a dungeon. If they include some porters or pack animals in the party, they can increase that to maybe a month (two weeks down, two weeks up).

A sufficiently profitable dungeon economy might enable a set of outposts where adventurers can rest and resupply between treks deeper into the dungeon. If enough pack animals were slaughtered, they might be able to bring supplies a week or two deeper than the surface market.

In the right circumstances, dungeoneers might be able to delve a full month below the sunlit world without eating anything except wheat bread and mule meat. But this requires a small army of merchants and herdsmen and porters and butchers and so on, feeding not just the dungeoneers themselves but all the people supporting them, and all the people supporting those people, reaching through countless miles of cavern and across acres of farmland.

And of course, all of that assumes that no step in this process gets disrupted by the dangers of a dungeon; no wargs killing your mule, no warg packs overrunning the outpost, no getting lost in the twisty little maze of passages all alike. The higher you build that house of cards, the farther you'll far if it fails.

Senshi had the right idea.

[thepersonperson]

Ok so i kinda binge read all of your blogs in your pinned post and GODDAMN the gojo ones BROKE me it's not like i already didn't have a fair clue about the entire Gojo's loneliness and cruel treatment that's inflicted on him but going onto it in such deatail...oh my god... it's 2am here and i'm literally sobbing

i'm someone who's always been a part of either twitter or IG fandom and most of the times its either people (dudebros especially) are always completely mischaracterising Gojo, making him some kind of god who they can project themselves onto or either its just thrist posts or satosugu, female fans do have an emotional knowledge and understanding to it and it's no surprise how male fans perceive him but now when I think about it it's just so sad and unfair like even in real world people DO NOT see him for who he truly is (they just see him as the 'strongest' or 'nah i'd win' iykwim) and always ignore his vulnerability and emotions aspects of his character that makes him HUMAN oh my god it's making me sick. We don't deserve Gojo Satoru.

He is such a well written character, truly one of the best and Gege knew what he was doing when he made him such a prince charming, undeniably beautiful man to ecer exist and I think that just makes people completely ignore the core of his character.

I'm sorry if it ended up being a yapping session (you don't have to reply at all!! we cool)

I just couldn't help myself, your blogs seriously changed my life. If I loved Gojo before now I love him even more and most importantly I accept him for who he is, all these powerscalling seriously takes away so much of his character but sadly there's nothing we can do about it.

And let's not even start on the whole homosexuality romance stuff, there was no hope to begin with given the rise of dudebros in recent times.

brb gonna go cry more...

I love it when people yap at me don't worry about it.

Ok Anon. The timing of this ask is crazy because in the post you mention there was an interesting convo going on in the replies. I want to include them in my response to you.

Replies on the post mentioned by the anon from @userdemerda and @creatorizuru below the cut.

Thank you for the compliments.

Tag me in whatever fic you create userdemerda. (I actually went from an anime-only to a manga reader because I wanted to better understand Gojo to write a Gojo/Jogo fic. Part of the reason I started my yapfests was to write a Sukuna/Gojo fic. So I totally understand the obsession.)

This all is the power of Umineko. It's difficult piece of media to get through, but it very much encourages accepting people as their whole self rather than just the bits you enjoy. I really wanted to see all the love Gege put into the characters to better understand them.

On STSG...

Though the dudebros are less homophobic than they usually are with JJK, there are still some that can't fully embrace the queerness a part of Gojo's character. It's really important to knowing how he works. So even if you don't like the ship, you still should acknowledge that Geto is someone Gojo deeply loved.

As much as I like those two together, I would have loved to see Gojo move on in a way where he can carry the loss of Geto more like a charm than a curse. Everyone loves a good tragic first love, but second loves that acknowledge loss are quite rare.

On Gojo's end...

Gojo is one of the most traumatized characters in the series. And since JJK has otherwise done a good job showcasing how people cope with trauma, I can't accept the ending's pacing and tone as someone who has recently started recovering from my own. It's a slog, non-linear, and it takes a lot of time.

When I want Gojo to come back it's because I'm so sick and tired of extremely traumatized characters getting killed off because creators don't know how to handle or even want to depict their recovery process. It really mirrors how people irl will just give up and leave you to rot.

Yuji and Megumi were having a pretty good long-term display of the recovery process right up until the end. One of the things about trauma is you can't ever go back to the way things were. You can try, but it's always just kind of there. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. Just a thing you accept. Sadly, JJK dropped the ball on that.

Especially with Sukuna. Acknowledging your trauma is the first step. You can't cast it aside and move onto the next life like that. I cannot vibe with one of the other most traumatized characters needing to die to get his recovery process started. He was in denial way more than Gojo. You can't just flip on a dime like that. I wish I could just flip on a dime like that.

