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yurimother · 4 years ago

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LGBTQ Light Novel Review — I'm in Love with the Villainess

A stunningly profound, entertaining, and queer title that eclipses other isekai and Yuri series

There are few titles the general public seems to be as excited about as Inori and Hanagata's I'm in Love with the Villainess, as it has been sitting at or near the top of Amazon's LGBT Manga list for months and Twitter is consistently abuzz with the latest news on this isekai Yuri series. I was somewhat more skeptical, as I have had relatively poor experiences with isekai and fantasy Yuri. Still, my excitement went through the room, and I eagerly boarded the "hype train" upon the cover reveal for the third volume. Yuri families, where two women raise children together, are one of my greatest desires and something I rarely see portrayed in the genre. However, I still had mostly low expectations for the series going into the first volume. I looked forward to some light meandering comedy and typical boring trope-filled isekai shenanigans. However, I'm in Love with the Villainess more than exceeded my expectations. No, even this statement is far too moderate to describe how utterly stunned and blown away I was by Inori's creation. I'm in Love with the Villainess is completely shattering and easily one of the greatest light novels I have ever read. Thus, I have no choice to award a perfect 10/10 score, my first ever for a light novel.

After waking up in the world of her favorite otome game, Revolution, protagonist Rae is ecstatic to be faced to face with Claire Francois, the game's villainous rival. However, Rae never played Revolution for the thrill of romancing any of the three attractive young princes. She was always in love with Claire. She attends the academy and studies magic in the fantasy world alongside Claire, the princes, and various other supporting characters. Using her skills from the modern world and her encyclopedic knowledge of Revolution, Rae manipulates the situation to be close to Claire, becoming her maid, and garnering status and money along the way. As an inevitable conflict looms closer, Rea begins to enact plans to protect herself and Claire, many of which are not fully understood or explained until the finale fantastically reveals the reasons for her actions. There is a natural and steady pace to the narrative that awards readers’ predictions and attention to detail.

I'm in Love with the Villainess has some excellent supporting characters, all of whom have unique personalities, histories, and abilities, some of which are revealed by Rae's exposition and others naturally throughout the novel. However, the stars of the show are the central couple, Rae and Claire. Claire is an elite aristocrat and extremely bratty. She often sneers at commoners and makes her disdain of Rae very clear from early on. On paper, she sounds like the perfect villain and someone all readers would despise. However, Rae's utter devotion and infatuation with Claire is so sincere that we cannot help but be pulled in and adore Claire and all her tantrums. Rae is a delight herself, continually flirting and poking fun at Claire, which gets her verbally berated, much to her masochistic pleasure. However, she is also exceptionally cunning and intelligent, and some of the light novel's greatest joys are listening to her analyze a situation or watching one of her plans fall into place.

“Ah, I’m… Well, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s irrelevant to cuteness—because, Miss Claire, you are cute.” “Huh?!” She pulled away. It was perfect—such a pure reaction. “Miss Claire, you hate me, right?” “Of course!” “That’s fine. Please keep teasing me. I love it.”

The beginning of the book does not immediately clue one into its brilliance. Sure, Claire and Rea get some great one-liners as they bully each other, and the scenarios are authentic and fun, but it is nothing shattering. I was feeling pretty relaxed and having a lot of fun with the characters, their relationship, and the various slice-of-life style scenarios they encountered until one section, I remember the exact page, 81, as it stopped me dead in my tracks. I was flabbergasted and briefly frozen before shooting up out of bed, shouting expletives as I ran to my office to immediately record what I had just experienced. It all begins with the line, "Hey, Rae. Are you what they call gay?" What followed was one of the most thoughtful, condensed, informative, and nuanced discussions of gay and queer identity (both terms used in this scene) I have ever seen in Yuri. Everything from representation in media, the perceptions of and prejudices against gay people, and the role gender plays in romance for bisexual and gay people are analyzed. Its commentary is succinct yet so respectful and forthright that it could have only come from genuine experience, thus selling the book and its characters so much more.

"Queer people were still overwhelmingly closeted in this world, which was rife with prejudice and nurtured little understanding. As I noted, the queer people depicted in the story were either the sex fiends Claire imagined or the free-loving sort Lene had in mind. Diversity and acceptance were a long way off.”

Thus, Inori's writing's beauty exposed itself, and the book opened itself up to a delightful cycle. The narrative masterfully integrates isekai slice-of-life hijinks, like running a cross-dressing café or battling a giant slime with nuanced and challenging moments that dissect complicated topics. The latter mainly consists of a growing rift between the aristocracy and common people, mirroring real-world wealth gap issues, but the novel also touch on matters such as unequal prison sentencing and segregation. Every scene helped further the complexity of the characters and their relationships or else built onto the world of Revolution. Speaking of which, I'm in Love with the Villainess has some of the best worldbuilding ever seen in a light novel.

Initially, brief exposition establishes much of the world, which is adequate if not exciting. I will mark up to a casualty of the light novel's serialized nature, as it must present readers its setting immediately. However, Inori does not stop here. Through the narrative, new elements are established, such as a magic system and the kingdom's politics. Rea notes and describes how the world, while clearly based on medieval Europe, has many modern Japanese attributes, as Japanese game developers created it. Her pointing out the intersection of the two is fascinating. Furthermore, A great deal of time is spent establishing characters and organizations all have their own wants, agendas, and methods, many of which are not even directly involved with the story. Instead, they act as a background and help further contextualize others. For example, the Church publicly appears to lean towards supporting the commoners in their efforts for equality but has its own agenda of superseding the nobility. While they play little role in Rea and Claire’s adventure, they are one of numerous factors contributing to the unrest of the lower class. All these additions are interesting, and it never feels like the story or characters suffer for their inclusion, quite the opposite.

“The Bauer Kingdom had started a step behind other countries when it came to magical research. They dominated the surrounding countries in military strength, and this had made them complacent, leading them to underestimate the value of new magic technology until the best researchers had all been enticed to other countries. Even after the king came up with his magic-focused meritocratic policy, Bauer lagged behind.”

I can only make complaints by scraping the very bottom of the barrel. Hanagata's beautiful art is too infrequent to add much to the light novel, and many scenes crying for illustrations are left to the readers' imagination. However, Inori so wonderful writes the story that one hardly cares and can easily picture every moment with delight. Besides, the manga adaption will nullify this issue. Where I cannot complain at all is the spectacular translation by Jenn Yamazaki and Nibedita Sen, one of Seven Seas best (which is high praise considering the competition). Sure, I was slightly disappointed at first to see the adaptation left off honorifics, but the more I thought about the setting, the more sense it made. I am sure people much smarter than I gave the issue much more consideration, and I am happy with their decisions.

I'm in Love with the Villainess left me reeling with how pleasurable and powerful it was. The story and characters are such a joy, and I cannot wait to see Rea and Claire bully each other again in the next volume. Astounding worldbuilding and powerful, thought-provoking politics surround their antics and the high stakes plot. Every moment of their journey will enthrall readers as they squeal with glee at its hilarious set pieces or are shocked by its commentary of society's most significant challenges. Inori has created one of the most delightful, heartfelt, complex, profound, and genuinely queer light novel series ever. If you only read one thing I recommend this year, let it be I'm in Love with the Villainess.

Ratings: Story — 9 Characters — 10 Art — 5 LGBTQ — 10 Sexual Content — 2 Final — 10

Review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment

Purchase I’m in Love with the Villainess in digitally (9/23) and in print (11/10) today: https://amzn.to/32NEyG1

Supports creators by purchasing official releases.

#yuri #lgbt #lgbtq #reviews #lgbtq+#i favor the villainess #i'm in love with the villainess #girls love #gay #queer #light novel #manga #gl #politics #feminism

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geekghoul · 3 years ago

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If you like beautifully written children/all age’s fiction you might like...

My descriptions are going to be a little useless so I linked their Overdrive profiles that have actually good descriptions.

Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wayne Jones)

3 book series but both sequels are completely optional. All three books tie up super neatly. I wouldn’t read them out of order though. I never got around to finishing the 3rd book but when I tell you that the first one is my favorite book in existence. I’m pretty sure I’ve read it through about a dozen times. The reread value is astronomical. I would write the author a letter if she was still alive.

don’t expect the same story. but yes

Guardians of Childhood (William Joyce)

Honestly I haven’t yet finished this series either but there are 5 novels. If you’ve seen the movie you can kind of think of the books as a prequel story but really it’s the movie that’s the sequel. Another series in which if you don’t make it through all the books it’s pretty much fine. If you can get your hands on a hard copy I highly recommend it because it’s beautifully illustrated. There are also picture book versions of each book that are absolutely gorgeous.

These guys, yeah

Same author

Oh, and this one too

Tangled in Time (Kathryn Lasky)

Ok, so have I finished any of these series? no. In this case though it’s because it’s a very new book and when I read it the sequel wasn’t out yet. This one does do actual cliff hangers though so rip me. I’ll get to the sequel eventually. the premise? think kinda gay, fashionable middle schooler starts randomly time traveling into different points of the life of Queen Elizabeth I. She meets key players like Henry VIII, at least one of his wives, and Elizabeth’s siblings.

If you remember this movie, same author.

First Light (Rebecca Stead)

The only title here not part of a series. First Light is one of my favorite books. I’ve read it in full 3 times. Rebecca Stead’s stories tend to be very real world based, very logical, very grounded but with a twist of sci-fi or fantasy. I would definitely consider it an all ages book but this one does lean a little more into being for children. But that might just be that global warming was pretty new to the public conscience when it was written so it might just be a spot of poor aging. We switch between the perspectives of a young boy and a young girl as they navigate the mysteries of their families and wait to see where their stories intersect.

if you recognize this book, I believe it was written after First Light

Sisters of the Sword (Maya Snow)

So this series does not get enough credit. It’s absolutely amazing. And no, I never finished it. But think Shakespearian levels of family drama + Mulan gender stuff + Japanese samurai + preteens obviously. I originally read it when I was in about 4th grade (so think age 8 thereabouts) so don’t mistake how tough kids truly are but I will say this one is pretty violent. I don’t want to say much though because I don’t want to spoil the great beginning. But like, yeah, there is actual sword violence and blood.

