#but a bunch of characters note that he looks like anzu

[masterhandss]

Anzu & Ensemble Girls references (but it's mostly just her little step-brother)

I really enjoy drawing tenn(kousei)-kun, I just thing the ensembleverse protags are so interestinfg!! (depictions aren't 100% accurate btw but based on other fanon works with him in it)

[jewwyfeesh]

To The Gentle You 3

Writer: Mitsuki

Character(s): Kagehira Mika, Hakaze Kaoru, Aoba Tsumugi

Translated by: stcrfeesh

CN Proof by: jewwyfeesh

Tsumugi: Ahaha ♪ Well, it’s not like I could have heard something that you’ve never really said, no~?

Please read the translator notes at the end!

Season: Summer

Location: Seishou Hall Common Room

Mika: (Ugh… the hell was I even on about, tellin’ Tsumu-chan-senpai I’d make a design so perfect it’d impress Naru-chan…)

(I kept thinkin’ ‘bout what Naru-chan might like while designin’ and ended up drawin’ a whole buncha drafts. Now I dunno which one ‘ta choose.)

(Back when I took on a jewellery designin’ gig, I got Naru-chan ‘ta model fer me and successfully designed a necklace that everyone liked.)

(Or maybe it's ‘cause this time ‘round, t’was only outta my personal desire ‘ta gift Naru-chan a brooch that's uniquely fer her and her alone, an’ not for anyone else. So now……)

???: Kagehira-kun, are you currently struggling with something very important?

Mika: Nnah~ bingo…

???: If that's the case, do you need this kind and considerate nii-san to give you some advice~?

Mika: That’ll do me a world of good— hold up, who the hell are ya?!

Kaoru: Ah, sorry, my bad. Did I interrupt your musings?

Mika: Eh?! Ha-Hakaze-senpai?! How long have ‘ya been standin’ there?! Have I been unconsciously sayin’ my thoughts out loud?

Kaoru: Ahaha, it’s nothing like that~ It’s just because your thoughts are clearly written on your face. I’m free right now, so you can talk to me if you have any worries.

Mika: Sorry ya had ta see me so unkempt… I actually wanted ta make a unique brooch as a gift, but I just ended up gettin’ stuck with the design.

When it comes ta usin’ cute elements as the design’s main theme, I just kept thinkin’ how all of them suit each other — I couldn’t pick. So now I’m here, mullin’ over the design drafts.

Kaoru: Huh… if you don’t mind, could you show me those design drafts?

(Hm… looking at it, it seems that most of these brooches have flowers, bows, hearts, and the like as the design’s core, which is rather cute. It’s definitely something a girl would like—)

(Wait, didn’t Kagehira-kun say he wanted to hand make a brooch as a gift? Is he going to give it to a girl?)

(For him to go to such lengths, then it must certainly be for someone who’s important to him, right…?)

Mika: …Hakaze-senpai? I see yer lookin’ like ya’ve got some stuff ya wanna ask me?

Kaoru: Ah, well, you see… What I'm trying to say is that, if you’re aiming for a design that’s more intimate, why not try getting inspiration from the mundanes of their everyday life?

For starters, you can go with how they dress — whether their usual style is more suitable for simpler or fancier jewellery, and identify colour palettes that would act as a complement to them. Just things like that.

Oh, yeah! How about using your outfits during your date as a starting point? It’ll be something rather memorable ♪

Mika: Woah… as expected of senpai who’s a part of the “Date Plan” project [1], ya really know a lot ‘bout these type of things.

Hmm~ If I were ta look at it from an everyday-life perspective, then I do wanna make this brooch suitable for goin’ out on dates too. I’ll trash these, then.

But it’s so hard to choose the best one among the bunch, and I keep thinkin’ how it could be way better… Could I ask for yer help with this again?

Kaoru: Ahaha, no worries~ I’ve got you covered ♪

(…I was just testing the waters by mentioning the word “date” earlier, and he didn’t even try denying it? Could it really be that he actually came looking for me to ask about relationship advice?!)

(Now that I think about it, other than Anzu-chan, who else would he be close with that isn’t also a guy…?)

(………)

(N-N-Nah, it can’t be. It’s probably just a misunderstanding cause I care too much about Anzu-chan… it’s nothing, let’s calm down. My priority now is to help Kagehira-kun with his troubles.)

Location: Seishou Hall Library

(And so I ended up accompanying Kagehira-kun to look for info at the library. I’m a member of “Biblion” [2], so the library here at Seisou Hall isn’t really new to me.)

I remember seeing it here… Woah?!

Aoba-kun, what are you doing just standing behind the shelf and not saying a word? You scared me…

Tsumugi: Oh, it’s Kaoru-kun and Mika-kun~ Apologies, I’ve been so into arranging these books over here that I hadn’t noticed someone entering. 

Oh, I see. So you guys are looking for reference materials on jewellery making. You should find them on those shelves in the back row.

Kaoru: Uhh… about jewellery… not this one… not this either…

Aha~ found it! “Classic Jewellery Illustration and Design” and “A Selection of a Hundred Brooches”. Both books don't seem too shabby  ♪

Mika: You have a good eye for things, Hakaze-senpai~ I only found one, “A Manual on Jewellery Making”.

Tsumugi: Ah, Kaoru-kun just reminded me. There are a few brooch designs in that “Classic Jewellery Illustration and Design” book that are quite similar to Mika’s ideas for his design drafts. He could check those out…

Kaoru: Eh? You’ve already seen Kagehira-kun’s design drafts?

Mika: Uh-huh~senpai even gave me some real helpful advice. Both of ya are such reliable senpais ♪

Tsumugi: Ahaha, you flatter me too much, Mika-kun~ I’m also an amateur when it comes to designing jewellery, so I decided to skim through some of the books while I was rearranging the bookshelves today.

I was planning on recommending these books that would be useful to you, Mika-kun. Let’s take a look at them now, shall we ♪

Take the design on this page for example. A technique that can be used to convey the delicacy and elegance of flowers could be adding ribbons to a fretwork.

Or perhaps these types of simple yet stylish designs over here aren’t too bad either. I think it would go well with everyday wear.

Mika: Hmm…

Kaoru: …How about we approach it like this — Kagehira-kun, what do you think about going over the person’s likes and dislikes with us? This way, if it’s someone we know, it’ll be easier for us to help you narrow down those ideas.

Tsumugi: (Huh? Does Kaoru-kun not know for whom Mika is making the brooch?)

(He’s been uneasy since earlier, could it be that he’s misunderstood something…?)

Mika: Nnah… when it comes to the things Naru-chan likes, it should be anythin’ that’s beautiful ‘n cute—things that’re called “Pretty”, y’know?

Kaoru: I see I see, so it’s someone named Naru-chan and not Anzu-chan. That sounds like a really cute name too~

Mika: — Naru-chan’s style seems to be more handsome rather than cute when she’s doin’ idol jobs with Knights, but no matter how ya look at it, she’s still very charmin’ either way~ ♪

Kaoru: (Eh…? This “Naru-chan” is a member of Knights…? So are you telling me that I… I’ve been under the wrong impression about this whole situation the entire time?!)

Mika: Hmm? Were ya sayin’ somethin’, Hakaze-senpai? Sorry, I was talkin’ to myself earlier, so I missed what’cha said~

Kaoru: I-I didn’t, though? Haha, I didn’t say anything earlier, I prommy! Cross my heart and hope to die!

Tsumugi: Ahaha ♪ Well, it’s not like I could have heard something that you’ve never really said, no~?