And the last point from userdmerda:

"speaking as a person who lives with post-traumatic stress and has big problems healing from the past all i want is to move on and be mentally healthy and i wish so much that satoru could have had that"

That's why Gojo's death and the world moving on like he never existed feels really bad. I think it's because that's often how traumatized people like him get treated irl. You can see the negative response even in the Japanese fans. It's like your worst fears of no one ever really caring about you because your trauma makes you too difficult to be around being realized.

And I decided to discuss that more in depth in this sort of follow-up post. Hopefully you all get a kick out of it.

[lurkingshan]

People I Want to Get to Know Better

tagged by @incandescentflower thank you MJ!

Last song: I was voting in @twig-tea's song poll so I was bopping to A Little Space by Pentatonix and ATEEZ.

Favorite Color: I've been having a green week.

Currently Watching: I am dropping things ruthlessly if they are not sparking joy (This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans and Meet You at the Blossom got the axe this week) but there is so much airing that I still have a long ass list:

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!

Century of Love

I Hear the Sunspot

Knock Knock Boys

Love Sea

Sky Valley

Sunset x Vibes

Takara's Treasure

The Trainee

I'm planning to start 4 Minutes this week, too, and I am also re-watching The Eighth Sense weekly with @neuroticbookworm and @so-much-yet-to-learn and School 2013 in a binge on my own because I missed Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jung Suk.

(Three cheers to MJ for starting The Miracle of Teddy Bear!!!)

Last movie: ...I'm not a movie girlie. Maybe Formula 17? @my-rose-tinted-glasses hooked me up with an awesome version of this classic Taiwanese bl film so I watched it recently.

Currently Reading: Twilight Out of Focus. @bengiyo and Twig really wanted me to watch the anime but I have an Animation Allergy so I am reading the manga along with the show.

Sweet, Spicy, or Savory?: I shan't be choosing.

Relationship: No, thank you.

Current Obsession: I'm with MJ on the shattered focus, I feel all over the place lately. Real life is lifing.

Last googled: Directions from where I live to another city so I could tell @kyr-kun-chan how tragically far away we'd be from each other when they go there.

Currently working on: Putting my ass to bed early, I am tired af.

Tagging @happypotato48 @hyeoni-comb @littleragondin @withingerly @pigglepiephi to play if you would like!

[sludgewolf]

We need to talk about the lack of "filler" in series that're been released recently

I just watched a video about ATLA and it's filler or lack there of and, they're right, ATLA doesn't have filler episodes as we define "filler episodes" now. Our understanding of filler is closer to what's used for anime that is, non canon episodes that are made so the anime doesn't catch up with the manga. Applying this to western animation (I say animation bc I graduated in it thus a better understanding and I don't really watch many live action series so I don't have much of a say) we ended up with the impression that it means "episodes that don't move the plot forward"

Which, doesn't make sense with Western animation since most of it isn't a adaptation of something else, or with comic adaptations for ex, they're mostly adaptations of various arcs coming together as a single story. Smt very different from the manga to anime adaptation process

Comparing ATLA who positively doesn't have "filler" and X-men 97 who negatively doesn't have "filler" is a good example of what I'm trying to say.

Not all of ATLA episodes move the "learn the elements and defeat the firelord" plot forward and that's good thank fuck not all episodes are rushing ahead to throwing this 12yo we barely know into a battle with a full grown adult who's perpetrating a war against the rest of the world. Instead we actually get to know the characters, we see them traveling from the South to the North Pole instead of spawning where the plot demands, we see Aang adapt to the world post iceberg nap and learn to be the avatar, we see the effect the 100 year war had in this world. And most of all, the more "filler" episodes contributed to the pacing of the series, when binging the series now I still feel like the Gaang traveled across the whole world and didn't just teleport to the plot.

Opposed to X-men 97, don't get me wrong I'm absolutely loving it but the story is always being racing forward at a breakneck speed. They did try to pace it better inter cutting the main plot with Scott, Jean, Madelyne, Wolverine's whole deal and the "LifeDeath " plot, but if there wasn't the weekly wait for the next episode we would not have any time to breathe and digest what happened in the episodes.

I'm still confused on how Madelyne went from trying to have a normal life outside the x-men to being in Genosha's council. Still on Madelyne, I didn't care that they had to part ways with Nathan, ik he's their baby and all that, but as soon as they named the baby Nathan I knew they were throwing that baby to the future to complete the time loop of him being in the original series. And that's because they never got the chance to try to make us care, the writing team couldn't waste time with that since they only had 8 episodes to tell all these stories, the speed that the plot is being taken makes me believe that when writing this season Disney still hadn't signed on the second season and when they did it was too late to rework the script.