#book rec #book recs #book recommendations #howls moving castle #guardians of childhood #tangled in time #first light #sisters of the sword

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2centsoframblings · 3 years ago

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Two cents of ramblings on: “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…”/“HameFura” (Anime) - Season 1...

...and why I recommend it.

GENERAL DATA

Title: Otome GAME no Hametsu FLAG Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta… (乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”)

Known as: HameFura (はめふら)

Media: Anime television series

Adaptation of: “Otome GAME no Hametsu FLAG Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” (乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった… “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”) shōjo light novel by Satoru Yamaguchi Satoru and illustrated by Hidaka Nami.

Genre: Isekai, Reverse harem, Romantic comedy

Directed by: Inoue Keisuke

Written by: Shimizu Megumi

Studio: Silver Link

Original run: April 5, 2020 – June 21, 2020

Episodes: 12

WARNINGS: Bullying and mistreatment of children

The plot in short: A girl dies and find herself reincarnated into Catarina Claes, the villainess of an Otome Game, “Fortune Lover”, when the latter was a child. Aware that all the routes of the game would lead to her being either exiled or killed she desperately tries to adopt countermeasures to avoid her flags of doom.

HOW DID I STUMBLE INTO IT

I was searching a funny anime to watch during summer and this one caught my eyes, probably also due to how I saw the cute Nendo of Catarina so it felt kind of familiar...

THINGS YOU MIGHT WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE TACKLING THIS

If you’re not familiar with the terms an otome game (乙女ゲーム “maiden game”) is a video game in which the main goal is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player character and one of several male characters.

Isekai (異世界 "different world"), is a Japanese genre of portal fantasy that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world, such as a fantasy world, virtual world, another planet, future/past time, or parallel universe.

MY TWO CENTS ON IT

THE SHORT VERSION… or what I can tell you about this while trying to keep spoilers at the very bare minimum.

Opening & ending: The anime uses as opening “Otome no Route wa Hitotsu Janai!” (乙女のルートはひとつじゃない！ ‘There's More Than Just One Route For a Maiden!’) by Angela and, as ending “Bad End” by Aoi Shōta. The opening is just cute, simple and well match the music and introduces the characters with nice transition effects to show Katarina and the other characters as child and as adults. Maybe it’s not a perfect work of art but it’s well structured and definitely enjoyable so I liked it! The ending isn’t bad but it’s nothing special either, just made by still images of the characters. Honestly I found it unimpressive.

The plot: The struggles of Catarina to avoid her doom are extremely fun to follow! The story is basically split in two, her childhood, which is kind of a prequel to the “Fortune Lover” game and then her teenager years which basically cover the “Fortune Lover” plot. The plot is easy to follow and not that deep but this doesn’t stop you from enjoying the comedy of it.

The characters: The introduction to all the characters is gradual and, while they all are meant to be the stereotypical characters of an otome game… in the end they came out as much funnier and different than just that. They’re all likable and fun.

The visual: The story aims at being very pretty visually, the colours are bright and the background well cared for, even if deliberately a bit vague. The characters’ expression can be pretty fun and chibi-like. If you want the character design is a bit simple but it works well for the story.

The musical background: It’s actually rather nice! Nothing over the top but still enjoyable and fitting the mood.

Overall: It’s a light and fun anime to watch! It will offer you amusement and distraction.

THE LONG VERSION… or what I loved and hated about this with, of course, TONS OF SPOILERS.

So I quite liked the premise of this story in which our main character find herself reincarnated into the villainess and how she has to try to find a way to avoid her doom.

I loved how they depicted how her mind work in a way which reminded me of the movie “Inside out”, in short by having 5 chibi Catarina, each with a different character. We’ve chairmain Catarina, happy Catarina, studious Catarina, fearless Catarina and spineless Catarina and they all discuss among them Catarina’s situation and what they plan to do.

But a big part of what I enjoyed is how they handled the concept of Otome games.

From Catarina’s perspective she’s in an Otome game in which the main character and heroine is Maria, which, in real life, would be a stand in for the player.

But from us viewers’ perspective, it’s Catarina the one who’s the main character, which the game subtly hints as we’ll never learn the name of the person she was before. We’re meant to identify with Catarina, not with Maria and, as Catarina, we play “Fortune Lovers”.

And, by this premise, Catarina and her actions and the effects her actions have make the game more ‘realistic’ in a way.

Both Catarina and Maria are two very good girls, but while Maria is beautiful and has light magic despite being a peasant and a sad backstory and is probably constructed to be a Mary Sue, Catarina has plenty of flaws.

She’s lazy, she’s a glutton, she doesn’t know proper etiquette, despite being a noble she has extremely poor magic, she’s not particularly pretty (often she jokes her face is pretty scary) and so on. Likely this is a jab to how some people play otome games because in real life charming boys don’t just drop at their feet because they’re far from perfect.

However Catarina has her own strengths as well. As said before she’s kind, she’s brave, she’s straightforward and she tries her best and are those strengths what helps her to go through the various ‘events’ of the game in the right manner. Catarina feels she’s stealing them from other characters (mostly the protagonist) but, in truth, since SHE is the main character in this story, she’s just correctly triggering them.

Being Maria is a very hard to obtain goal, but we can all be Catarina (actually Catarina is sometimes so dense we might even lull ourselves into thinking it would be easy to be better than her) so what Catarina does and obtain seems a possible goal.

And there’s another thing this story makes that makes it sounds more ‘realistic’ than “Fortune Lovers”.

In “Fortune Lovers” the protagonist is meant to trigger the events when they’re teenagers. In a short amount of time, by doing some right choices, she radically changes a conquerable character and wins his love. This is a very power fantasy but one extremely unrealistic because it’s not so easy to change people.

Catarina instead triggers those events when the conquerable characters are children and reinforces their changes through the years until they become teenagers and enter the magic academy.

So it’s perfectly reasonable the conquerable characters changed into different people since they had years to do so, and it works they’re so attached to her since she triggered those changes and spent years to positively enforcing them.

Keith has plenty of memories of Catarina supporting him, Geordo spent years with her, learning to know her and growing fond of her, Alan was constantly positively reinforced so that he could accept that he and his brother have different strength and neither was inferior to the other and Nicol could appreciate how good she was to his sister and to him for years.

This builds a strong foundation to their changes and their feelings, way stronger than if they just met her and she made few nice things to them.

Sure, the idea she basically conquered EVERYONE, even the characters that were meant to be love rivals like Mary, when she was still a child, is also unrealistic but the idea behind it is more ‘real’ because plays on real dynamics that can happen with an appropriate amount of time and effort.

Who’s meant to identify in Catarina isn’t, after all, an eight year old but teenagers, and the message is if they’ll work like she did, in time they’ll conquer their love interest. It won’t happen overnight as the game “Fortune Lovers” let its players believe, but with years of work. They would just start later compared to Catarina, which is a nice message.

And while conquering Sirius Dieke/Raphael Walt is the one HARD victory that’s not gained through years of hard work (conquering Maria was pretty easy, all she needed was someone to notice her which is an interesting way to paint the heroine of an otome game who, effectively, easily fall in love with one of the conquerable characters) but just two years spent together, the good part is she didn’t cause him to fall in love with her but that she wins him over by offering him friendship and kindness.

Catarina: That’s what happened? And that’s why you’re in such pain… Sirius/Raphael: You hypocrite! Do you think you can save me like you did all those others, Good Saint Catarina Claes-sama?! Maria: If this goes any further, we’re all in danger! Gerdo: Catarina! Keith: Nee-san! Catarina: I’ll be fine. I know I can’t save you. I’m not the heroine here, after all. I’m just the villainess, here to play the heroine’s rival. Of course I can’t save anyone. I can’t save you from your suffering but I can stay by your side. Just like they all did for me, I can stay by your side, hear you out when you’re sad or hurt, and not leave you until you’re feeling better. Mother: What’s wrong? Sitting out here crying won’t make it stop hurting. I’ll stay here with you. I won’t leave you until you’re feeling better. Catarina/Mother: So don’t cry all alone, Raphael.

And this brings home another theme, everyone needs friendship and kindness, along with how there’s not an easy way to fix people, to save them. Catarina doesn’t go to him saying she’ll save him, just that she’ll basically offer him her friendship… and that’s what give Raphael the motivation to save himself. Because he’s supported by Catarina, he remembers the truth, that he was supported by the person he loved, his mother, who didn’t ask him to avenge her but to live and be happy…

Mother: Raphael… Please… live. Live… and be happy. I love you.

…and so he fights against the dark magic user who was possessing him and manipulating his memories. And, if we want, in this case Catarina is the trigger, but there was one person who had loved him for years and that was his mother.

However, even if one doesn’t care about the message, this story is great just for the light fun it allows you to have. Catarina’s reactions, often over the top as well as her schemes to avoid triggering doom flags are so very fun!

I love all the cute, chibi expressions she has, just watching her it’s fun!

And I love how the story ends with a ‘friendship ending’ of some sort, at least from Catarina’s perception because, in truth it should be a ‘reverse harem ending’ because everyone loves Catarina but, since she’s unaware of it and sees them all as friends, it works well as ‘friendship ending’.

On a fun note the anime kind of messes up a little as, once Raphael joins the Department of Magic we see walking behind him Rufus Brode/Sora Smith, the scene implying Rufus is already in it… but he’ll only join it in the second season… though maybe by the time they animated this series they had no idea they would make a second season so his cameo is just a nice bonus for who’s familiar with the following events in the novels.

I also likes Catarina’s final words.

Catarina: When I was reincarnated as a villainess in an otome game where all routes led to my doom, I spent my days complaining about how my luck couldn’t be any worse. But now, I can say loudly and proudly… that I, Catarina Claes, am truly blessed to have met all these wonderful people. I have no idea what’s going to happen from now on. A new season that wasn’t in the game’s script is about to begin!

Catarina avoided all her doom flags because she adopted a very active approach… and the wonderful people she met became wonderful because she was a positive influence to them (as in the game they were beautiful but, surely, not that nice as characters, except with the heroine).