(But there’s something about this recklessness that makes you feel like you’re reliving a spring from once upon a time… ♪)

Translator's notes:

[1]: Mika is referring to Kaoru’s shuffle unit project, √AtoZ. 

[2]: Biblion is an existing ES archive circle composed of the following members: Hajime, Kaoru, Nagisa, Tsukasa, and Tsumugi. The members gather out of their love for books of all genres.

← Chapter 2 | ES x LC Masterlist | Chapter 4 →

[aeoki]

High and Low: The Centre of the Earth - Chapter 4

Location: Australian Land (Night) Characters: Tomoya, Hinata, Touri, Mitsuru & Sora

Season: Autumn Writer: Akira

TL Note:

For those who don’t know, Tetora calls Niki “Aniki” (lit. older brother), similar to how he refers to Anzu by calling her “Anzu no Anego” or “big sister”.

Touri: The hellish meals we’re getting three times a day…

Tetora: Eheheh ♪ Alrighty, then “Chef Nagumo” is gonna announce today’s dish! I was thinking about it the whole time we were inside the bus~!

Tomoya: You looked the happiest while we were on the move, huh. You were grinning from ear to ear, checking the ingredients inside the fridge and taking notes.

Touri: Whenever we saw your happy face, we could imagine the next round of hell coming our way, so it looked like you weren’t depressed at all.

Tetora: Osu! I was at a loss in the beginning, but I’m slowly getting more and more excited about the school trip!

As I thought, we all need a bit of excitement in our lives! For me, that’s “cooking” – it’s something I’ve always watched Aniki[*] do on his TV shows when I was younger!

So tadaa! Here’s today’s dish! The appetiser is grilled fruits that Sora-kun and Mitsuru-kun found in the area!

Tomoya: Don’t tell me we’re starting off at the peak here.

Touri: There’s so much I wanna comment on.

Tetora: Ahh, I know you guys aren’t satisfied with that! Even I’d prefer grilled meat to vegetables or fruits!

Tomoya: No, that’s not where the issue lies.

Tetora: You’re right. When we went shopping back in the town earlier, we all put the stuff we liked in the shopping basket so…

We have a lot of meat and snacks, but we barely have any vegetables! If we keep on eating those, we’ll have a vitamin deficiency and it won’t be great for our health!

That’s why I asked Mitsuru-kun and Sora-kun to find stuff that would be high in vitamins!

Tomoya: There weren’t any shops along the road, after all. To get ingredients, we’ve got no choice but to find something in the area.

Mitsuru: Heheh, we did our best to find stuff, y’know! We brought over a bunch of stuff that might be good!

Sora: Yes! We got everything we could get our hands on that had an edible “colour” to it! Finding local ingredients was fun! Like playing a slow-living game!

Tomoya: I’m glad you had fun, but that’s no different from scavenging for food. We should confirm whether they’re actually edible or not at least.

Hinata: Hmm~ But no one has a botanical encyclopedia on them and we don’t have a smartphone to look things up.

Tomoya: If that’s the case, then I’d much rather put something certified from a store in my mouth.

Tetora: No! The environment we’re in changes all the time while we’re travelling and that can take a toll on our bodies, so it’ll be easy for our health to deteriorate!

We’ve gotta eat something nutritionally balanced! If you take your vitamins, you won’t even catch a cold!

Tomoya: That’s what I’m saying; we’ll just get sick if we ate grass that was plucked from a random spot. In the worst case, it might even be poisonous.

…Tetora? Are you listening to me?

Tetora: Heheheh~♪ I’ll remake the appetiser before I announce the next dish! While I’m making something else, feel free to nibble on that and ease your empty stomachs!

Touri: I smell something sickly-sweet… Are you really making an appetiser? You’re not making dessert, right?

Tomoya: Appetisers are just salads and stuff like that, right? Why is he grilling fruit?

Tetora: Heating it up will disinfect it! Fire will purge anything! Heheheh, black flames are a mark of effort~♪

Hinata: Black flames? They’re clearly all burnt.

Sora: HaHa~ The flames aren’t black but the fumes are~♪

Tomoya: They’re burnt! The flames are way too strong!

Tetora: Osu! I’m a chef who’ll set everything ablaze! I’ll show you how a passionate man cooks!

Tomoya: You’re just badmouthing yourself, right!?

Tetora: Fufufu. The fruits are grilling smoothly and their sweet juice is coming out, so in goes the meat! This is the side dish: “A Manly Man’s Meat Boiled with Fruit”!

How’s this? I heard that soaking the meat in fruit juice will make it a bit softer~♪

Tomoya: So you only remembered bits and pieces of the recipe!? You should follow a recipe from start to finish next time.

Hinata: No one thought to bring a recipe book or something with us… Who would’ve thought we’d end up in this kinda situation, anyway.

Um, Tetsu-kun, I’ll lend a hand, if you’d like ♪

*Whispers* …If I make it instead of him, I might be able to stop him from making “something that’s close to being poisonous”.

Tetora: Ahh, I appreciate it! But you don’t have to, Hinata-kun! The kitchen is a chef’s sanctuary!

Hinata: It didn’t work, huh~...

Tetora: Heheh ♪ While I’m cooking the other ingredients, I’ll prepare the main dish too!

Look at this! It’s a fish I’ve never seen in Japan before! What do you think it’ll taste like~?

Hinata: I think anything you make will get scorched, so it’ll probably taste burnt.

Tetora: Hah! Taa! Take thaaat!

Hinata: Tetsu-kun, Tetsu-kun, why’re you punching the fish? Have you gone crazy?

Tetora: Meat gets soft when you hit it! The same should work for fish too…!

Hinata: You should take the scales off before you do that. You’ll hurt yourself, you know?

Tetora: It’s okay! I’ve built up resistance! I’ve trained my body to be a weapon…!

Hinata: No, I’m not worried about you. I’m worried we might get sick or injured.

← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂  Next Chapter →

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Not that anyone asked (but seriously I’d LOVE for someone to talk to me about PokeSpe (just no spoilers past vol 13)) but since I made an offhand remark about my Top 5 favorite characters, it occurred to me that I actually DO have approximately 5 top favorite characters, and I’m procrastinating on work, so I’m gonna ramble

**just in case, note that a lot of this will revolve around my childhood experience with gender in a “I’m AFAB (and present-day me still identifies as a cis girl) but I don’t fit in with what media is telling me girls are like” way, a brief childhood feeling of homophobia, and probably general TMI about my opinions and emotions throughout my life, haha

1. Yellow

Okay, so, I was a little kid when Pokemon Adventures started coming out in English, back when manga was released as single-issue monthly comic books instead of complete volumes.  So I was rereading the same chapters over and over while anxiously awaiting the rest of the story (and wound up missing a bunch of issues anyway)

I enjoyed the RGB arc, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t LOVE the series until Yellow showed up.  At that age my ideal crush was “a cute boy my age who would be nice to me” and Yellow was presented to the reader as a cute boy my age who was sweet and kind and gentle, but also good in a fight, as all shounen protags must be.  Extra bonus points because they had just a few physically weak Pokémon and tried to fight battles in a way that minimized damage to their own and the opponent’s Pokémon, which meant they fought in a particularly smart and clever way.  And I was considered “smart” for being good at school, so being a SMART cute “boy” my age who would be nice to me, Yellow was PERFECT.  I mean, I loved the arc in general because of the clever battles, and the mystery of what had happened to Red, why these people were after Pikachu, why Yellow was so secretive about themself and their mission, etc was really engaging.  But also I adored Yellow as a character and partly in a “I wonder if ‘he’ would like me??” kind of way X’D  So to my tiny child self who didn’t even know it was possible to like-like someone of the same gender (because I hadn’t read Cardcaptor Sakura yet XD ), the reveal that Yellow was a “girl” was devastating—I had to cross out floating hearts on at least one drawing of us holding hands (scandalous!) and, while kind of stunned and shaken for a while, decided that what I’d felt all along was a deep, intense desire to be friends X’D (which probably wasn’t too far from the truth since I was pre-puberty and later turned out to be asexual)

(Also note that I never got the RGB issue that had the chapter where Red helps a little ‘girl’ capture a Rattata—later proven to be Yellow’s backstory—so the gender reveal really came out of nowhere for me.)