This whole thing is reminding me of Hazbin Hotel's pacing problems, analyzing it as if I didn't watch the pilot, we just met the characters and suddenly had to care that they were going to die in six months, we don't really know Charlie other than 1. she's Lucifer's daughter, 2. daddy issues that aren't rly addressed besides jokes, 3. she's with Vaggie (other character we didn't get to know) and 4. she's the owner of the hotel and wants to rehabilitate the sinners. The worst part of it is, we teleported from the start of the season to 6 months later out of nowhere and suddenly we're at the finale with the big boss battle. Of course HuskDust is a more popular ship than Charlie and Vaggie, we never got the chance to see them being together other than in episodes when the characters are being dragged by the plot while Angel and Husk had an episode where we met them and got the time to see them interact without being pushed by the extermination plot

This is exactly why "filler episodes" are important, we should actually know who these characters are before the big fight at the end so we can actually care about what happens to them. X-men 97 may not suffer that much from it but it's because we already knew most of the characters, but we never got to meet this version of Madelyne, see her going out alone to a world that hates her existence, see her morn having been forced to send her baby off to the future and maybe not being able to see him ever again and finally see never see how did she even end up in Genosha.

Or Storm, sure we got a two parter, but how did she get to fuck knows where to meet Forge in that bar, what did she go through during the time she was traveling alone, it's not as if people wouldn't recognize her as a x-men even if she'd left the team, maybe see more of how the relationship between her and Forge developed, cuz I didn't get why she still wants to be with him even after he basically created the tec that was turned into the weapons used to kill mutants, that's smt one can't just forgive, and yes I'd like to see her as she struggles with not having her powers, smt other than she feeling lonely without the wind (this would work even as just a montage with sad music as she travels to the fuckall haunted desert)

On a rly quick note on Invincible I do think they did a good job with their pacing and character development with the time they had, I'd like to have seen a bit more of Rex's development from complete douche to Lizard Leader homemade lobotomy to where we are now, but on the Grayson family whole thing they did an amazing job at showing how they're dealing with the aftermath of season 1, there was just a little jump from Debbie downing a bottle of wine every day to full bug mom mode but I do think she'd step up to it no doubt.

Maybe just some scenes of her still working through s1 trauma and questioning wtf is wrong w Nolan bc from her perspective he just killed hundreds of ppl on Earth, almost killed Mark, fucked off to space and suddenly there's a purple half bug baby living in her house calling her mom. But I don't think that's strictly necessary since there's always fanfiction to bridge this gap and it's just a minor thing that bothered me

TLDR: Filler in western cartoons isn't really filler, these are just episodes to help develop the world or characters without having to rush with the plot and also episodes that help with the pacing of the story, thus showing the passage of time or great distances being crossed without having the characters spawn at the next plot point. And we do need it specially for shows that are intended for binging, such as most shows now. What determines good filler from bad filler here is good writing

[phoenix-fell]

I just had the most bizarre (but wholesome) RWBY encounter

I live in a very, very rural part of the UK (mostly trees and sheep), I've never met anyone particularly into Anime here, never mind a niche like RWBY. Anyway, I've been talking about RWBY with the person I've been seeing and they present me with the Red Like Roses Manga Anthology - which is awesome, cos they're cute. On the train back home, I start reading it and this dude in front of me leans over and says, "You're reading a really good book btw." - So naturally I was like ??? YOU LIKE RWBY??? And end up spending the entire journey home fangirling, turns out he was also a massive Bees shipper and hadn't seen the most recent volume, but is planning on binging it tonight. It was so wholesome, he totally gushed over Blake and Yang and how he thought they'd be together and I didn't wanna litter him with spoilers.

Then I get into the taxi home, I know the fella driving and we normally talk about games and he asks about the person I walked to the car with, I explain and he's like... "Oh yeah the RT series?" And proceeds to talk to me about RWBY all the way home.

This'll seem so mundane to everyone else, but probably one of my most random and coincidental experiences, and a bit surreal in light of the season ending.

[italeteller]

So... uh... how we feeling with how MHA's been going recently?

Long story short, we feelin' BAD

Short story long... I don't feel anything about the series except annoyance anymore, and it sucks

I used to love that series, I was that annoying weeb that would rec it to all my other weeb friends. I binged the first two seasons in like two days with my roommates. It was so good. That's what genuinely infuriates me whenever I see someone going "oh yeah mha was never good and people are finally catching up" no, fuck off, mha was great. It was still a shonen, but it was a great shonen and then it fell off and never recovered

God, this is like Naruto all over again. The Sasuke vs Deidara/Shie Hassaikai arcs were the canary in the coal mine, the Pain/1A vs 1B arcs were the beginning of the fall and the 5 kage/war arc were the point of no return