So yeah “HameFura” is a definitely enjoyable anime, not too deep or heavy but with plenty of fun and cute moments, something that gifts you with pleasurable time, so it’s definitely something I recommend!

And now let's end this with an AMV about this series I recommend watching Electropop

youtube

#Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta #HameFura #My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!#Silver Link #Isekai #Reverse Harem #Romantic Comedy #Anime television series #Shoujo #Recommended #2020

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ladyimaginarium · 4 years ago

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CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE !!

GENERAL

Name: Marius Marcovich, later renamed Marco Adriano at age fifteen. Alias(es): Spas, Marco Polo ( please don’t- ), Marc, Marcos, Marx, Marcello, Mars. Gender: Agender Man ; he/him &&. they/them. Species: Superhuman ; “Chimera” ; Human/Animal-Transgenic-Hybrid. Race & Ethnicity: White passing Eurasian & Latino ; Italian, French, German, Spanish, English, Scottish, Swiss, Norwegian, Chilean, Greek, Russian, Romanian, Han Chinese, Manchurian Chinese, Mongolian, Yamato Japanese, Korean and Filipino, but for simplicity’s sake, he identifies as Italian and Chinese. Age: Verse dependent ; 29 years old in default, 14 years old in CURSED. Alignment: Dark Neutral while leaning towards Neutral Good in some matters. Place of birth: A research facility in Rome, Italy. Spoken languages: Old, Middle, and Modern English, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Greek, American Sign Language, Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Hindi, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and many other languages from his brutal training regimen. Orientation: Biromantic Bisexual. Occupation: Underboss of the Christiano Family, formerly a hunter, spy, assassin and supersoldier under the Second Destroyers of the American government. Religion: Convert of Judaism via marrying into the Raveau family, a Jewish family ; Agnostic. Residence: Ergastulum, California, USA.

APPEARANCE

Eye color: Brilliant ocean blue. Hair color: Raven black. Height: 5′11.3″. Scars: All over, faded scratches, bullet hole wounds and a nicked ear – the most visible being self-harm scars and battle wounds on his forelimbs and on his shoulder, and the prominent vertical scar across his face and just across the bridge of his nose.

FAVORITE

Color: Blue, black, silver. Hair color: Brown. Eye color: Brown – both dark and light. He finds brown eyes so beautiful. Blue are also a close favorite. Entertainment: Calming, quiet TV programs he can turn on in the background while he works, possibly Planet Earth. His vinyl record player sure doesn’t hurt, either. Pastime: Making music, illustrating, writing, etc. – he’s all-around with his artistic inclinations and not to mention, he’s a pretty damn good magician. Food: Pasta all the way, babey. Drink: Cherry wine, caffeinated iced coffees and cold teas. Books: Poetry collections, the classics, a copy of the works of Leonardo da Vinci, books on magick and the astral planes, nature and ancient history. He’s an avid reader.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: He never went to any public or private educational institutions; he was trained to be a supersoldier, spy and assassin from a very young age by a shadowy project under the American government. Had sex: Yeah. Had sex in public: Nah. Gotten someone pregnant: Yeah ,,,, didn’t last though. Kissed a man: Yeah... he and Striker got boozed up when they were younger - at ages that they were way too young to be drinking ! - and they got wasted after downing three whole damn bottles because Chimeras take literally forever to get drunk. Marco doesn’t remember it, however. Kissed a woman: Yeah... turns out, Connie thinks he’s a good kisser. ( default ). Gotten tattoos: A full sleeve that carries down his spine / chest – an amalgamate piece composed of various types of flowers, the Serpent of Eden, and scaled beasts. He read the second novel of A Song of Ice & Fire: A Clash Of Kings when it was first published in 1998, and really liked the chapter of Daenerys Targaryen where she ventures through her seemingly psychedelic adventures and the visions that the Dragon Queen saw in the the House of the Undying, and being the massive literature nerd that he was, got a tattoo of the inky blue leaved Shade of the Evening that grew off of the black barked trees in Qarth. Galahad never let him rest, never once thinking that Marco was in fact quite the avid reader from a very young age, with Marie having taught him how to read when he was a boy. Gotten piercings: He’s had his right ear pierced for a time in his adolescence until he had it removed when he was twenty one he lowkey but actually highkey had a thing for wearing jewelry even before he entered into a relationship with Constance Raveau. Had a broken heart: A million times for a million different reasons. Been in love: Yes. Stayed up for more than 24 hours: He doesn’t require the need to sleep.

ARE THEY

A virgin: Nah. A cuddler: With his friends, he likes the occasional exchange of affection at a healthy distance from one another – like little hand touches. With Constance, he practically wraps himself around the girl. He also used to hug Loretta a lot when she was younger and would demand for cuddles. A HUGE cuddler in actuality. Can’t get enough of that shit. A kisser: Yes. A smoker: Socially, though he rarely does it nowadays. Scared easily: HELL NO Jealous easily: Not really. His abandonment / rejection issues translate more often into self-hatred than they do a sense of entitlement towards the people he loves. Trustworthy: Very. Painfully so. Self-destructively so. Dominant: Usually. Submissive: Under certain circumstances, in certain moods. Single: Nah, not in default, anyway.

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Wanted to kill someone: Absolutely. Actually killed someone: More than once... kinda used to be his ... ‘thing.’ Ridden a beast: Ride him. Have/had a job: Yes, definitely not any normal jobs, though. Have any fears: Loss, failure, inadequacy, losing his found family and becoming Spas again.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Bellatrix Belladonna / Beretta, babeyyyy !!! ... And other half siblings because their father was .... Like That. Parents: He doesn’t know them nor does he care to, at this point. Children: None, but he’d like to have some, eventually. Pets: He’s kept cats, koi fish, a grey parakeet that the Christiano Family had in their possession, and dogs over the years !

#WHEN THE CURTAIN FALLS ALL THE SINNERS CRAWL. ( DASH GAMES. )#( PENDING MARCO ADRIANO TAG. )#B))))))#wHATS THAT ???? ARCANA POSTS ?????????? OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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koizumicchi · 4 years ago

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I'm following you, and u keep talking about lipxlip and it made me curious. So I was wonder where do i start? Do i need to follow a specific order?

Hello anon and thank you for the follow!!! This may be late now but nice to meet you!!! And I apologize for this late reply!

It's a bit hard to map out but I'll do my best to make a guide :D This is long so buckle up!

LIP×LIP is an idol unit by HoneyWorks (haniwa for short). Haniwa is a music-inclined group producing their own original songs. The main members are: shito and gom, in charge with the songs, and yamako the main illustrator. There are also other support members like mogelatte and the band members, etc. Haniwa is known for their songs and the MVs they release that tell the stories of their characters. Before, they only upload their videos on nico nico douga (that's where I discovered them but correct me if I'm wrong, anyone) but they have their own youtube channel now.

LIP×LIP is a 2-person idol unit composed of Shibasaki Aizou and Someya Yuujirou. When they debuted, their last names weren't revealed so everyone got used to calling them by their first names. Aizou is the blonde with the hair tie; he is the 'wild' image of LIP×LIP, the cool guy, the sunshine brimming with energy, but in truth, he's resentful and usually seen openly angry at anyone when not in idol mode. Yuujirou is the blue-haired with uneven bangs; he is the calm side of LIP×LIP (like the moon), the gentle tones, the pretty boy; but outside his idol persona, he looks down on others inferior to him, and glares at anyone he doesn't like. Off-cam, he and Aizou don't have a good relationship; they argue and disagree with each other a lot... but they got along somewhere somewhen and are now partners or 'rivals' as they like to put it. They may be two-faced jerks, but trust me, they are valid (once you know where they are coming from) and eventually got better as a person. I'll let you in on a secret: they are soulmates but they just don't realize it yet.

That's basically the general summary. I try to avoid mentioning major spoilers but if you have more questions about them, you can try checking the wikia site and if that's not enough for you, my ask box is always open!

I knew LIP×LIP during their debut period but tbh right now I'm not exactly sure what direction should I point you to XD i guess you can start with their MVs. that's where I got to know them anyway. liplip wasn't that popular at first; they were meant to be side characters, I assume, but the fans love them too much and so LIP×LIP got too powerful and landed several collabs which lead to growing popularity.

MVs (they're on youtube dont worry, just search using their kanji titles) : 1. Romeo - debut, Feb 2017 2. Nonfantasy 3. Hitsuyou Fukkaketsu - only a short mv 4. Koi wo Shiyou - a collab so liplip isnt the focus 5. Yume Fanfare 6. Yappa Saikyou 7. Rodeo 8. Choco Kano 9. Chiisana Lion ft Minami

After Romeo, you can watch these in any order you like since they can stand on their own, except for Yume Fanfare and Yappa Saikyou - those you gotta watch consecutively.

Then there are the other MVs which liplip is featured: Heroine Ikusei Keikaku and Heroine Tarumono, among others. There's also the short drama video wayback in 2017 focusing on Aizou and Yuujirou being a bitch on this girl fresh out of a province (excuse me this makes me laugh everytime i remember it), subbed by Denzero - he has an fb page of the same name and he uploaded it there. Hopefully he hasn't deleted it. Watch it before Nonfantasy for more context.

And then there's the Docchi Kiss episode, released last year. I translated it myself, and with the help of some friends, we were able to sub it! I recommend you watch it after Yume Fanfare since it was released after that MV. You can actually watch it after Romeo (the ep is the making video after all) but I think the 'fanservice' wouldn't be that believable XD and of course the 2 drama tracks featured on docchi kiss!! I've made a sunmary of that as well!

The songs w/o an MV :'(( - Judge - Tsuki no Hime - White Day Kiss - Repaint - Fiancee (also on youtube but sung by vocaloids gumi and miku) - Seika (Yuujirou's solo) - Yellow (Aizou's solo)

I have translated these (except for Fiancee) as well, you can find them under my /translation tag. Please do not omit Seika and Yellow. I cannot stress this enough. That's where you'll understand Aizou and Yuujirou's relationship and their thoughts on each other.

There's also the light novels. I think there are about 3 now? For heroine ikusei keikaku, romeo, and kono sekai no tanoshimikatta. It isnt available atm unless you buy them of course. There are also short stories, written in Japanese but translated from Spanish by Mar @yume-fanfare, you can read them on their blog!