But anyways, I still love Yellow as a character for all the above reasons, without the crush aspects because I’m way older than them now.

Also when I reread the series ten years ago, I finally realized “wait, aside from surprising the reader, there’s no real plot reason for Yellow to pretend to be a ‘boy’ except that Green told ‘her’ to—so why did ‘she’ do it?”...and because at that time I didn’t even know that nonbinary genders existed, I decided it was cus they had low self-esteem and pretending to be a different person gave them courage (the same reading I had for Mulan at the time).  These days I’m more inclined to “yeah, I think Yellow’s nonbinary,” but that other interpretation was deeply relatable to me and only made me love Yellow even more.

2. Bill

Bill’s definitely a character I’ve grown to love more as an adult, since I’ve gone from seeing myself as “a protagonist doing cool things” to “a side character just living their life who hopefully gets to do something once in a while.”  But as a kid and now, I like him mostly for the slapstick and goofy expressions and the (early chapters Viz translations) outrageous accent  X’D  My brain desperately craves endorphins and the best way to get em is through a good laugh.

But also, I liked that he was introduced as a goofy character-of-the-week who got into ridiculous trouble and had to be rescued, but then kept being brought back, was slowly built up to be the “smart sidekick who explains things,” and eventually got to the point where he was participating in big battles (the Yellow finale on Cerise Island).  I rambled about this in the tags of another post, but I liked that he was a character who was “weak” without being “useless.”  As a kid who was good at school, I was obsessed with being good at things and had developed a black-and-white view of the world where either you were “strong/smart” or “weak/stupid” to the point that failing or just being not-so-good at anything was devastating (it still kind of is), because that meant I was actually “weak/stupid” when I was supposed to be “strong/smart.”  So it was kind of awesome that this guy who kept getting into trouble and having to be rescued—and didn’t even want to BE part of the final battle—managed to hold his own and get through it and help out instead of being a burden that dragged everyone down.  Seriously, he used a MAGIKARP effectively—the Pokémon everyone makes fun of for being “useless” and he used its one attack to save his life!

(Bonus points for all this happening in contrast to my devastating childhood experience of stanning The One Girl Character in every popular shounen series, waiting desperately for her to get to do something in battle, and then her one spotlight episode revolved around her struggling because she was so weak...not only was that actually happening to a boy for once, it was actually happening in a more satisfying/empowering way :’D )

3. Gold

I have extremely specific tastes when it comes to “the dumb shounen/action movie protag,” because as a kid I hated it when the main character was “dumb” because I was “smart” (re: good at school) and people who were “dumb” shouldn’t deserve to be the main character and have all the cool powers and save the world and stuff.  As an adult, I hate it when male characters are dumb and/or jerks but it’s treated as fine or even sexy(??) and the other characters fawn over them, and I generally still kind of hate it when characters who are dumb and/or jerks get the big important role when there’s a female character RIGHT THERE who’s more competent (and OF COURSE she has to wind up falling in love with him)

But anyway, I have extremely specific tastes, and Gold is it  X’D  He’s the perfect combination of “unshakably confident in his own stupid/egotistic views” and “treated as annoying and/or comic relief by the rest of the cast” with a bonus dash of actually being really clever in battle (so my inner child goes “Ah yes, technically, he is ’smart,’ and therefore...worthwhile“)  Making me laugh while also impressing me is like the key to my heart.

4. Crystal

I’m too lazy to look it up, but when Viz was publishing Pokemon Adventures as monthly comics, they must have switched to publishing it as trade paperbacks only and/or had a huge gap between the end of Yellow and the start of GSC, because for YEARS I’d thought Yellow was the end of the series and was shocked the first time I saw later volumes.  (My dad was buying us the monthly issues at the local comic store, and either they wouldn’t have ordered the trade paperbacks or he wouldn’t have thought to check those shelves.)

Anyway, that’s a long lead-in to the statement of “Crystal would automatically be my #1 or #2 if I’d read her arc as a kid.”  She’s a girl, she wears pants, she’s EXTREMELY smart (genius-level “book-smarts” about every Pokémon’s behaviors and weaknesses PLUS being clever in a battle), was tough as nails (she KICKED her Pokéballs!!), had no interest in romance or her appearance, AND had a short arc about losing her confidence and training herself back up to full power.  I would have KILLED for a character like that when I was a little girl being told that “girls don’t like action shows like Dragon Ball Z” (but I was a girl and I did???) and that girls were supposed to be pretty and obsessed with fashion and dating, and that girls were never the main character of action series, just side characters who either did nothing or got one chance to do something and were pathetically weak (see above, and/or Sakura’s fight against Ino (Naruto), those couple filler eps where Téa/Anzu played Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Videl getting pummeled by Spopovich (DBZ), etc).

So anyway, she’s awesome, she’s exactly the type of character I would’ve loved as a kid.  The only reason she’s behind Gold here is because at my age, “makes me laugh” > “the kind of main character I used to wish I could be”

5. Green (the girl trainer...I’m just too loyal to the Viz version to call her “Blue”...)

I’m trying not to rehash the same “I’m a girl but none of the girls in my shows/comics are like me!” childhood woes over and over, haha, but as much as I always enjoyed Green for being extremely clever and outsmarting the boys and being funny when she did so, she always lost points with me for being “pretty” and flirting to get her way, because that put her in the box of “girls are supposed to be pretty and desired by boys and obsessed with their appearance and romance” that was so foreign and disheartening to me as a kid.

But her staredown with Ho-oh at the end of the GSC arc TOTALLY got me.  As a sad adult with anxiety, watching characters who are absolutely terrified overcome their fear, watching characters who are completely beaten down struggle back to their feet and keep fighting, is like my ultimate power fantasy.  That sequence genuinely had me in tears.

Also her bond with Silver is super precious, especially since that’s like the first time in the series we’ve seen her be genuinely emotional and vulnerable with someone instead of teasing or manipulating them.

Honorable mention: Sapphire

I haven’t gotten up to R/S in my reread yet, and I only read that arc once over like a weekend ten years ago, but I’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a Top Fave cus again there’s that “I'm not like other girls!” childhood feel  (last time I’m saying it, I promise)

It’s a story arc where one protag wants to fight the gyms and the other protag wants to win the beauty contests, but the one who wants to fight the gyms is the girl!!  And she’s the typical “dumb but extremely good at fighting” shounen protag but she’s the girl!!  She’s feral and illiterate and a total tomboy and wins all her fights and she’s a GIRL!!!!

--

Anyway, those are my kids and my dude and my probably way-too-personal reasons why.  If you wanna reblog, reply, or send an ask about your own faves...please

[protezioni]

ALSO ONE MORE THING LOL, headcanons on a crossover au horror movie night?