It's all because Hori didn't put enough time into the world, y'know? Most of what he wrote could have been done well with more time put into the setup and development of the characters and the world. Most. Some stuff would never have landed, I think

There are rumors the magazine pushed him into taking the manga on a direction he didn't want to. There is speculation that the change of editors after the Kamino arc helped fuck up the series. I don't know for sure, I probably won't ever know, but I can tell you that Kamino was the peak of the series, the school festival was the last good arc and everything after has been a slow decline into where we are now. Just hoping it will end soon and that we won't have a Borizuku: my hero academia next generations kinda situation

It's also sad because this might be the last long shonen we get for a while. Mha is at chapter 423, and I'll be very surprised if it has more than 10 chapters left. Black Clover will likely end before the 400s. And after that it's all manga in the 200s which I don't think will last much longer. I hope Undead Unluck goes the distance, but realistically I think it'll wrap up at around chapter 350 tops

So this is the last long, epic battle shonen we get. Going down with a whimper and a bunch of undeveloped, undercooked ideas

Feels fucking bad man

[itknockstwice]

There are two Naruto universes that live in my head. One where the series ends after the final fight at the Valley of the End—where I can make up my own blank period resolutions and enjoy fan interpretations—and one where the Boruto series exists. I have fun with both. One doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the other.

I used to hate Boruto. Hated! It! Made myself binge the manga. Some of the new characters really grew on me. Still enjoyed my old favorites. I don't love all the canon decisions. Sometimes they're dumb. Like really, really dumb. That tree shit? Frustrating. Hilarious. Thank you for the memes. I've learned to laugh at these things. I don't take anything that happens too seriously, maybe because I never took Naruto that seriously, either. I'm glad I opened myself up to it, because following the recent turns in Boruto has become such a chaotic and fun experience.

If you're a staunch Naruto fan who's been considering giving Boruto a try, treat it like Schrödinger's ninja—it both is and it isn't. Boruto isn't Naruto. Don't go looking for that. It's its own thing, but not really. Like an AU. Like a fanfic. I find the compartmentalization helps.

Just my two cents as a former Boruto-hater!

[rose-of-the-underworld]

What are your favorite shoujo shows? I just started watching anime and would love recommendations.

AAAAAAAAAAAA! First of all, I'm sorry that this took two months to write up, but I am honestly touched that you asked me! Okay, so disclaimer that I wasn't deep into the anime scene until a few years ago (I'm a late bloomer), but shoujo is my bread and butter so to speak, so I'm happy to give some reccs! Note that this isn't ranked in any particular order, it's just as they come to me! Will give a summary and my thoughts on each. Also, most of these anime don't cover the entirety of the story published in their corresponding manga, but they're all a good starting point if you want to dive into reading the rest!

Putting under a read more because I'm more long-winded than I thought I would be

1.) Sailor Moon: The magical action-adventures of a teenage girl who learns of her destiny as the legendary warrior Sailor Moon and must band together with the other Sailor Scouts to defend the Earth and Galaxy.

Had to start with the original!! Now my love for Sailor Moon goes back to before I knew what anime even was. I caught wind of it when I was five years old and it was airing on TV for the first time, but I adored the show and my Princess Serenity doll. Now, please note that I really did not absorb much outside of the aesthetics and the insane dialogue of the 90s English dub before it stopped airing on tv and I forgot about it for a while, always meaning to get back into it, but never quite managing. Then during 2020 lockdown, my good friend and Sailor Moon expert @pollyannaisms started streaming little watch parties of Sailor Moon Crystal and boy did I fall in love all over again. I'm so happy that it came back into my life when I needed it most, tbh. It really is such a hopeful and optimistic series with some of the most lovely female friendships, one of the most beautiful and romantic love stories I've ever seen, and wonderful messages about loving yourself.

If you want a more streamlined plot with less episodes, I recommend starting with Sailor Moon Crystal since it follows the manga very closely and it's relatively short. 39 episodes across three seasons and then four movies - Sailor Moon Eternal parts 1&2 and Sailor Moon Cosmos part 1&2. Cosmos is FINALLY being released internationally on August 24th and I can't wait to finally see it, I've been rotting for it.

Now, the original 90s anime is also fantastic, it is just incredibly long with I believe 200 episodes and a few movies. It was airing as Naoko Takeuchi was publishing the manga so there's a lot of filler and the monster of the week format can get a little monotonous if you're trying to binge. I would say to take your time with it, but I do believe it's worth the watch because you get some wonderful character development episodes that are absent from Crystal. It's not perfect and there are some....odd choices made, but I do love it. Please note, that if you watch it in English through official streaming services, you'll be seeing a re-dub that Viz did with the Crystal cast when they bought the rights. It's a good dub! But man, I wish I could watch the original 90s English dub more easily (pirating such a long series is kind of an ordeal) because it has some of the funniest dialogue I've ever heard. Lots of people hate it, but I love the nostalgia factor and I personally find it hilarious.