And of course, the big project!!! The anime film!!! Kono Sekai no Tanoshimikatta or How to Enjoy this World, to be released on 25th of December this year! It will reveal their pre-idol days, the audition, the days before and after their debut! You can check /HoneyWorksMovie on twitter for more information. and check out Haru's blog @takanenene for translation of the info. The OP and ED songs for the film, sung by LIPLIP themselves will be released on Dec 23 so we'd probably get an mv or two before that date!

Well, that ends it! Sorry for the lack of photos or direct links; our connection here isn't exactly stable for the past weeks :

#asks #tumblr mobile stop ruining my posts pls #i edited it afshdjd sorry abt that hideous format

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kaye-scheidsblogs · 4 years ago

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Ascendance of a Bookworm Review

Ascendance of a Bookworm is an isekai light novel written by Miya Kazuki and illustrated by Yu Shiina. It follows Urano Motosu, or rather Myne as she is known in her new world, as she pursues her one true passion: books. In her past life, Myne had just graduated college and was set to start her dream job as a librarian until an earthquake hit while she was in her book-filled bedroom and she was crushed to death by her massive book collection. As her consciousness fades, she wakes up as the 5 year old sickly Myne in a world where paper is made of parchment too expensive for anyone but nobles to buy and use.

It's anime adaptation has two 14 episode seasons. The first season aired in Fall of 2019 with the second closely following up in Spring of this year. Both the anime and light novels are incredibly enjoyable, but I will actually be focusing this review on the light novel series as I found that I prefer it over the anime. That's not to say that the anime is bad. The light novels simply offer a lot more detail and depth to the already detailed world building that appears in the anime.

As you can see, the anime adaptation’s animation and art style is not much to look at. It certainly is not a sakuga filled series, but it does have its charm. Personally, it reminds me a lot of late 2000s series and fills me with a sense of nostalgia whenever I watch it. The art style is quite cute and simple. The light novel’s illustrations are similar, but have a bit more detail and shine to them. As is also true for the characters, world-building, and writing in general.

Given how detailed and intricate everything about Bookworm’s writing is, you may be surprised to know that the series is heavily character-driven rather than plot-driven. With a world as detailed as this, one might expect it to be filled with political intrigue and plot-driven drama. However, our main character, Myne, is so incredibly defined by her straightforward desire to have and read as many books as possible that there’s simply no time for the writing to expand on plot-driven story beats. As proven by when some volumes add more plot-driven story beats and end up being longer than usual.

With all that said, Ascendance of a Bookworm is very slow paced. In a series about making books, the anime doesn’t even give Myne paper until episode seven and proper books aren’t produced until later in the second season! That may make some people turn away. If you like your fantasies to be action packed, then Bookworm may not be for you. Even so, I implore all of you to give this series a shot. The slow-pacing does have its pros for readers looking for that sweet sweet cathartic feeling. Miya Kazuki has a talent for knowing the exact time and place for when certain things about her world should be revealed. And as such, she has developed a writing technique that reaps all the benefits of an isekai story while also not making it jarring for the reader.

By that, I am referring to exposition. Isekai stories have protagonists that know nothing about the fantasy worlds they live in, but with all the knowledge of their previous world. This gives authors the excuse to have the main character ask questions that the world’s inhabitants know as common sense, but still have things explained to the audience. If authors aren’t careful, these exposition dumps can be boring at best and immersion-breaking at worse. But Miya Kazuki has created characters and a world that creates perfect circumstances for seamless exposition.

First, we have Myne or Urano Motosu. A bookworm among bookworms. With a one-track and somewhat forgetful mind, all she knows and loves is books. She is an absolute delight of a character and while her development is just as slow as the story’s pacing, it is a wonderful experience to read it all unfold. Her desire for books leaves her selfish and uninterested in everything else, which does her no favors. Myne is a low-class peasant. Born the daughter of a soldier and seamstress, she already shouldn’t know much about the world outside her lot in life. But to make things worse, Myne’s body is very sickly. Racked by a mysterious fever that has forced her to practically spend all her time inside and thus, doesn’t even have the knowledge of most kids in the same class.

Her first real source of knowledge about the world she’s been reborn into is Lutz. A neighbor and youngest son of four, whose perpetual hunger and desire to eat the tasty food that Myne makes leads to him becoming close friends with Myne. Lutz is with Myne throughout her entire journey and learns just as much as she does about the world they live in. Afterall, Lutz is also just the kid of a low-income family. The life Myne was born into not only serves as a fantastic way to immerse the reader into world-building, but also ends being a great vehicle for exploring the issues of a heavily class-based society. Even in this world completely separate from our own, somehow Miya Kazuki manages to make some pretty bold commentary on class-based society as a whole.

Most light novels use fairly simple language, but even knowing that I think Miya Kazuki's writing style is even on the simple side of that. I don't blame her for that though, since her world and characters are so incredibly detailed that if she used flowery prose, her series would probably be the biggest and longest light novel series ever made. Some may not like how her style leans more toward "tell don't show" but it is still an incredibly well-written story with very compelling characters. Not to mention that this simpler writing style lends itself to some really great comedy.

That being said, Miya Kazuki’s writing often does that weird thing that happens in anime where something happens on screen and then the characters say out loud what just happened, except in written form. Which sounds terrible, but actually works a lot better in practice. It allows character interactions to flow a lot more freely and the simplistic writing allows for a lot more detail to be added. And due to Miya Kazuki writing the characters the way she does, there’s no boring or immersion-breaking exposition.

This writing style is not a product of the translation either. I have had the absolute pleasure of picking up (searching up) the web novel and experiencing Bookworm in Japanese as well. And as a side note; if any of you are upper-intermediate Japanese learners and are looking for Japanese reading material that’s simple enough for you to understand most of it (not mention fun to read), but also offers a bit of a challenge then check out Ascendance of a Bookworm’s web novel here: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4830bu/. Bonus tip: Download the yomichan and/or rikaikun extensions on your browser for optimal reading time. Anyway, I can assure you that the translator behind Ascendance of a Bookworm is not muddling the writing style or the reading experience in the slightest. Miya Kazuki’s story and writing style comes through very nicely in the official releases.

Ascendance of a Bookworm is one of the most thoroughly realized stories I have had the pleasure of reading and watching. The anime is, of course, quite good, but I also highly recommend the light novel series even if you’ve seen the anime three times over. Miya Kazuki is an amazing writer and the official translations are quite good. If you’re like me though and like to binge series as quickly as possible, you might find yourself waiting aimlessly for more when you finish the anime and current English light novels. If you’re of intermediate or higher Japanese level, you can always read ahead in the Japanese web novels. Or you could seek out similar series. I recommend everything written by Nahoko Uehashi. Her novels are similarly well-realized fantasy stories with anime adaptations. Or, more obscurely, check out the fantasy series, Saiunkoku Monogatari. Its animation and art style gives me a similar sense of nostalgia and also has a great story with compelling characters. Anyway, I hope this review helped to convince you to give Ascendance of a Bookworm a shot, whether that be the anime or light novels.

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justusrstone · 5 years ago

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Review of the light novel Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mystical Sorceress by Ameko Kaeruda. Check it out on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2qBAyII Review is of the official English release from J-Novel Club

📔LIGHT NOVEL INFORMATION TITLE: Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mystical Sorceress Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2qBAyII Get it from iBooks: https://apple.co/2Vpj9O3

JAPANESE TITLE: 女だから、とパーティを追放されたので伝説の魔女と最強��ッグを組みました "Onna dakara, to Party wo Tsuihou Sareta no de Densetsu no Majo to Saikyou Tag wo Kumimashita" AUTHOR: Ameko Kaeruda ILLUSTRATOR: Kazutomo Miya PUBLISHER (English): J-Novel Club TRANSLATOR: Molly Lee RELEASE DATE (English): October 5, 2019

SYNOPSIS: Tanya Artemiciov is a talented Mage-class adventurer who just got kicked out of her party by a sexist scumbag. So what's a girl to do? Go to the wasteland and blow stuff up of course! One small problem though: she inadvertently frees a mythical Sorceress named Laplace who was sealed away for the past 300 years...

Surprise! Turns out this so-called "wicked" Sorceress is actually pretty cool. Laplace wants to start a party of her own, Tanya wants revenge, and the solution is obvious: team up. It's time to kick ass, kiss girls, and dismantle the patriarchy!

PUBLISHER (Japan): Overlap Novels RELEASE DATE (Japan): February 25, 2019 VOLUMES RELEASED (Japan to Date): 2 (Most recent released August 2019) ANIME SERIES: None MANGA: None

#sexiled #j-novel club #lightnovel #light novel #light novel review #book review

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otomeverything · 6 years ago

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NIGHTSHADE

Release Date: December 20, 2018 (North America) Developers: Red Entertainment / LANTERN ROOMS Publishers: D3Publisher Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam) ESRB Rating: M (Mature) 17+

Walkthroughs:

Goemon

Chojiro

Hanzo

Kuroyuki

Gekkamaru

Common Route

PROLOGUE (from Nightshade’s official site) During the Sengoku Period the two main factions of ninja clans, Iga and Kōga, warred against each other for decades. In the year 1593, Nobunaga Oda started the Tenshō Iga war, decimating most of the Iga ninjas in the process. The very few that survived were absorbed into the Kōga clan, despite their past rivalries. After 17 years the Sengoku Period finally came to an end, and Japan was unified.

Enju (Protagonist), daughter of Kandō Ueno, the Head of the Kōga clan, spends her days training diligently in hope of becoming a full-fledged ninja like her peers. At long last, she is assigned to her first mission but finds herself caught in a dark conspiracy.

ART AND MUSIC One of Nightshade’s prominent features that’ll easily make an impression among otome fans, is its art style. The game credits non-other than the famous illustrator, Teita who’s fairly popular for her other works such as Norn9, the Juuzaengi Engetsu Sangokuden saga and the recently released visual novel, Charade Maniacs.