This ended up really long but I hope you love it!! It's also probably because it's headcanons which I really live for. BUT ALSO YES OF COURSE I LIVE FOR THE CROSSOVER AU AND ALSO FOR HALLOWEEN!! All Zeta characters belong to Emi, FOLLOW @zetacomic !! Miho also was made by @polar-stars !! Isao was made by @nightcrownsking!! Stan them

Movie Picking

-Zuro sets out a whole bunch of movies, ranging from mockumentary horror films to you wouldn't be able to sleep for a week horror films on the table.

-Shoya is set on watching JAWS series. He wants to see his family win. Zuro adds one movie to the list because it was his bro's request.

-Haru comes in, SHE PICKS A MOVIE. She doesn't realize she's scarier than the movie marathon that is coming, but well- her choice will be included. Or else she will be angry. No one wants her angry. Ayame approves on her choice and recommends a movie. Zuro places her recommendation away. Ayame was never best to pick one unless it was romance movies.

-TAI AND MAI SAY THEY WANT MURDER ON SCREEN. Their sugesstion? Accepted. There was a slasher horror, which did include murder. They would probably enjoy it that day.

-Izami tosses a few recommendations. He picks the one with the horror that pulls on the most heartstrings yet still scares the crap out of people. Suggestion accepted.

-Isao gives a movie. Immediately burned by Sepheir. She does not trust this man.

-So far they have one Jaws movie, a film Haru wanted, slasher horror and an angsty horror movie. Seems good enough. They will be watching from 6-3, but people can choose to sleep earlier (if they can after that).

Movie Preparation

-Ko spends SO MUCH. Chips, Sodas, Full blown Meals, Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Everything--- For EVERYONE. He splits them all evenly and everyone has their personal food and drink box.

-Makoto is SURPISED over how much things he bought without thinking... He shouldn't spend his money like this! But it was for Zygos and Protezioni... but still! That's carelessly using money!

-Makoto gives him a good talk

-Yuuki is lowkey anxious over the movie choices but Asuka ends up comforting him and calming him down. Tells him that Big Sis Asuka is always there! Yuuki calms down fairly well!

-Yuri is watching Shigure cry even before the movie starts. She's calling him a dumbass and tells him it hasn't started yet. Turns our Shigure was crying over something else and she facepalms.

-Romano is hugging his paperwork but Hide is trying to tell him to relax for once and let it go. He follows for once and believes in her words. She says it is best to let himself not do work since Halloween only happens once a year. He is very convinced.

-Ace is worried if the kids can handle it, but he prepares a comfort blanket in advanced in case any of them want to go under one later. There are 10 comfort blankets with stuffed toys under it. Tsukki helps in gathering pillows.

-The movie marathon starts.

Movie Watching

-Jaws was the first to come.

-All of Zygos turn their head to Shoya. Protezioni proceeds to do the same.

-"I wanted to see my fellow scalys."

"THIS DOESN'T FIT THE ATMOSPHERE, SHITHEAD"

"Jun, your temper is worse than your height"

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT"

-Eis tries to calm Junko down, Zuro laughs about the whole thing. Fortunato facepalms and tells them to calm the fuck down. Maemi knew this would happen. He is very tired. Kaito tries to stop them.

-Anyway Jaws was being watched by several other people. Kuro thoughts the sharks were dolphins. "Dudeeee, they're sharks? I thought sharks were bigger." "THOSE ARE WHALES, KURO"

-Kana is laughing her ass off at this moment, Ren makes a dramatic speech in the middle "Oh whale, oh shark, what is your true reflection-" Shima is so done with this shit. What's worse- the speech or the movie? Shinji talks about how different everyone's aura is because of one single movie.

-Tilear is too busy snickering over Team Omega to focus, she is enjoying. Izami is actually watching the movie. Asks Oliviero if his fang was close to a shark's. Oliviero said he was more of cub or something. Ko wants them to be quiet so he could watch the film. They don't become quiet.

-Haru is excited. She says she brought up the next movie! Everyone is wondering what she picked. It turns out to be a psychological horror! They did not expect this, but the movie was fine.

-Kaito SCREAMS when he sees something happens, he is seeking for hug. For comfort. He cannot handle this. Aki decides to hug him and comfort him. They go to the comfort blankets.

-Tsuyobi jumps off the couch when something happens, Mitsu is the one who takes care of a shaking Tsuyobi. Hoping he is is okay.

-Alderardo names everything wrong with the film because it's a psychological horror and not a lot of things makes sense. Haru yells at him to shut up. He shuts up. Tana is glad he was able to shut the fuck up. Wants to thank Haru for that.

-Masao feels like an undefeated entity because he didn't back out in the movie unlike Kaito. HE WAS THE SUPERIOR LEADER. THE BRAVER LEADER. THE--- Kaya tells him to stop being like that and just sit down and enjoy the movie. Masao ends up sitting down and watching the movie.

-Anzu is clinging to Hide, Hide allows her to cling to her. Eis is clinging to Ella, who looks around but awkwardly pats Eis's back. Team 2 is making a theory silently because they are the most observant team. ALL THEIR THEORIES WERE PROVEN RIGHT.

-Miho comes in out of nowhere, a smile on her face, a flashlight underneath her. "Tea?" EVERYONE THOUGHT SHE LOOKED LIKE A GHOST. Turns out Ami was holding the flashlight below her. She is now officially dubbed as the tea ghost. She looked like one of the characters.

-The next is the slasher film the Murder Twins chose. THEY BOTH BRING UP MURDER. Riichi looks interested, he brings up he learned some sneaky moves through this movie! A lot of people look at them and see them as a very dangerous group if they worked together.

-Yuuki does get anxious over some parts, but Asuka is there to comfort him. Yarohe ends up being his comfort teddy bear. Ko just silently watches the rest to see how they are doing.

-Bren and Tilear have a small discussion because there is a lot of things to talk about since there are weapons in it. Tilear asks Yuuki about a question about his gun and says he doesn't need to feel anxious because he'd be able to shoot the man with no problem. Asuka pats the back of Yuuki who is internally screaming because someone believes in his skill.

-Marmi ends up gathering notes and he sees how Riichi was able to use these notes for something. Celes predicts what's happens next, saying it was a common strategy that is found in horror films. Calls the cast dumb and she isn't surprised that they are dying.

-The strategists talk about something together and make the best plan to escape if they ever end up in a situation like that. Their plan is the best plan ever created and if they were in a horror movie, they will 10000000% survive. Celes, Hide, Maemi, Miho and Shinji were a group who'd never die in a horror film.

-Ami mentions things that could have happened and says she would be a better murderer than the main antagonist of the slasher film. The stealth experts agree with her. Kiyaru also brings that up and Team 2 all agree with her. Bernando says he would fight the antagonist and win. The whole team 4 agrees. Akira comments about how unrealistic it is and the cops are doing a horrible job, brings up both Zygos and Protezioni are way better than the cops. Says the cops are useless in the movie.

-The talk is about murder and how they survive. The movie was overall enjoyable though and it was a great slasher film. There were holes to it, but the Murder Twins loved the blood.

-Okay now was the horror film that had the most emotional scenes. Kaito goes out of the comfort blanket, and Izami gives a small warning that it gets pretty sad. Sepheir comments she knows the film and it does get pretty sad. Everyone knows it's seriously shit sad when Sepheir says that.

-The horror parts were scary as fuck. People jumped from their seats. Kaito wanted to hide again and he screamed again. He is not the best with horror movies. Ayame comments about how this was really disturbing and Hiyaro agrees with her comments. Junko says if she saw a face like that, she's stab the fucker.