2.) Ouran High School Host Club: Haruhi Fujioka is a studious girl who has recently enrolled at the prestigious Ouran Academy. One day, while looking for a quiet and peaceful place to study, she stumbles across a seemingly unused music room. Upon entering, Haruhi is welcomed by the members of the well-known Host Club: a club in which attractive boys amuse girls from across the entire school. However, when Tamaki Suoh—the founder and president of the club—startles the bright scholarship student, she accidentally breaks an expensive vase.

With repayment looking difficult for Haruhi, the Host Club members come up with the perfect solution to the girl's problem: work for the club and ultimately become a Host herself! Mistaken for a boy by her peers, Haruhi has to entertain various female students while coping with her fellow Hosts' extravagant personalities.

Ouran was the first anime that I ever watched on purpose at age 17, and it is very near and dear to my heart. It does come with some caveats, though. While this was the perfect starter anime for me (the friend who recc'd it knows me very well), it's not a good starter anime for everyone. It is incredibly over the top and is also a parody anime of shoujo romances, so some of the jokes might not land if you're a newbie. While I loved it at first viewing, I found it MUCH funnier when I rewatched it ten years later after having seen much more shoujo anime. Also, please note that Ouran aired in 2006, and while it was very progressive for the early 2000s, there is a lot of outdated terminology when it comes to LGBT topics, so tread with care and know that its heart was in the right place and we've come a long way in the last 20 years.

That being said, this series will always be one of my favorites. Aside from being insanely hilarious (and wildly out of pocket), the show has a lot of heart and characters who all genuinely love each other. It touches on feminism and gender and I credit it with making me bisexual.

3.) Fruits Basket: After a family tragedy turns her life upside down, high schooler Tohru Honda takes matters into her own hands and moves out...into a tent. Unfortunately for her, she pitches her new home on private land belonging to the mysterious Sohma clan, and it isn't long before the owners discover her secret. But, as Tohru quickly finds out when the family offers to take her in, the Sohmas have a secret of their own--when hugged by the opposite sex, they turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

God. Fruits Basket is everything to me. This was the second anime I ever watched on purpose, recc'd by the same friend who showed me Ouran. She lent me her DVDs of the 2001 anime adaptation when I was 18 and it took me a few months to actually watch it but MAN. When I tell you that I was crying during the finale with my 8 week old kitten on my chest, and then when the 2019 reboot aired their version of the season finale, I was crying AGAIN with the same cat who was at that point 14 lbs and still snuggling on my chest. Full circle. It will never not be good. I would absolutely recommend that you watch the 2019 reboot over the 2001 version because it encompasses the whole story and has the budget for a much higher quality production. The animation is beautiful and I really like the music. The storytelling is phenomenal, thank you, Natsuki Takaya for my life.

Tohru Honda is truly one of my favorite characters of all time. There is so much depth to her, so much kindness and sadness and a heart full of love. She changes the lives of everyone she meets by just loving them unconditionally and has a legion of friends who would do anything for her. This is another story that features the struggle to love yourself, but it is also about the struggle to let others love you as well. The main romance is another top tier love story for me, and all of the side romances are compelling as well. I will warn you that the series deals heavily with familial abuse and with grief. For every laugh and heartwarming moment, there is a punch to the gut right around the corner. But god, it's worth it in the end. Fruits Basket is full of bittersweet moments of catharsis and it never fails to make me insane (affectionate). Fantastic characters and an excellent plot, it's one of the most compelling series I've ever seen.

4.) Kimi Ni Todoke: Sawako Kuronuma has had a difficult time fitting in, due to her shy nature and her similarity in name and appearance to Sadako from The Ring. On her first day of high school, Sawako meets the one boy who treats her like a normal girl-Shota Kazehaya. Through his selfless aid, Sawako slowly learns to come out of her shell and even begins to make friends for the first time in her life. However, with a new social life come social pressures. As she grows into her new identity, Sawako must learn to deal with such pressures as well as start to understand the unfamiliar feelings inside of her, especially in regards to the boy who made her new start possible.

This is probably THEEEEE sweetest thing I've ever seen. I watched it for the first time last year and I was legitimately crying happy tears in episode 1. If this is your first time watching, you're in luck! Season 3 just premiered after a 13 year hiatus! I've only watched an episode and a half so far, and I already love it so much. It has the exact same energy as the first two seasons. Sawako and Kazehaya are too adorable for words, and Sawako's two best friends are wonderful. This series does a great job of handling the real struggles of adolescents while also being full of optimism and love of all sorts.