I wish I could say the same for the game’s musical score. The OP theme was nice but wasn’t memorable at all. The END theme (Good End) however, “Taezaru Hana” by MIKOTO was pretty soothing that I ended up purchasing the track in iTunes. Listen to the full song below:

Voice Acting Nightshade honestly has the best seiyuu lineup. The voice acting was, in fact, one of the major highlights of the game. The VAs really did an amazing job capturing your emotions. I was already expecting this much from their topnotch VA list, but they did more than stellar performances with this game! Every seiyuu involved were magnificent, even the side character, Ieyasu Tokugawa (voiced by Koki Miyata, who’s famous for his role as Ukyo in Amnesia), did an amazing job portraying his cunning personality.

Hikaru Midorikawa ♥ “Goemon Ishikawa” – Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi Suzaku Ibun), Zenya (Sweet Pool), Ayato (Diabolik Lovers), Hanate (7’Scarlet), Yutaka Nabari (Nil Admirari)

Wataru Hatano “Gekkemaru” – Asato (Lamento Beyond the Void), Lindo (Dance with the Devils), Kotarou (Hakuoki), Sakiyama Youji (Sweet Pool), Yuuto (Storm Lover)

Hiro Shimono “Kuroyuki“ – Shou Kurusu (Utapri), Senri Ichinose (Norn9), Sou Kiryuu (Harukanaru Toki no Naka De 5), Ricchie (Black Wolves Saga), Ray Blackwell (Ikerev)

Kenjiro Tsuda “Hanzo Hattori” – Chikage Kazama (Hakuoki), Soshi Amazaki (The Charming Empire), Leonardo Da Vinci (Ikevamp), Nathan Seymour (Tiger & Bunny)

Kosuke Toriumi “Chojiro Momochi” – Hajime Saito (Hakuoki), Kagiha (Psychedelica BB), Poyo-Poyo (Period Cube), Hideyoshi (Ikesen), Lawrence (Psychedelica AH), John Watson (Code Realize)

MAIN CHARACTERS (Spoiler Free)

I must say, I love all of the characters and their routes that it was hard for me to pick a favorite. If you’re concerned with plot spoilers in your first playthrough, my recommendation would be to play the routes in the following order (from least to greatest in spoiler content): Goemon – Hanzo – Chojiro – Kuroyuki – Gekkamaru. For enjoyability, I’d recommend playing in the same order. Goemon and Hanzo were the lighter routes, Chojiro was angst from start to finish and the brothers (Kuroyuki and Gekkamaru) had more plot revelations than you’ve expected. I would also strongly recommend saving Gekkamaru’s route for last, trust me when I say, this makes your last playthrough more worthwhile. 😉

GOEMON ISHIKAWA

The Japanese Robin Hood

ladykiller

True to his name in history books, Goemon Ishikawa is the legendary Japanese outlaw who stole gold and other valuables from the rich to give to the poor. He’s very popular among the townspeople due to his ingenious thieving schemes. He is known to send prior notices to his targets before he robs them off their treasures. Goemon is also a highly skilled ninja who has the wit of a brilliant tactician.

Playing Goemon’s route first was a good choice since his story was the lightest among the bachelors in the game, plus I haven’t fallen in love with Midorikawa’s voice in a while, so there’s also that ha! I find Goemon’s story really refreshing due to his carefree personality and charismatic nature. Because of this, it was so easy to like this character from the get-go. Going down his route will let you discover a few revelations regarding Goemon’s past, where he came from and how he ended up as the notorious thief he is now. His route also offers a couple of plot twists and although it was a little predictable towards the end, it was executed really well where it didn’t feel awkward nor forced. As far as the romance goes, Goemon is a straight up, ladykiller. It was fun to see his relationship with Enju develop all throughout his route. His playful teasing and his easy-going personality will have you falling for him in no time.

HANZO HATTORI

Mr. stoic ninja

kuudere

Besides, being Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa’s personal guard, Hanzo is also the Tokugawa clan’s shinobi leader. Because of his resounding title as the strongest ninja history has ever known, he is very popular among all the shinobi clans in Japan. He is normally calm and collected but will not hesitate to become ruthless for the success of his mission.

Hanzo is the oldest among the bachelors (and I absolutely love him!) He is, I believe 33 years old, making quite an age gap between him and the heroine Enju, but LOL this is Toyotomi-Tokugawa (Edo 1600’s – 1800’s) period we’re talking about, where huge age gaps among couples are very common… But age aside, let me tell you… Hanzo’s route completely took me by surprise! I have no words! *Breaths heavily* I guess, I was already eyeing this character from the start since Kenjiro Tsuda voiced him. But I wasn’t expecting his arc to be this good that it literally caught me off guard. He ended up becoming my favorite of the entire game!

At first, he started as the very straightforward stoic kind, who’s only doing his master, Lord Tokugawa’s bidding. But after a few encounters where he teams up with the heroine and helps her survive, he begins to slightly soften up, giving us a glimpse of his true adorable fluffy nature. Both Hanzo and Enju go through tremendous character development in this route, especially the heroine. I just love seeing Enju prove herself time and again how much she wanted to make it as a true shinobi while she constantly faces hardships every step of the way (she’s freakin’ cool!) I also love seeing Hanzo unexpectedly supporting her through her struggles. It’s as if, rather than saving her all the time, he wants her to learn to depend on herself instead; and to me, this relationship was truly very refreshing, not to mention absolutely heartwarming. Expect a lot of badass back to back action scenes in this route, where Hanzo and Enju kick some ninja ass!

CHOJIRO MOMOCHI

Big Brother

Angst! Angst! Angst!

Chojiro is the son of the late leader of Iga, Tanba Momochi . After losing his family and clan in the Tensho Iga War at the age of five, he joined the Koga clan along with the other Iga survivors. Chojiro is also the heroine’s cousin as well as her mentor/trainer. He is a man of a few words and he completely devotes himself to his missions without questions.

I made a mistake playing Chojiro’s route earlier in the game as I wasn’t ready for a sudden whirlwind of angst! At the start, Chojiro’s personality was very closed off, its almost as if he has built a wall before him to keep others away. Because of his tragic past, he doesn’t want to get attached to anyone, afraid he’d lose them at the blink of an eye just like how he lost his parents when he was young. This makes his relationship with Enju a little less intimate from the beginning. As the heroine tries her best to get a closer reach of him, he waves his feelings off because he’s conflicted between succeeding his missions as a shinobi versus his own desire to help Enju and stay by her side.

Chojiro’s route was also the most tragic in the game!😭 Ya’ll better prepare those tissues! Romantic wise, his story was not my favorite. The drama just out-weights the romance on this one. I do love the writing in his route though. It seriously gave me an emotional breakdown I wasn’t prepared for. 😅I suggest playing his route in the middle to get the angst out of the way. This, also kinda gives you more room to recuperate from the heavy drama before jumping into an even more dramatic finish as you do Gekka’s route last.

KUROYUKI

clever, cunning

soft yand

Kuroyuki is Gekkamaru’s younger brother. Right after he was born, both boys became orphans and were taken in by Enju’s family. He was sent away on an extended mission when he was eight, by the heroine’s father Kando Ueno, who’s also the leader and head chief of the Koga clan. Kuroyuki is also the same age as Enju (16).

Not much is revealed about this character other than he is Gekkamaru’s brother who was sent on a secret mission when he was eight years old. Where did he go? What was he doing for the last eight years he was gone? It was rather questionable how his character (in other routes) always comes and goes sporadically in the plot.

I couldn’t really expound more on Kuroyuki’s arc without entering spoiler territory but going down his route will let you discover one interesting revelation about him and the game’s overarching plot. It was quite satisfying to play Yuki’s route because finally! we get to fill in some plot holes. I fell in love with his story for the same reasons some people are calling it out for. It wasn’t light nor easy-going as Goemon’s or Hanzo’s, it wasn’t tragic as Chojiro’s or Gekkamaru’s. It was dark and I probably wouldn’t have it in any other way. Kudos to Hiro Shimono for breathing extra life to this character!

GEKKAMARU

best boi

puppy eyes

true route ish?

After losing his family at the age of three, Gekkamaru was adopted by the heroine’s parents along with his younger brother Kuroyuki. Gekkamaru was assigned to be Enju’s trusted bodyguard when they were young and has proven his loyalty and devotion through time by sticking to his role as Enju’s protector. He is wholeheartedly committed to his master (Enju) to a point where he becomes too overprotective of her.

So after going through all kinds of heaps and hooplas of playing and suffering each of the character routes in the game, I was finally on my last one, Gekkamaru. I know you can just play his route whenever but I chose to do his story last for the experience. ohoho!

…and I have no regrets!😭 Gekkamaru’s route started with pure dramatic fluff as expected. It was just so precious and endearing to see how far this man would go for the sake of the heroine. His loyalty and dedication for Enju was such a pure bliss that it even pains me to see him doing too much😭. His route was a combination of action, romance, a side of humor and a whole lot of drama as he and the heroine struggled to survive by each other’s side. I thought to myself, “This story couldn’t get any better or worse, could it?” but then angst hits the fan through plot twists after plot twists (during the last chapters) and this was where the story really picked up. I was at lost for words. I felt really sad, angry and confused. His route put me through a tidal wave of emotions, I had to pause the game for a while, sit in a corner to get my head straight and my breathing in check! lmao! Gekkamaru’s route is like a slow burn, heart-rending gut punch and I absolutely loved it.

ENJU UENO (Main Heroine)

Enju is a strong heroine and I adore her to bits. Unfortunately, her potentiality to become an even better shinobi was wasted in some routes because of the whole damsel in distress scenarios, with the exception on Hanzo’s and Gekkamaru’s route ~ these were the only story arcs where the heroine was able to hone her skills as a ninja and show us her true strengths.

Enju Ueno was literally, thrown to the wolves when she got caught up into this despicable game of survival, out of the blue. Not only that, but the ordeal she went through of betrayal, loss, and sorrow was absolutely too much to handle for someone her age. Still, despite all the hardships, she chose to live and survive. I was thoroughly impressed by her determination which I believe was one of her strongest points. YES, this is one badass heroine right here folks!

Side Characters

Ennosuke (Left) – The fastest ninja in the Koga clan. He’s not romanceable, and I don’t think I’d want him as a dateable character either, heh. I ship him with Kyara though. I love the chemistry with both of their characters.