-Okay but when the sad parts come? PEOPLE BEGIN CRYING. Kaito starts bawling his eyes out instead of screaming and the whole Zetas decided to comfort their leader. Anzu starts tearing up and Hide tries to cheer her up but yells at Izami for showing that movie. Izami yells back that he warns them. Shigure is crying so bad and Yuri awkwardly comforts him but he just cries even louder. Aki is crying and Allen is in panic. Rika is silently crying and Akira is just allowing her to lean on him.

-It ends up with people crying because of fear or because of sadness. Shoya laughs at some parts and no one knows why he laughs. "LOOK HE DIED" "It isnT FUNNY SHO" "IT WAS IN A STUPID WAY" "SHO"

-Mitsu cries and the whole Zeta is prepared to fight whoever made Mitsu cry. It turns out it was the film. It's just that emotional.

-Movie night ends after the whole roller coaster ride of emotions

-A lot end up sleeping in the living room. Reo and Namito were actually busy doing trick or treating and they slept early like the good kids they are! They wake up to this sight and wonder what happened! Good children through and through.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: All Your Friends are Cursed

You know what? It’s been a while, lets revisit Zero.

For those new here, I’ve been also very slowly going through Season Zero alongside the show we are more familiar with, which is not at all the same as the other seasons. If you want to read just the recaps of Zero from the beginning you can do that by clicking on this link right here. I think I’ve only done like 3 or 4 so far.

OK. It’s been...a time since we ventured here to this very weird place, where were we?

So, first off you may have noticed there was a wee gap in updating, this is mostly because I burned up all my backlog when I got sick for two weeks (and I’m still hella tired) so...I’m playing catch up and this is a hobby, so it takes a back seat. But also, it’s partially because I was like suuuper conflicted with what I should do about that logo. Like, I did feel like I had to blur it just because I don’t want there to be confusion if the images ever get pulled away from this post, but I was seriously considering just repainting every cap because it sure bothered me a whole lot.

It was Illustrator OCD Problems that in the end don’t matter, but you can see my quandary of the right corner in the rest of these. Anyways, thanks Team Millennium for the fandubs so I don’t have to cap over subs. Y’all did a good job, and I get why they need to watermark since like...it’s Youtube so every random bot channel is stealing any other video getting clicks.

Also, this took a while because it’s like over 60 caps long. These Season Zero episodes are just...so much content. They’re so much. And I thought this one handles some interesting themes, so grab yourself a snack, because this is gonna be a little bit of a marathon. I could split it into two but like...I don’t know where to split it, so enjoy. This post is basically a 2 for 1.

Anyway, Shadi’s back. I didn’t really expect for him to be back so soon, but he’s here with a vengeance. He spooks up on Grandpa’s old Egyptologist friend (who’s name I have forgotten) and this guy kind of already knows what’s next.

In this episode, as you can see from the title, everyone is gonna get cursed. Except Miho, but like, I tend to forget she exists. We start off with Yuugi’s Grandfather’s friend getting tossed out a window, which is sort of strange because you figure that this guy wouldn’t let a girl drown down a well for a rare coin (which was the Shadi metric for if you deserve to be eaten by a chair). But apparently we were wrong and Grandpa’s friend has actually been a jackass this entire time.

"Your friend has actually been a jackass this entire time” is another underlying theme of this episode. What’s wild is that Yuugi and his Grandpa are not at all surprised by this revelation, nor do they seem to mind.

Shadi says something cryptic, decides he wants a rematch with the alter ego of Yuugi Muto, and then has the weirdest plan of how to do it. The rest of this recap is basically all of Shadi’s master plan and it’s...pretty...something.

(read more under the cut)

Since we haven’t gotten a Miho episode, I haven’t really gotten a chance to learn what she...is. Right now she just seems like a G rated Cheryl Tunt. Which is probably incorrect, I dunno maybe this girl will end up being their savior but for right now she just kind of uses Tristan for favors and enjoys spooky stuff maybe a little too much. I’m not sure she’s even aware what planet she’s on.

Shadi’s also looking more and more like a bird this episode with the artistic choice to join the brow to the nose with a deep shadow like this. If there’s deeper historical meaning to that, I have no idea. Went on a little deep dive through Google to see if it matches from art and sarcophagi from Egypt and Greece but like...nah. You do get a strong thin nose on golden sarcophagi that can give it a really cut look since it’s usually covered in reflective gold, so that could be it. But overall, joining the nose to brow is something more modern, I think. Just our own touch to make him a spook.

And honestly Yugioh really does enjoy putting a very heavy shadow between the eyebrows, but usually in the form of lots of lines and not a solid black shape.

Youknow we’ve never had the chance to enter anyone’s mind space before. I kind of assumed that no one other than Yuugi even had one. So Anzu’s mind, shouldn’t be too ba- oh

Just take this whole sequence, put some generic lo-fi on it, and you have yourself a youtube channel. It’s amazing how, since the 90′s anime style is back into fashion, this bizarre sequence just hit so many good notes. Those pink and blue flowers matched with a silver metallic tree with weird purple fruit? Not gonna lie, that’s some good inspo material. Maye not the weird bird and terrifying 90′s sun--I don’t know why he’s here--but everything else? Shoot.

This hasn’t come up before and the only guy with G in his name that I can think of is Gozoboro and he cannot be this guy. Maybe just a reference to some comic book stuff because he does have a Superman shape to that G, but I don’t know comics well enough to know if this was a manga Superman parody.

PS now that we know that Tea’s mind is just a lo-fi channel, we now know that Bakura and Marik have just been hanging out next to a weird silver fruit tree, staring at a horrifying green sun and avoiding eye contact with one single green bird for basically this entire Noah arc. Assuming of course that a piece of Bakura is still in there in Tea’s mind, which he may have decided to vacate at this point because what’s he supposed to do in there? Do barre?

Maybe they both just do barre workouts in the tea mindfort while a parrot awkwardly watches.

So Shadi has been just hanging out in Tea’s head for how long? Like half a day now?

She really has always been the ghost uber. From the very beginning. Wow.

Also, speaking of vaporwave, the pink to yellow tint on the irises? A+. That could be your lo-fi thumbnail, easy.

Anyway we are blessed with another tiny Yuugi this episode. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll mention it again, I love it when artists have to draw their characters as small as ants because then the characters are given their rawest, purest form. Which in his case is just being very squat and having hair with spikes.

And then Anzu somehow hides in this closet and tips over a bunch of beams at him. Are these cross country beams? What are these? I did water polo and swim team so I just have no idea what you land people did.

When beams don’t work out, Shadi sets in play the next step of his super evil and sinister plan. Please remember that this guy is a 5000 year old very scary ghost with crazy OP powers.

So then Shadi starts his third phase. So far we’ve had a bunch of poles and a basketball, what will be next? Will Anzu come up with two chalkboard erasers and start pounding them together to make a sick chalk cloud? Will Anzu step on the back of Yuugi’s shoe so his foot falls out? Will Anzu unzip his backpack when he’s not looking so all his books fall out? What dick move will Anzu do?

SOOOOOO

This is a thing that canonically happened in Yugioh.

It’s like finding out that Big Bird once violently choked out Elmo in Season One but now they’re good and they don’t want to talk about it.

Like...this is a lot and it’s not even discussed in this very episode!

The one time.

The one time they should have just ditched.

This is the one time you should just find a boat/blimp, smuggle yourself on board, and then play cards for a straight week with an evil psychopath. The one time.