5.) Kamisama Kiss: newly homeless teenager Nanami Momozono is trying to figure out her next move when she helps a stranger in need. Out of gratitude, he offers Nanami his home, a rundown shrine, and also his job as a land god. Now, Nanami must juggle high school along with the duties of a deity with the help of Tomoe, a reformed fox demon who reluctantly becomes her familiar in a contract sealed with a kiss. As the headstrong Tomoe tries to whip her into shape, Nanami finds that love just might have cute, pointed fox ears. With romance in the air, will the human deity be able to prove herself worthy of her new title?

This series made me CRAZY!!!!!!! Nanami and Tomoe are such a good nuisances to lovers story with a really interesting twist that I genuinely did not see coming! Nanami is adorable and Tomoe is the perfect house husband, I love them so much. This series is such a fun little romp through the supernatural world of gods, demons, and spirits, with an incredibly interesting cast of characters. The anime has two seasons and a few OVAs, but in order to see the latter, you're going to have to search the less than legal sites because they were never licensed internationally. Definitely worth it in my opinion to see the end of the story.

6.) Yona of the Dawn: Sheltered and spoiled Princess Yona is the only heir to the throne of Kouka. Yona's perfect world comes crashing down when a heinous act of treason threatens to erase all that she holds dear, including her birthright as the princess of Kouka. Left with no one to trust but her childhood friend and loyal bodyguard Son Hak, she is forced to flee the palace. Faced with the perils of surviving in the wild with a target on her back, Yona realizes that her kingdom is no longer the safe haven it once was.

Free from the shackles of naivety, Yona vows to do everything in her power to become strong enough to crush her enemies. With Hak by her side, she must piece together the remains of an ancient legend that might be the key to reclaiming her kingdom from those who conspired to steal it from her.

THIS SERIES MADE ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yona of the Dawn honestly ticks all of my boxes -- sheltered princess who needs to learn how to fight, political intrigue, betrayal, heartbreak, ancient magical legends, and a princess/bodyguard romance. The anime (and OVAs) are only a very small part of the story, but it was excellent regardless. The manga is incredibly long and actually just celebrated its 15th anniversary; it's regarded one of the greatest shoujo manga of all time. I had started reading the manga a few years back, and I REALLY need to get back into it, especially since it seems to be inching closer to the end. But if you love action packed fantasy adventures, this is the story for you!

7.) Inuyasha*: Suddenly finding herself in feudal Japan, schoolgirl Kagome teams up with half-demon Inuyasha to retrieve the scattered shards of a sacred jewel.

*Technically, a shounen, but has the vibes of a shoujo. I need you to know that last year when I had covid, I watched 50 episodes of this series and the first movie. And then I was compelled to make the following image:

Inuyasha is a long one so I suggest pacing yourself, but it is so so worth it! This is another action packed fantasy series with awesome characters, fantastic writing, and a heart stopping romance. The creator, Rumiko Takahashi was already an experienced mangaka when she made Inuyasha, and it shows. She's excellent at naturally weaving the romance into the overarching narrative and there's a maturity to her writing that makes this story about young people feel so intense and complex in the best way.

8.) Maid-Sama!: Misaki is class president of a formerly all-male school. A beacon of hope to the female students as well as teachers, she rules over the boys with an iron fist and a heart of ice. A popular male student stumbles on to her secret double life- working part-time as an upbeat and cheery waitress at a maid cafe! Misaki is forced to make a deal: spend some time with him, or have her hard earned reputation destroyed by revealing her embarrassing secret.

I will warn you, there are elements to this anime that have not aged well since its airing in 2010. A lot of it is very feminist in that early 2000s way! But it also includes that early 2000s brand of "problematic" possessive (and maybe a little too inappropriate) love interest and some outdated romance anime tropes. But all in all, I think it's worth a view. I really love Misaki as a character so much, and her relationship with Usui is fun and frustrating and very, very sweet.

9.) My Love Story!!: With his muscular build and tall stature, Takeo Gouda is no ordinary high school freshman. However, behind Takeo's intimidating appearance lies a pure heart of gold. Unfortunately for Takeo, his appearance does not bode well for his love life. As if his looks were not already enough to scare girls away, Takeo's cool, handsome best friend and constant companion Makoto Sunakawa easily, and unintentionally, steals the hearts of the female students—including every girl Takeo has ever liked.

One day, when Takeo saves cute Rinko Yamato from a creep on the train, he falls in love with her instantly. But with handsome Sunakawa around, does Takeo even stand a chance?

It's rare to see a shoujo series with a male protagonist, but Takeo is honestly perfect for the role and deserves everything good in the world. This is such an adorable anime with the sweetest couple on Earth and the best friend that anyone could ever ask for. Takeo and Rinko are both down so bad for each other and they're both adorable, awkward clowns. They were truly meant to be! Takeo's friendship with Sunakawa is also such a vital and lovely part of the series and shows that your platonic relationships are just as important as your romantic ones.