Kyara (Right) – Proud, graceful, responsible, and badass on the battlefield. Her weapon of choice is a “chigirigi” which is similar to the “morning star” in medieval age weaponry. I ship her with Ennosuke. Also, Saori Hayami voices her, so this to me was a plus!

Kasumi (Center) – the cutest, most adorable ninja…ever! She’s the youngest of Chojiro’s disciples. Looks up to Enju and Kyara as her older sisters. I love her so much! *must protecc*

SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION I purchased the physical copy of Nightshade (proxy shipped) which lets you choose three language options to start the game with (English, Chinese, Japanese). I can say, that the localization was fairly decent. I didn’t play the PC version, but I asked a few people who owned both PC and Switch copy and as far as their answers go, D3Publisher did not change the English translations for Nightshade on the Switch. They changed the fonts though! D3Publisher is known to deliver decent game localizations. They’re not the best but they’re not disappointing either. I’ve spotted a couple of minor typos in the game, but it’s NOT something that would ruin the whole experience for you.

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The Switch system was very comfortable and very easy to navigate from the jump. They even offer a “rewind” option for you to backtrack scenarios, which to me, was a saving grace. This way, making the correct save files became a piece of cake. The Nintendo Switch version also contains the game’s DLC “Special Content”. These are extra fluff episodes that happened in the middle of a character’s story. They also come with a special CG (one for each story).

TRAILER

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OVERALL THOUGHTS? (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ It took me a total of 30 hours to finish the game, and none of these 1800 minutes spent were wasted. Yes, I loved every bit of it.

Although the story was set in the Sengoku “Warring” period of Japan. Instead of the usual cliche battleground premise that’s normally used in Sengoku themed animes and VNs. Nightshade’s story focused more on the darker side of politics during the said period. The indirect “battle royale” theme, I admit, was quite bracing and very well paced. It was something I never expected to actually work in an otome game.

Besides the Nightshade’s gorgeous artwork, I wanted to compliment the game’s stunning special effects, such as the leaves falling in the BG, flower petals scattering about (whenever Enju uses her ninjitsu), and the moving sprites (which played exceptionally well during fight scenes). The voice acting for Nightshade blew me away and I couldn’t have wished for a better seiyuu lineup. I guess my only gripe here was Enju’s inconsistency as the heroine. In some routes, she’s badass while in others, she’s weak and very dependent. Her characteristics as a whole seem to vary depending on who’s the guy she’s with. I still love her as the main protagonist though!

While I’ve enjoyed playing all the routes in Nightshade and their respective stories, the ones that made an impression on me were Hanzo’s, Goemon’s and Gekkamaru’s. Chojiro’s was good but it was too angsty for my taste and while Kuroyuki’s story drove me to the edge of my seat, this is the route where Enju is at her weakest.

Do I recommend this game? YES This is the first ever english otome game in the Switch that I would no doubt recommend to everyone at the drop of a hat. I’m so glad I’ve waited for this port, despite all the STEAM sales that have gone by the previous years 😂 (laughs). To be honest, I was even quite sad when I finished it 😅 and wished there was more content for me to delve into. If you’re having second thoughts whether or not it’s worth shelling out 48 bux to get this game in your Nintendo Switch Library. Here’s my advice: GET IT! This one’s definitely a gem and imo, almost up to par with the big titles (like Code Realize, Hakuoki, CxM). If you want an impressive storyline and characters you can’t ever get enough of, I can’t recommend Nightshade enough!

CHLO’S RATING: 8/10

Nightshade Review (Nintendo Switch) NIGHTSHADE Release Date: December 20, 2018 (North America) Developers: Red Entertainment / LANTERN ROOMS Publishers: D3Publisher…

#Hyakka Hyakurou #Hyakka Hyakurou Review #Nightshade Review #nintendo switch #Otome game review

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shazzeaslightnovels · 4 years ago

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Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e 1

Author: Syougo Kinugasa

Illustrator: Tomoseshunsaku

Label: MF Bunko J

Release Date: 25 May 2015

English Release: Seven Seas Entertainment is currently releasing this series in English under the title of Classroom of the Elite.

My Score: 3/5

Story & Characters:

Genre: Drama, Comedy, High School Setting

Story Premise: The series takes place in a prestigious and advanced high school famous for giving its students independence with a point system to buy from its shops and individual dorm rooms. It’s a new school year and our protagonist, Ayanokouji, is a new student put in class D. The students are happy to have their independence but they soon learn that the school is focused on grades and your points depend on your grade and class D is the lowest ranked class and is mocked by the rest of the school. The class is going to need to work together if they want to advance their rank at the school and increase their quality of life.

So, I saw the anime for this just over a year ago and I started off not caring for it much but I ended up just being very curious about all of the characters and what their motivations were so I’m finally reading the light novel. And I’m glad that I am because I am excited to read the later volumes but I didn’t get a whole lot out of this first volume. I think that it has a lot potential and I find the setting very interesting because there’s a lot that you could do with it with regards to exploring modern education systems and the focus they put on standardised testing. I thought this volume on it’s own was just kind of okay but it was interesting enough that I’m interested in reading more.

While I wasn’t too invested in the story of this volume, I did get interested in the characters. I was surprised by how much I liked Ayanokouji. I remember not really understanding him in the anime, due to his stoic nature, but I thought he was really fun and charming here. I had to laugh whenever Horikita mentioned how desperate he seemed for friends, despite not wanting to put in any effort to actually get friends. I like that he never looks down on other people, even when they value different things than he does, and I’m definitely looking forward to getting to know him more. Horikita is the main heroine of this volume and she is the smart cool beauty type of character who is stubborn and unsociable. It took me a while to really get interested in her but I found her pretty likeable by the end of the book as she learns that she isn’t going to be able to advance their class rank on her own. She has some fun interactions with Ayanokouji too. Another major character for this volume is Kikyou. She is the nice girl in the class who wants to make friends with everyone but I basically consider her to be an inferior version of Ami from Toradora. Actually, a funny thing happened where I got her name mixed up with Hirata a few times because they have similar Japanese names and it made those scenes a lot better because I thought that Ayanokouji was saying that Hirata was being cute, until I realised my mistake. Whoops. I’m pretty interested in all of class members at this point but I’m most interested in Kouenji, due to loving him in the anime, and Kei, who is so popular but seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in the anime and I’m curious as to why she’s so popular.

There a few reasons why I didn’t rate this volume higher than a 3. First off, I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style and I felt that some scenes went on a bit too long and I was made uncomfortable with a few of the scenes of the guys talking about the girls’ bodies. While I get that they are teenage boys and this behaviour isn’t strange for them, it did make me uncomfortable. Still, this volume was pretty interesting and I am interested in what’s going to happen next.

Recommended for:

I guess I’d recommend it to people who want to read a comedy/drama set in a high school. I think that if you are interested in the idea of a student’s quality of life being determined by whether they do well with standardised testing, you may want to give this one a go.

Adaptation Notes:

The anime adaptation has 12 episodes and it doesn’t have the best reputation among light novel fans as it cut and changed a lot of things. While I had some issues with the anime, it did make me curious about the characters and it made me want to read the light novel, so I don’t think it did a completely terrible job. I don’t really want to rewatch it though so I won’t go into detail here. From what I can recall, the anime adapts this volume accurately, though cutting out some of Ayanokouji’s inner thoughts does make him harder to understand. I don’t think I would recommend the anime to fans of the light novel but I would recommend it if you just want to get a broad idea of what the series is like and whether you would want to read the light novel or not.

The manga is ongoing at 10 volumes and features art by Kawaisunako. There is a lot of sexual imagery as the lady characters are imagined in various states of undress which I found off-putting. Again, I get that these are teenage boys but it’s still annoying. Some stuff is cut, particularly with Sudou who gets more focus in the light novel, and the manga has this thing with starting chapters in media res, leading to me getting somewhat confused about the story, despite having read the light novel and seen the anime. I don’t recommend it.

There is also an anthology and a spin-off focusing on Horikita but I won’t be covering them here.

I will be reading the second volume in the future but I don’t know when I’m going to get around to it.

#youkoso jitsuryoku shijou shugi no kyoushitsu e #Youzitsu #Syougo Kinugasa #Tomoseshunsaku #mf bunko j #January 2021 #3 stars

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unblinded-by-nostalgia-blog · 3 years ago

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Unblinded by Nostalgia's VALENTINES DAY SPECIAL!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The English version of Stawberry Panic' is in an omnibus format containing three books. This review contains the Japanese light novel above only. Thank you for your patience.

The Story

The story 'continues' from the cliff hanger of the second volume.

The story in this novel takes FOREVER to get anywhere, and the ending is rushed beyond belief! There are too many plot holes to count and when we finally get to the story, it is overall very dull.

In fact, we are never told what the Étolie actually does after they win and why are the fangirls getting their panties wet for some of the most unlikeable girls I have ever seen in a light novel!

The Characters

The characters are just as uninteresting and unlikeable as in the previous novels. In fact, some are just hypocrites!

In one scene, it is shown that Nagisa is being bullied by the other girls because she left the competition, even though they nagged her to leave. Aren't we supposed to like these characters?

The Illustrations

First off, I want to talk about the coloured illustrations in this novel. What they do is introduce the characters and show scenes in the novel to get the reader excited about what they are about to read. The coloured illustrations in this novel LIE!

The first illustration has the girls changing into there summer dresses, which never happens.

The second illustration shows us a play which looks like the perfect place for a romantic confession scene, never happens.

The third Illustration has two of the girls deliver Christmas presents to three little girls, and the older girls look at the little girls lustfully (which thankfully) NEVER HAPPENS!

There are only 5 illustrations in all and they look TERRIBLE! There faces look wonky and the backgrounds are just white voids!

The Yuri

There are very little no no Yuri scenes in this novel, we almost get a sex scene, but it ends for no reason. And the other is a creepy dream scene with a girl she had an affair with! What the FUCK!?

The actual relationships aren't that likeable, either. Amane's partner never tells her about her affair, she even LIED to her about it and the main couple is far worse!