No wonder they go out of their way to avoid this school for the rest of this show. They ditch just to survive their 1st year of High School.

So they decided to split up which...they’ve made worse choices, and only Yugi finds Tea. What would Shadi’s plan have been if anyone else was up here first?

Reminder that in the second or third episode of Season 1, Joey and Yugi came up here to reminisce the good ol days. I had no idea at the time that the “good ol days” involved being dangled on the edge of whatever this weird contraption is called.

Eat your heart out Jeffree Star and Rituel de Fille, Shadi here did black highlighter first. In 1999. And that nose is snatched.

Appropriately, Honda is still embracing his janitorial duties. Maybe that’s why he’s not a janitor anymore? Because he was getting tooooo into being a janitor? Like if you go janitor while being a zombie that’s toooooo much janitorial.

Another thing Season Zero does that may either be a limitation of their budget or just a limitation of their experience is that, unlike most foreign films, the pacing of the cuts are really quick. Like REALLY frantic. (And yeah I’m generalizing a lot when I say that Western shows and movies have quicker cuts, but lets just say that it’s true about 90% of the time. Not better or worse, just different.)

And like, this was the 90′s, a time period I don’t really remember, but back then we were into bizarre editing. It was a very experimental time in film because suddenly there were a lot of computer and filming tools available for a decent price and people kind of lost their minds. They were getting into doing tons of dutch angles and tons of filters and it was just a real...interesting time in film. It’s gauche by our standards but like...art kind of lives in the time period it’s from and you shouldn’t pull it out and compare it to our current standards too much because--welcome to 90′s Xtreme cuts. Docking something for being too 90′s is like saying that medieval art sucks balls because they didn’t want to use perspective and all their cats look weird. This was the time.

It’s just interesting to me that they decided to attempt to copy this frantic editing style into a cartoon when it’s normally done splicing together live action shots that were done with three+ different cameras. They planned out each cut in a storyboard and drew every frame. It was a lot of work. And it didn’t age well, which is a shame.

And it could have been that because this is a horror show, they decided to experiment. It’s a pretty edge show based on a pretty intense manga. But, it’s...interesting. Can’t exactly cap it, you’ll have to watch it for itself but it’s...interesting. And overall, I honestly feel like I can’t come to any conclusions about the direction that Season Zero editing has taken since I’ve only seen four episodes, so these are just my five cents, don’t quote me on it. I may take back this opinion a few episodes from now.

Y’all this was never told to us until like Season 2. Season Zero told us this in like episode 4. Would have been really nice to have this information a little earlier.

So then we introduce the mummy mechanic of this “game.” Anzu’s plank contraption is tied to these baby mummies. Kind of looks like they’re chocolate mummies you get from the Egyptian museum store. In fact, They might actually be museum gift shop chocolate mummies that Shadi shoplifted up after he killed that fat guy.

Not sure how he set any of this up, especially when he totally botched it with the beams and the basketball and the strangling, but somehow, Shadi got this complicated knot system all ready to go. Weird how Marik was the one on the boat when Shadi has like a degree in knots.

So I said this in the last episode but we get this reoccurring theme in Season Zero where Yugioh is a little boy learning to grow up and be a man, and yet every guy he meets has just a pile of toxic misinformation about how to be a powerful adult. In Shadi’s case, he believes that weakness stems from caring about other people and relying on them for support, hallmarks of mortality. Which is easy for Shadi to say because he’s some 5000 yo undead (I think?) with no friends, unless you count Chair Barney. But Shadi’s pretty sure that attachment to living people will only ultimately hurt you, especially when they’re complete assholes, which most of Yuugi’s friends are. They’re good assholes, though.

It’s a pretty common anime trope and I’m surprised it took us this long to get to the power of friendship. Freakin finally. And there’s nothing wrong with tropes. It’s how stories are made.

Anyways, in case you thought this episode would not address the teachers, they actually did for about 3 seconds.

Neat that this is the most unsafe school in all of Japan.

I am a fan of the combo of blue, purple, green, and very large teeth. I will give Chair Barney that much. Anyway, lets see what game Shadi made.

Oh cool, it’s the game I made to go in my babysitting kit when I was like 11.

Granted, so were playing cards.

Wow everyone is just assaulting each other this episode, damn!

Back on the roof, Yugi calmly wins the game without ever flipping a tile.

Now for some reason I missed the part where he says “two feet” and so I was missing a pair of things and so I listened to this part again and either my sick brain missed it three times (cuz y’all I have had the plague and my recovery has been so sloooow) there were these shapes on the tiles that looked like kidneys and I thought--but it’s not two kidneys, right? and I was like what else is a pair and round and lobby shaped? and then I didn’t really want to go there, and assumed--FEET.

Knowing full well feet are not kidney shaped, but I’m gonna assume he said feet. If he actually said weird monster testicles, you’ll be sure let me know.

And then this happened and it’s pretty legit.

We have never actually addressed the fact that Yuugi forced his friends to like him. Like it’s a pretty effed up origin story that Jounouchi was like like “I feel like very strongly I should be his friend” but doesn’t really know it’s because he got cursed. Kinda figured the show would just breeze by it, but no, here we are, and Yuugi has to face the fact that maybe the only reason he’s not a loner anymore is because he won Jounouchi as a prize for finishing an accessory.

And whether or not Jounouchi would have been his friend no matter what isn’t really what’s being tested, it’s whether or not Yuugi believes that this friendship is actually real, or a curse. Like Jounouchi did try to defend Yuugi before Yuugi finished the puzzle, but does Yuugi know that? He was passing out at the time. It’s a real insecure spot for Yuugi since before Jounouchi he was just a little punching bag playing board games alone in the homeroom. Jounouchi was introduced as someone who was legitimately bullying Yuugi and tossing that puzzle out a window. There’s going to be the underlying fear that Jounouchi would go back.

In the S1 anime, they basically wrote that plot point out of the show or decided that because this was done in Season Zero they don’t need to retread on old territory. Joey, Tristan, and Tea aren’t cursed to be Yugi’s friends, as far as I know.

But this test between the friendship of Yugi and Joey is recreated again in S2 with Marik when they were both tied to an anchor and one had to choose to kill the other or live. But there’s some pretty major differences. This time, instead of Joey being possessed by Marik and being forced to kill his friend, he’s just Jounouchi sans curse.

Although Jounouchi is still somewhat mind controlled as he is just an illusion. He’s just...not as badly mind controlled as the whole Marik thing. This Jounouchi has more motor control and doesn’t seem to have any inner conflict at all. Because again, this isn’t so much Yuugi vs Jounouchi, this is Yuugi vs Yuugi’s fear of being alone again.

That’s a realllllly different takeaway. And honestly, it’s pretty interesting.

Also, instead of Tea with a shipping container over her head, this time Anzu is walking a plank. Really didn’t expect that Shadi would basically turn into Marik but without the cards. And without the underground bunker lifestyle where he kills his own Dad.

The game is kind of hard to show in caps but they have to drop the puzzle in the direction they want the other to walk. Mostly it’s just another reason for Jounouchi to steal Yuugi’s puzzle again and relive the trauma.

Remember that time that Jounouchi tried to get Yuugi to punch him and Yuugi broke out in tears because he didn’t like violence? I mean honestly, out of everyone Yuugi knows. Jounouchi was probably the nicest bully he had. Doesn’t mean Yuugi isn’t incredibly insecure about it.

Instead of fighting back, Yuugi decides to skip his turn. It’s a contrast to the other Joey/Yugi fight because instead of just throwing a fireball in his own face until Joey snaps out of it, Yuugi has decided to rely on trust.