10.) My Little Monster: Shizuku Mizutani is apathetic toward her classmates, only caring about her grades. However, her cold view of life begins to change when she meets Haru Yoshida, a violent troublemaker who stopped attending class after getting into a fight early in the school year. He is not much different from her, though—he too understands little about human nature and does not have any friends. Much to Shizuku's surprise, he proclaims that she will be his friend and immediately confesses his feelings toward her upon meeting her.

Because of her lack of friends and social interaction, Shizuku has a hard time understanding her relationship with Haru. But slowly, their friendship begins to progress, and she discovers that there is more to Haru than violence. She begins to develop feelings for him, but is unsure what kind of emotions she is experiencing. Together, Shizuku and Haru explore the true nature of their relationship and emotions.

This is a story about a boy and a girl who struggle with love and friendship. Opening yourself up to other people forces you to be honest with yourself.

Here's another "problematique" anime that I fell head over heels in love with in spite of certain things that didn't age well. I'm a simple woman, give me a cold girl and a feral boy who are obsessed with each other and don't know how to function in society and I'm sold. While Shizuku and Haru's bizarre, never-on-the-same-page romance is the overarching narrative, an important part of the series is the two of them learning how to make friends and find community with other socially dysfunctional weirdos. The friends that they make are just as interesting as the two of them and are equally important to the story.

This is another series that I highly recommend reading the manga for, since the one season anime doesn't get far enough into the story for a satisfying ending. Shizuku's revelations about herself and her character development in the manga genuinely made me cry, and Haru gets some good development as well. Their relationship progresses in a very sweet way as they work to understand each other and respect boundaries and communicate.

11.) Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun:

Chiyo Sakura is a cheerful high school girl who has fallen head over heels for the oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. Much to Chiyo's confusion, when she confesses to her beloved Nozaki, he hands her an unfamiliar autograph. As it turns out, the stoic teenage boy is actually a respected shoujo manga artist, publishing under a pen name. A series of misunderstandings leads to Chiyo becoming one of Nozaki's manga assistants and befriending many of her quirky schoolmates. This slice of life comedy follows Chiyo as she strives to help Nozaki with his manga and hopes that he will eventually notice her feelings.

I adore this series to the moon and back. Both adorable and absolutely HILARIOUS, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, is a wild ride from start to finish. The slow burn to end all slow burns, this ongoing 4-panel, slice of life manga has been ongoing since 2011, yet remains hilarious and so does the one season anime. This is another parody shoujo anime where some jokes might go over your head if you're a beginner, but I think it's easier to digest than Ouran, and would be a fine starter anime. This is another clown4clown romance, but Chiyo and Nozaki aren't the only ones. Their friends are a vibrant cast of characters who tend to fall into classic shoujo manga tropes (though not always in the ways you'd expect) and all have their own incredibly silly and off the wall will-they-won't-they romances.

This is such a fun series that never fails to make me laugh, and often makes me swoon. It's both ridiculous and relatable and you can't help but root for every single character.

And I'll end it there! I have quite a few other series that are near and dear to my heart but these are probably the ones I talk about the most. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. Anon, I hope that you enjoy your adventures in shoujo anime!

If anyone ever wants to talk about any of these series, my inbox is always open. Seriously, I am always dying to talk about all of these!

[judgedarts]

sorry i havent been too active this month either haha ;_;! trying to balance a lot of stuff this year and im kinda struggling 🚶‍♀️i promise I'll have some new stuff to post, and some new merch to debut! also i got into vinland saga recently (binged all of the manga in like a week) and i realllyyy like it, i hope i get to make some dedicated fanart for it soon!!

[gddmgttsu]

Hello!

(I have a nasty habit of wanting to write only about bad things so let's talk about something else)

I've somehow read all of Dungeon Meshi within the last two days or so. Time well spent I'd say...

The first time I've even heard of Dungeon Meshi was seeing all the Twitter clips from the first episode of the anime. I thought the premise was cute so I decided to take a peek at the anime with a friend.

The first two episodes were alright but at the time it didn't quite grip me as much as I thought it would. While I loved all the characters doing their thing, it was missing something that would really hook me in you know what I mean?

=======SPOILERS I SUPPOSE======

If you haven't seen any of it yet, please go and check it out it's pretty good. I wouldn't want to ruin anything about it for the blind.

After the second episode I just put it off for a bit but a month to so later, I saw a twitter clip or maybe it was a teaser that was about Falin's resurrection. I was astonished to see not a digested corpse coming out of the dragon but a goddamn skeleton of what's left. That was what I was missing in order to get hooked so my interest was fully piqued.