After Shizuma makes a shitty attempt to look for Nagisa, instead of trying to find and talk about the situation, like any loving couple, she goes off to have casual sexual activity with all the other girls without Nagisa knowing. Do readers of yuri really find NTR sexy? I'm pretty sure MOST don't!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this final novel was HORRIBLE beyond reason! Seven Seas didn't even release the third novel on its own, you can only get it by buying the omnibus, thus, the people who have only the first two novels had to buy a large, expensive omnibus to read the final book!

No wonder Seven Seas light novels did so poorly! If they are anything like Strawberry Panic, then no wonder people didn't want to go near them, and neither should you go near this novel! It is just HORRIBLE!

The Story 0/5 The Characters 1/5 The Illustrations 1/5 The Yuri 1/5

Overall 1/5

#strawberry panic #3 #light novel #review #reviews #overrated #terrible #stupid cheating sluts!#yuri #not sexy #shoujo #shojo #ai

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steaktlsideblog · 3 years ago

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Intro

I've made this blog to post translations and/or commentary about the 高校事変 (Koukou Jihen, High School Catastrophe) novels by 松岡圭祐 (Matsuoka Keisuke). I'm not the most prolific reader of adult-oriented Japanese media [eg: seinen manga, non-"light" novels], but a couple years ago I came across Koukou Jihen randomly on Bookwalker and decided what the hell. I almost never go for non-fantasy stories that take place in the real world, so this was a real leap for me. The reviews said it was a pretty light read though and had "action movie pacing", so it seemed like a decent jumping-off point. The author also churns out a full novel every like 2 months, so that also gave the impression it would be a lighter, "pulpier" read. That was ultimately true about the writing style, but it still took a lot of work at first because of how unexpectedly detailed it got with political stuff. But by the time I finished the third novel I realized I'd found something pretty amazing that I want to share. Or at least talk about. So this blog is probably for both of those things.

Anyway, what's so great about Matsuoka Keisuke's novels? The best I can really describe it is, imagine thriller novels like "The Da Vinci Code" but if they took themselves about as seriously as "National Treasure", and contain buttloads of tongue-in-cheek social satire. While also being legit good thriller novels at the same time, of course.

The characters and dialogue are really special too. Even for characters who barely get any "screentime" and are basically "extras" if this were a movie, they end up feeling human and memorable. And every line feels like it has a purpose; Matsuoka wastes no time with frivolous over-describing. He gives exactly as much detail as we need to illustrate the character/scene/mood without sacrificing pacing.

By the way, despite taking place in the real world, bonkers shit does indeed still happen in these books. I never feel unsatisfied by the end of one. Oh, and the novels are all self-contained plots that start and resolve within a single book, fyi. Which is really nice, and he does an excellent job of adding continuity with serialized elements while also keeping the overall "episodic" pacing.

The series is complete at 11 novels, of which I've read 4. Rather than continue to book 5 I got the urge to reread book 1 for some reason and while looking over the first chapter I felt like I had a lot to say about it, and felt like maybe this could be an important story to share in English. At the very least, I want to share this series with other learners of Japanese like myself, because it's really fun and written in a conversational, understandable way. I want other learners to see that they can expand their horizons beyond "light" novels with fantasy battle plots or harem romance or whatever. You can read novels with real things to say about [Japanese] society, which portray people like real people behave. It's extremely rewarding. Anyway, I'm getting off-track....

But the first ~20 pages of the first Koukou Jihen novel are extremely dense and politics-filled, which make it quite daunting and inaccessible to the people I'm trying to rec it to. So that's kind of another reason for this blog: to guide people through the dense opening and expose them to this rewarding series.

Also probably this will sorta will be my liveblog of rereading the novel, at the same time.

FYI there is a manga that appears to cover the events of the first novel. I read part of chapter 1 and skimmed the rest of the first volume, and... I don't think it's good. Sorry, it's just not a very good adaptation, for a number of reasons I might talk about when it's relevant. Even when I was originally reading the novel, before knowing the manga existed, there were parts where I thought "this could only really work in writing". And I was correct.

#kkjh #novel translation

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thejollyshiner · 7 years ago

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Meme Anime Ask Pt.3 of 4

@stacys--mum asked me to answer 12, 16, and 30.

Due to my past experience of learning to answer these I will answer them in this order

Pt.1 - 12. Anime that should get more attention from others?

Pt.2 - 16. 10 animes you have watched to recommend? (alphabetically/1-5)

Pt.3 - 16. 10 animes you have watched to recommend? (alphabetically/6-10)

Pt.4 - 30. One anime conclusion you would change?

Also a quick mention to anyone of what not to do when writing an extensive post since this is now my fifth attempt.

1. Always stick with one network or wi-fi when completing these, otherwise when you connect to a new wi-fi theres a good chance of losing everything you wrote.

2. Don’t ever write on a train even if they promise some sort of wi-fi especially on a moving train. Since your computer is just going to run pretty slow to the point of your computer thinking you had decided to send the answer on private, instead of choosing your gif.

3. Always be cautious where you are leaning your body on the overly sensitive touchpad especially when your unaware of it, while enjoying someones company.

4. Don’t ever try to attempt to make a long post and expect your laptop to still run fast. I learned this the hard way being half way done with this ask only for my computer to stay frozen for over two hours. only to give up hope that my computer can work while still answering this ask, so I decided to restart my laptop and loose everything.

Knowing these are all of the things I’ve learned I encourage everyone to not be me lol.

So, fifth times the charm...I guess.

16. 10 anime you have watched to recommend ? ( alphabetically/6-10 )

6. Kill la Kill

Plot: After the murder of her father, Ryuuko Matoi has been wandering the land in search of his killer. Following her only lead—the missing half of his invention, the Scissor Blade—she arrives at the prestigious Honnouji Academy, a high school unlike any other. The academy is ruled by the imposing and cold-hearted student council president Satsuki Kiryuuin alongside her powerful underlings, the Elite Four. In the school's brutally competitive hierarchy, Satsuki bestows upon those at the top special clothes called "Goku Uniforms," which grant the wearer unique superhuman abilities. Thoroughly beaten in a fight against one of the students in uniform, Ryuuko retreats to her razed home where she stumbles across Senketsu, a rare and sentient "Kamui," or God Clothes. After coming into contact with Ryuuko's blood, Senketsu awakens, latching onto her and providing her with immense power. Now, armed with Senketsu and the Scissor Blade, Ryuuko makes a stand against the Elite Four, hoping to reach Satsuki and uncover the culprit behind her father's murder once and for all.

Background: Kill La Kill’s Toshio Ishizaki won the Tokyo Anime Award for Best Character Design in 2014. The series got another Character Design Award along with a Storyboard Award, Soundtrack Award, Theme Song Award (for Sirius), Mascot Awards (for Senketsu and Guts), Female Character Awards (for Ryuuko Matoi and Mako Mankanshoku), and Series Award for TV Broadcast in the 2014 Newtype Anime Awards.

Kill la Kill is a 2013 anime produced by Studio Trigger. A relatively new studio's first television production wouldn't normally raise too many eyebrows when announced unless said studio happened to be made up of ex-Studio Gainax and Studio 4C members, and the production's director, writer, and lead character designer also worked together on Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann and a composer who did the music for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and Attack on Titan. Kill la Kill was also heavily influenced by the 1980s comedy/battle seinen anime film Project A-ko, which featured almost identical character dynamics and types amongst its main female protagonists, and a similar main conflict. Kill la Kill was originally conceived as a manga focused entirely on battle scenes, but it shifted during production to become more character-focused.

Genres: Action, Comedy, Super Power, Ecchi, School, magical girl

7. Monogatari Series (nothing too specific as I like to view it as one giant story to watch, as I feel at times they’re not the best as stand alones. Especially the ecchi in this series can get horribly cringy at times especially when its not needed whats o ever.)

Plot: The Monogatari series revolves around Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate of his, the reclusive Hitagi Senjōgahara, falls down the stairs into Koyomi's arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs nothing, in defiance of physics. Despite being threatened by her to keep away, Koyomi offers his help and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a strange middle-aged man living in an abandoned building, who cured him of being a vampire. Once Koyomi helps solve Hitagi's problem, she decides to become his friend.

As the series progresses, Koyomi finds himself involved with other girls, each afflicted by different "oddities", including the ghost of a child called Mayoi Hachikuji; his underclassman Suruga Kanbaru; Nadeko Sengoku, a friend of his sisters; his classmate Tsubasa Hanekawa; and his own younger sisters Karen and Tsukihi. To deal with the spectres, Koyomi relies on guidance from Oshino and, later, from Shinobu, the same vampire who attacked him, now with the appearance of an eight-year-old girl.

Most heroines have an item that symbolises their spectres, such as Hitagi's stapler (the claw of a crab), Mayoi's backpack (the shell of a snail), Suruga's arm (the arm of a monkey), Nadeko's hat and jacket (the head and skin of a snake), and Karen's black and yellow tracksuit (the colors of a bee). Although incorporating elements of fantasy, horror, and action, it primarily focuses on conversations between characters, containing parodies of other series, as well as Nisio Isin’s trademark wordplay and metahumor.

Background: The Monogatari Series is a series of light novels written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by VOFAN. Much like the rest of Nisio Isin and his work, Bakemonogatari parodies a lot of different anime tropes- most of them center around the harem genre, and poke fun at the various cliches inherent in said genre. Each part of the series focuses on a different girl and the affliction that ails them, each one an examination of a different anime girl stereotype. For example, main girl Hitagi is a Tsundere, Hanekawa is the meganekko, and so on. Araragi himself is an unreliable narrator, so much of his opinion of who these girls are can bleed into their portrayal in the series, making it so that we often learn more about Araragi at the same time we learn about the girls.

Studio Shaft adapted Bakemonogatari into an anime in 2009 under the direction of Akiyuki Shinbo, the man behind the surrealist Sayonara, Zetsubou - Sensei. he adaptation has been a huge success, and the studio has stated they will adapt the entire series ( even as Isin keeps writing more and more ). As noted in the list above, all of the series up to the first half of Owarimonogatari has been adapted to anime in some form, including broadcast series, original net animations, TV specials and theatrical films.