And, much like Grandpa’s Blue Eyed Dragon that would not perform under Kaiba’s reign to kill Yuugi, neither would Jounouchi under Shadi. They even disappear into the aether with the same smoke effect.

And what I think is the most interesting part of this is that the question of “so would they have been friends without the puzzle?” is mostly left open ended.

And if the friendship were solid as a rock, then this whole debate Yuugi has with Shadi wouldn’t even be a debate. Shadi is certain that people will betray you because they can, Yuugi is confident that, even though they do walk you to that ledge, they can change although there is a history of hurt. Shadi was convinced Yuugi couldn’t overcome his lonely past, and Yuugi had to prove that the past can’t hurt him anymore, the past being also his best friend.

Like it’s just something never mentioned in the S1-3, that Yuugi has a lot of issues because all of his friends have been his bully at one point. And like, not to get too PSA, but every friendship has to be looked at by a case by case basis. You can’t generalize and say “everyone who betrays you can change.” But the message here isn’t about keeping any relationship that is toxic, it’s about overcoming the pain of the past.

Also Jounouchi is hella cursed so he won’t be back to his old ways anytime soon.

Kind of hard to tell, but Honda got covered in a layer of white fire extinguisher juice and it’s a look that uhhhh we would never illustrate this way in 2019. Times were more innocent in the 90′s.

Just kidding, they absolutely weren’t, I have no idea who allowed Honda to be drawn this way.

Reminder that Kaiba is just sitting pretty in one of these classrooms, maybe watching Joey’s ass scrape up against the window while Honda completely covered in mysterious white stuff screams bloody mercy. As the teacher teaching this particular class ignores all of this, Kaiba would just be thinking to himself “Aw. that’s fun.”

And so ends this really long but honestly, pretty interesting episode. Season Zero has a lot of rough patches, like I’m probably not going to do every episode of it, but when it connects to what we’re watching its neat to compare and contrast the two. Kind of wish we had more of Yugi facing his past in the current anime but instead it’s Kaiba facing his past. So we...kind of get it? Just with a different character?

Shadi picks up his key and walks away unscathed. Mostly because Yuugi does not currently know how to mind-wipe. Seems that that is mostly a Pharaoh thing and as far as I can tell Yuugi is still just one person with an alternate personality.

Off he goes, that bastard.

Amazing that everyone’s pretty much on good terms with Shadi by the end of S1. Like he’s just kind of a pal that shows up and “accidentally” leads you directly to kill your own Dad when in Season Zero he is...really outwardly evil.

Anyway, that was a hellton of content haha, next week it’s back to Joey dueling a lawyer while Kaiba gets lost in the woods.

[synthient]

Could you elaborate on what you mean about Death T re stanning and fairness? It sounds interesting and I'd love to hear about it if you don't mind sharing.

ajhfakj hoo boy. Okay.

So some time around the summer before last (judging by the point where the first baffled and frustrated readmores start showing up on this blog), I read Death-T. It made me feel…some kind of way. An…unpleasant kind of way.

Here’s the thing about me: I can’t just let myself have an emotional reaction to a piece of fiction. I have to, first, pick apart my own emotions to figure out why I had that reaction, and second, pick apart the story to figure out how it works and how it made me feel that way.

On the Feelings Front, I’ve isolated two main causes:

1. I have a brain that Needs Things To Be Fair. That doesn’t mean I can’t handle unfairness in a piece of fiction. Unfairness creates conflict, and conflict is what makes for good storytelling. But it does mean that I need the story to be aware of its own unfairness. I need the unfairness to be the point. Otherwise I start vibrating at high speeds and shaking my fist at clouds.

2. I’m a Kaiba stan. I accidentally got emotionally attached to the Funny Card Game Boy from the Funny Card Game Show. 

There’s the feelings part. That leaves the “picking apart the story” side of the equation. And I’ve been trying to do that in nice punchy little one-or-two-paragraph text posts for the past year or so, but I don’t think I’ve ever really done the argument justice that way. So I guess that leaves only one option: writing a giant wordvomit essay on Yugioh (1996-2004).

Why This Is A Death-T Hateblog: The Masterpost

An important note: I like being able to back up my thoughts with Evidence From The Text, but I’m specifically working off the (Viz translated) manga. You can read Cards with Teeth here, Capumon here, and Death-T starting here if you want to check any of my facts or draw your own conclusions. Keep in mind that the Toei anime made pretty huge changes to the s0 Kaiba storyline, and the DM anime skipped most of it entirely–if you’re more familiar with those continuities, there’re some major differences in the manga.

(Also this thing probably reads better on desktop. I think the formatting got screwed up on mobile)

How We Got Here

Before we can actually dig into Death-T, we need to start at the very beginning (♫a very good place to start♫). So that means taking a look at “The Cards with Teeth (Part 1)” and “The Cards with Teeth (Part 2).”

For its first 8 chapters, the Yugioh manga chugs blissfully (if repetitively) along with an episodic, conflict-of-the-week formula. No overarching plot. Next to no sense of continuity. No trading cards in sight.

Then this asshole shows up. 

His name is Seto Kaiba (or “Kaiba,” at least–not sure if this is just a Viz thing, but my copy of CwT never mentions his given name). Not that he bears a whole lot of resemblance to the Seto Kaiba we later come to know and love (and/or love to hate).

Almost none of his most defining traits are there yet. There’s no mention of Mokuba, no mention of Kaibacorp, no indicationthat he’s especially rich (besides the fact that he’s carrying around a wholebriefcase of trading cards), no reason to believe he has a specific obsession with Blue Eyes (he just thinks it’s a strong card and it’d help him win tournaments), and no sign of any special hacking/strategy/hand-to-hand-combat/etc. skills (the kid is hilariously incompetent). 

This dude was never supposed to be a recurring character, and it shows.

But anyway, let’s run through the basic series of events:

- Kaiba wanders into the game shop looking forbooster packs. Yugi recognizes him as an acquaintance from school (not as a famous kid CEO, and not as a recent transfer student)

- Kaiba happens to notice the Blue Eyes card lying out onGrandpa’s counter (in this version of events, he hasn’t been stealing rare cards for months before this, he didn’t creep on Yugi’s conversation and followhim home, he had no idea going in that the Blue Eyes was there, and he didn’t already have the other three)

- He offers to trade all the cards in his briefcasefor the Blue Eyes (although he doesn’t tell Grandpa to name his price—again,the millionaire CEO element isn’t a thing yet)

- Grandpa refuses, so the next day Kaiba comes up with alaughably badly thought-out plan to steal the card

- Shockingly, Yugi notices that the “color copy from the catalog” isn’t the real deal. He gently tries to confront Kaiba about it in private

- Kaiba (without showing an ounce of the cool head you’d think you’d need to take over and run a company) panics, starts stammering and unconvincingly denying it, and then smacks Yugi with his briefcase

Annnd then Part 2 plays out like a standard s0 chapter.

“Yami Yugi” takes over. They play a shadow game. Kaiba cheats by slipping the stolen Blue Eyes out of his sleeve (Atem’s like “That’s my Grandpa’s card!” and Kaiba straight up goes “Whaaat, nooo, that’s my card that I, uh, found on the street just now.” A teen genius criminal mastermind, everybody). The shadow magic gives him a spritz from its metaphorical Karmic Cat-Training Spray Bottle and makes his Blue Eyes dissolve (I’d like to think that was Kisara going “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” and Memory World tries to retroactively make that connection, but it’s pretty abundantly clear that nothing about this series was planned that far ahead). He loses. Yadda yadda yadda.