So now I've gotten around to reading the whole thing and MAN was I surprised. The world is so interesting, the characters are all loveable and it gets surprisingly dark every now and then. It touches on alot of themes that I like involving death and the stains of time.

My favorite manga of all time is Berserk so the moment the manga started getting into that stuff I was fully invested.

One of scenes that really stood out to me were Marcille's nightmare and how it sets up that bit near the end. I don't really know much about elf lore and I just beat Baldur's Gate 3 so it was interesting to learn more about how an increased lifespan is just sadness for the elf in question.

Seeing Laois get touched by her nightmare and immediately starts aging and freaking Marcille out just made me go "OH NO IS THAT WHY SHE'S AFRAID" and it makes me sad to think about life without your loved ones.

Another one is Senshi's backstory with the Griffin and how he had to live a long time with that gnawing thought at the back of his head. It thoroughly explains why he's so adamant about eating a balanced meal and how living as healthy as can be is so important to him. I honestly teared up pretty bad seeing those final panels of him eating the hippogriff stew.

I suppose my only nitpicks is that we never really got to hang out with Falin enough. I would have loved to see more of the gang interact with her since from the flashbacks and what little time we do get with her, she's a sweetheart too.

There's also Itsuzumi and how I personally don't think her arc was fully done but at least she had her moment with the succubis.

These are very minor and there are even more minor ones and honestly I don't mind them very much because the story is already like a 10/10.

=========SPOILERS END=========

The volumes kept ending at cliffhangers so I couldn't stop wanting to read more and more so I ended up binging the whole thing.

I'm glad I did though because the manga went into detail a couple of things I've been thinking about recently too. It just nice to see and read thoughts about the little things that bother me right now. Even if it is through a silly manga about eating monsters.

Honestly, the manga influenced me maybe like 10-30% as to doing a bit better with how I treat myself and my health.

To close it off, I gotta say I really loved it and I'm excited to go through it again with the anime. Hopefully my friend won't mind if I drag them with me since I left them at ep2 hehehe.

TLDR: FARCILLE IS REAL DON'T LET THEM TELL YOU OTHERISE

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

People I Want to Get to Know Better

Tagged by @twig-tea. Thank you, I hope my Watchlist quenches your curiosity!

Last Song: About Time by D.O. I've been listening to his albums a lot recently and every time I still feel my breath catch a little at his voice.

Favourite Colour: I keep saying it's blue (and it is) but I somehow keep ending up buying things that are either pink or yellow so.....

Currently Watching:

- My Sweet Mobster (when a rom-com advocates for réhabilitation rather than punishment... it works surprisingly well)

- The Trainee (in love with the series and the characters, a potential new favourite)

- Century of Love (really enjoying it but I need to catch up to it because I got distracted by:)

- Knock Knock Boys (the GIFs worked, I couldn't not check this out and I binged it in 2 days, I would fight for Latte's happiness).

- Shogun (Henry Blackthorn annoys me so much BUT at least it's as a person rather than as a character so the writing is solid)

- Spy X Family (pure joy in 25 minute blocks)

I tried out Serendipity's Embrace yesterday but it didn't feel like something I'd enjoy so that's moving to my "not interested" pile.

I also have planned binges for Bangkok Blossom, The Glory (S1 and 2) and The Crowned Clown to try and clear some of my To Watch list.

Last Movie: I don't watch many movies at all BUT I did recently watch Moonlit Winter and all I can say is watch it watch it watch it. I actually cried, not sad tears, but happy cathartic tears because of how beautifully the movie portrayed the relationship between the mother and daughter.

Otherwise it would have been Inside Out 2, which I can now recommend as an excellent educational tool to use for kids just about to experience puberty and all the new emotions that come with it.

Currently Reading:

Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in 7 Burials by Professor Alice Roberts. And look, I know it sounds dry but it's really well written, covers eras of history there is still very little known about, and has an excellent chapter in which the author dismantles TERF and gender essentialist talking points using archaeology.

I've also just finished Spy X Family vol. 11 (now waiting for vol. 12) and I'm about to start Twilight Out of Focus (I can't watch the anime until I've read the manga) and read Red Thread vol. 2 (the manga based on UWMA).

Sweet, Spicy or Savoury?: Sweet unless it's a meal.

Relationship: Actively single

Current Obsession: My cat and also iced Chocolate.

Last Googled: "actively single" to check it meant what I thought it meant.

Currently Working On:

- Learning how to make my own clothes.

- Clearing my watchlist so that I can rewatch things and actually take time to write meta.

- Moving country without losing my mind.

- Clearing my TBR.

Tagging @lurkingshan @waitmyturtles @doyou000me and @respectthepetty apologies if you've already done this!