Genres: Avant-Garde, Mystery, Comedy, Supernatural, Romance, Vampire

8. Princess Tutu

Plot: In a fairy tale come to life, the clumsy, sweet, and gentle Ahiru (Japanese for "duck") seems like an unlikely protagonist. In reality, Ahiru is just as magical as the talking cats and crocodiles that inhabit her town—for Ahiru really is a duck! Transformed by the mysterious Drosselmeyer into a human girl, Ahiru soon learns the reason for her existence. Using her magical egg-shaped pendant, Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu—a beautiful and talented ballet dancer whose dances relieve people of the turmoil in their hearts. With her newfound ability, Ahiru accepts the challenge of collecting the lost shards of her prince's heart, for long ago he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity. Princess Tutu is a tale of heroes and their struggle against fate. Their beliefs, their feelings, and ultimately their actions will determine whether this fairy tale can reach its "happily ever after."

Background: The series originally aired in summer 2001 with a total of 38 episodes.

Princess Tutu a magical girl anime series created by Ikoku Itoh in 2002 for animation studio Hal Film Maker. Inspired by ballet and fairy tales, particularly The Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake. Reviewers point out that although Princess Tutu is nominally a magical girl series, it is more of a "fairy tale set to ballet with a few magical girl elements mixed in," and its use of dance in lieu of violence to solve conflicts carries "surprisingly effective emotional appeal."

Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Magical Girl

9. Space Dandy

Plot: The universe is a mysterious and strange place, full of even stranger and more mysterious aliens. Dandy's job is to hunt down unclassified aliens and register them for a reward. It sounds easy enough, but something weird always seems to happen along the way, like chance meetings with zombies, mystical ramen chefs, and adorable orphans. Hunting down aliens may not be easy, but it's definitely never boring. With the help of his sidekicks, the adorable robot vacuum QT and cat-like alien Meow, and his slightly-used ship the Aloha Oe, Dandy roams the galaxy searching for new alien species. What he usually finds, however, is adventure, danger, and romance, and no two journeys (or universes) are ever the same. This is Space☆Dandy, baby!

Background: Space☆Dandy reunites a number of lead production staff members from Cowboy Bebop , including producer Masahiko Minami and director Shinichiro Watanabe. Its production involved as many as 70 animation creators and 20 musical artists as collaborators, with Watanabe insisting that artists could only use pre-1984 musical styles. Although character designer Yoshiyuki Itou is credited as an animation director, his designs were not standardized across the series, allowing for individual animators to express their style.

The show premiered in Winter 2014 with 26 episodes.

Genres: Sci-Fi, Space, Comedy

10. Yuuri on Ice

Plot: Reeling from his crushing defeat at the Grand Prix Finale, Yuuri Katsuki, once Japan's most promising figure skater, returns to his family home to assess his options for the future. At age 23, Yuuri's window for success in skating is closing rapidly, and his love of pork cutlets and aptitude for gaining weight are not helping either. However, Yuuri finds himself in the spotlight when a video of him performing a routine previously executed by five-time world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly goes viral. In fact, Victor himself abruptly appears at Yuuri's house and offers to be his mentor. As one of his biggest fans, Yuuri eagerly accepts, kicking off his journey to make it back onto the world stage. But the competition is fierce, as the rising star from Russia, Yuri Plisetsky, is relentlessly determined to defeat Yuuri and win back Victor's tutelage.

Background: The series premiered in fall 2016 with 12 episodes.

The anime was produced by MAPPA, directed by Sayo Yamamoto and written by Mitsurō Kubo. Character design was by Tadashi Hiramatsu, and its music was composed by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba. The figure skating was choreographed by Kenji Miyamoto, who also performed routines himself which were recorded and used as skating sound effects. The series premiered on October 6, 2016 and ended on December 22, with a total of 12 episodes. A Yuri on Ice feature film is currently in production.

Released to critical acclaim, Yuri on Ice has been well received in Japan. It won three awards at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival, a Japan Character Award and seven awards in Crunchyroll’s inaugural Anime Awards. In Japan, the series was released in six parts on Blu-Ray and DVD, with all the releases coming No. 1 on the Oricon nimation Blu-Ray disc and Animation DVD disc rankings respectively. It was the second-most successful media franchise in Japan for the first half of 2017. It was popular on social media outlets such as Tumblr, Sina, Weibo, and Twitter, where it received over a million more tweets that the next most-talked about anime series in the season it was broadcast. It also attracted praise from professional figure skaters.

Yuri on Ice has raised discussion concerning its depiction of a same-sex relationship between its protagonists, with some critics praising it for covering homosexuality in a way that differs from most anime and manga. Dealing with homosexuality in a country and sport that has present-day issues with homophobia; others criticized its depiction for being unrealistic and ambiguous. The series has also been praised for its depiction of anxiety.

Genres: Comedy, Sports, Romance

Thanks for the ask only one more part left!!

#anime ask #ask #answer #meme ask #meme anime ask #kill la kill #monogatari series #space dandy #princess tutu #yuri on ice

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hilmihisham · 8 years ago

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#90 : Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata flat #9

(Woah, the episode number just quite matched this post number haha..)

Well, actually I’m still in the middle of constructing my post on last week’s episode of Saekano-flat (Episode #8) but it just doesn’t seems to naturally roll off from the top of my head onto the keyboard and by this time, I’m still sort of in thinking process that the Episode #9 just came out.. I could use this week’s episode as a warm-up to my Episode #8 posts - I never really seriously do this kind of text post before (review of an episode - sort of like a ‘bedah buku’ style with a bit of a blogging twist) so I guess this can be a good start for that..

This week’s episode is sort of high pace kinda story (the first time I watched it, I thought I’ve only gone through half of the episode when the ED theme played), I think this might be a good time to start this kinda post since I’m still thinking that Episode #9 doesn’t really have much to say about. It’s pretty much concise and straight to the point (kinda). I think I can handle this haha

..and yeah, after a whole fluffy scenes of Episode #8, we got thrown a curveball this week.. What a turnaround, I should say..

Long short story, Tomoya is in a pinch!

Continuing from after he had convinced the main heroine (#KatouBestGirl lol) to stay in Blessing Software for his next project, apparently that wasn’t the case for the other members.

Early in the episode, we were shown that Tomoya had at least some improvement in making a proposal for his project - unlike in Season 1 where his proposal got rejected straight out. From there to getting a score of 75 by Utaha, I say that’s a good improvement - I mean compared to Tomoya, she has a lot more experience about the industry. She was a best-selling light novel author before she even join the circle in the first season while Tomoya had just trying to make a baby step into the industry.

Of course, she wasn’t too happy when the game is about “showing everyone the appeal of the heroine” which is none other than Megumi. We know how she views Tomoya as - she had given hint about it numerous times only for dense Tomoya didn’t picked up any of it (I feel like he’d talked about it but I think Tomoya did knew about it but didn’t react due to wanting the keep the balance of the circle as it is). But that’s not the reason why she can’t work with him..

Much to Tomoya surprise (and to anyone that didn’t expect the curveball), both she and Eriri had been scouted earlier by Kosaka Akane from a rival circle for her big new project Final Fantasy (ahem) Fields Chronicle. While she wasn’t too eager to join that project, more than anything she wanted to team up once more with Eriri in the same project (given that Eriri was the one who Kosaka Akane wanted the most in her project).

Given the short 5 seconds scene after that, I supposed Eriri had agreed to join the other project but it’s all to look forward to in the next episodes..

So what went wrong? Well, the other half of the episode subtlety explain how Tomoya - although seen as somewhat improved a bit as a producer - still lacking the more essential part of it by showing us how Kosaka Akane trying to scout both Eriri and Utaha.

Done. Proposal accepted :P (Well I guess this is why we always heard stories about overworking in the industry in Japan..)

Ahaha but in all seriousness, this is what Tomoya failed to do as a producer - ask (and force).

And to make things worse for him, Eriri’s “slump”. He do ask Eriri to provide their webpage with promo art for the game in January but the story is now in February and she haven’t even finished it yet. What he lacking the most is the force behind his request, as pointed out by Utaha.

Forget the affection both Eriri and Utaha had for Tomoya to join his circle, above all, both of them are “creator” in the first place. And that’s what creator do - forcing themselves to do the things that they do day by day to be better than the day before.

Earlier in Season 2, Tomoya bravely pointed out the mistakes that Utaha had done in constructing the story for their game and Eriri gone out of her way and holed herself in a room to try to make the best illustration that she can for the game. Just take my 2 cents as a comic artist that hasn’t been but we all need that sort of push to be better than before, to improve ourselves.

And Tomoya, as a producer and overseer of the project, failed to give that push to them.

Because of that, he might lost Eriri as his illustrator and along the way, would also lost Utaha as his writer.

Eriri’s slump turns out to be a bigger issue than what Tomoya had thought.

For someone with artblock, waiting out is not a solution. The very thing that we need to do is to grab hold of a pencil and sketch out whatever and realign ourselves by force back into the groove - where we can just draw whatever we thought of. Nothing can be done if we did nothing.

I think, in Tomoya defense, he couldn’t ask for more simply because he felt inferior towards the two. Well, even before starting their first game, Kasumi Utako and Kashiwagi Eri are both already well recognised as the author of best-selling light novel and renowned doujin artist. For someone as him just starting to get into the industry, he might think his project is smaller compared to whatever other project that both of them is currently involved in. Kouhai asking their senpai to follow instruction is not an easy thing to do, y’know..

..and that’s how Tomoya is in a pinch he is right now.

I never read the original light novel version of Saekano before (I really wanna but there’s no one picking it up for translation, and my Japanese is still elementary) so to be honest, I’m kinda surprised of this curveball. I mean, they given us the lovely Episode #8 last week and then all of a sudden, this happened.

To give a sneak peek of my thoughts of Episode #8 as I’m still trying to finish up (don’t wanna jinx it but hopefully I can finish that up), I think last week’s episode is the best on so far. I might be a bit bias as Megumi is definitely my favorite character in this series but from a character development standpoint, that episode is the writer Fumiaki Maruto showing off what he’s really capable of doing. In short sentence, I think Katou Megumi is the most colorful character out of all.

Well, all of that later (hopefully)..

#text #saenai heroine no sodatekata #saekano #saekano flat

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