And then Atem goes in for the penalty game.

To recap: 

Some random 10th grader from Yugi’s school stole a trading card, hit someone, and was generally kind of a jerk. As punishment, he was trapped in a hyper-realistic illusion of being ripped apart and slaughtered by half a dozen monsters at once.

Y…ay…?

Let’s Stop and Reflect for a Sec

In theory, I shouldn’t be that much more upset about Cards with Teeth than I am about any other part of s0, right? It’s not like the manga framed it as horrific and wrong when Atem set off an explosion in some teenage bully’s face a couple chapters ago. Giving us the vicarious pleasure of punishing our bullies in over-the-top, Carrie-style ways without actually exploring any of the consequences is, like, the early manga’s whole thing.

But even taking into account the fact that I already had an attachment to this Nasty Bowl Cut Boy thanks to the anime, I do actually think that there are at least two factors that set CwT apart.

The first is that Atem’s karmic punishments are usually…well, karmic. If he inflicts physical harm on someone, it’s because they already inflicted or tried to inflict roughly the same amount of harm on Yugi & co. If the crime was relatively minor, then he only gives out a minor punishment–like, say, when the homeroom teacher was Just Kinda Mean, all he did was allow the class to see her without her makeup on (…setting aside the Let’s Get Into Gender Politics-ness of that chapter).

There’s even a few cases where you could argue that the punishment is too light to fit the crime. Ushio beat Jonouchi and Honda half to death and tried to murder Yugi with a knife, and all he got was this lousy t-shirt an illusion that made the trash on the ground look like money.

In another chapter, the villain of the week tried to rape Anzu, and the only punishment he faced was having his side business exposed as a scam (Let’s Get Into Gender Politics).

Yet in CwT, we see one of the most harmless villains in all of s0 (no prolonged beatings or attempted murder? unheard of!) receive what’s arguably the most horrifying penalty game in the whole manga. At least when that guy got set on fire, it was over fast.

And that brings us to factor number two: Kaiba is the first penalty game victim in s0 who comes back. 

Capumon: Gotta Catch ‘em All!

Well, technically he doesn’t come back in person, at first. Someone else shows up to fight in his name.

Oh hey Mokie. How’s it going?

Rather understandably (imo), Mokuba wants the guy who tortured his brother last week to face some actual consequences for it.

Now here’s an interesting opportunity that the manga has set up for itself. Is it going to dig deep into the balance between defending yourself vs lashing out and causing undue harm? Is it going to remind us that most of the penalty game victims so far, whatever their crimes,have been children? Is it going to demonstrate that when you take out your anger on someone, you don’t just hurt your immediate target, but their loved ones as well?

Nah, who am I kidding.  

Hurting or inconveniencing the Good Guys in any way is Bad. Anything the Good Guys do is Good and Justified. Using magic to stick an already-hurting eleven-year-old in his own personalized hell? Good and Justified.

Before he’s shoved screaming into the Giant Vending Machine Capsule Where Bad And Naughty Elementary Schoolers Go To Atone For Their Crimes, Mokuba mentions that the other penalty game he heard about “made my brother go crazy!”

He also drops a hint of things to come with all the subtlety of an anvil. So I guess by this point, the numbers had come in and the card game chapter had proved unexpectedly popular enough that a sequel was in the works.

Death-Twink? Death-Tastic?Death-Two: Electric Boogaloo?

I’ve been pretty hard on Cards with Teeth and Capsule Monsters Chess so far. But you want to know the truth?

On their own, they aren’t necessarily that bad.

What really matters in a story isn’t the literal events: it’s how those events are framed. At the moment, we’re only midway through an incomplete storyline. Maybe we’re supposed to be horrified. Maybe we’re supposed to be questioning whether or not the hero is really in the right. It all hangs on what these chapters are building to.

As it turns out–as Mokuba just helpfully clued us in on–they were building to Death-T.

And that’s where the shit hits the fan.

Over a dozen chapters after we first met Kaiba, a whole bunch of completely-unforeshadowed facts about him are suddenly dumped on us all at once. He’s rich! The kind of rich that allows for limo rides, a giant mansion, and flouncing around in a fur-lined cape like feudal European nobility! And he’s the president of a company, even though “Whaa?!! But he’s still in high school!” Speaking of which, apparently Kaiba “hasn’t been at school recently.”

The Death-T arc opens with Yugi and Jonouchi attending the world’s most awkward sleepover–the host never shows up, and they don’t even get to paint each others’ nails or watch movies. Also Mokuba tries to murder them in the night, but you know what? If someone tortured my brother, “made him go crazy,” and left him huddled in the house feverishly working on a bizarre project and refusing to go to school for the next few weeks, I’d probably poison them too.

The morning after the sleepover, we learn another new Kaiba Fact…

Ever since the Experience of Death happened, he’s been having horrible recurring PTSD nightmares about it. As you do. When you get tortured.

(This is why, even though I know intellectually that it’s Not That Deep and people arejust having fun, I still get a little skeeved out when I see jokes about howDeath-T happened “just” because Kaiba was that mad about losing a card game or “just”because he had a crush on Yugi and he didn’t know how to deal with it. I’malways internally like “Nnno, I’m pretty sure it was the torture?”)

So far we’ve been shown in pretty brutal detail that our “hero” psychologically broke a fifteen-year-old for no good reason. The manga’s going to have its work cut out for it if it really wants to do a convincing redemption arc for its protagonist. And there’s no way it could possibly try to spin that random act of torture as an acceptable thing, right?

…right?

Crime and Punishment

That’s one of my first big problems with Death-T: to me, it reads as a way of trying to retroactively justify the Experience of Death.

That seems to be the purpose of suddenly giving Kaiba all this wealth and power that was never hinted at in Cards with Teeth. See, he wasn’t just some random high school kid who had the bad luck of crossing someone with magic powers; he was (however improbable that is, as the story lampshades) a high school-aged CEO. He’s so ludicrously powerful that he can torture an old man in front of a live audience and get away with it. Punching up looks a lot better than punching down, doesn’t it?

And you can’t really fault the hero for torturing someone evil, can you? Kaiba used Grandpa’s sanity as a blackmail chip! He ran experiments on human test subjects! He wants to kill Yugi and everyone he loves! Surely a little torture is no worse than he deserved.

There’s only one one problem with that: the Experience of Death happened before Death-T. There’s no way Atem could have known any of this was coming. The audience couldn’t have known it was coming. Takahashi didn’t know. Chronologically speaking, the Experience of Death wasn’t revenge for Death-T. It’s the other way around.

Best Served Cold

So Death-T is a form of eye-for-an-eye vengeance: “Yugi” beat Kaiba at Duel Monsters and tortured him, so now Kaiba’s gonna beat Yugi and torture him, using his own perfect virtual recreation of “Yugi’s” penalty game (oh yeah, that whole “the average person goes insane in about 10 minutes” thing? Kaiba was able to program that detail from personal experience).

But wait! This isn’t really eye-for-an-eye! Kaiba’s going after Yugi’s loved ones, not just Yugi, and that’s worse than what Yugi did to him! And even if it was proportionate, revenge is bad and wrong. That’s how you get endless back-and-forth chains of vengeance and generational blood feuds and stuff. Two wrongs don’t make a right!

And those could all be reasonable points, except…

This entire story is about how great and badass eye-for-an-eye justice is.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could take everyone who ever hurt you and make them suffer even worse” is practically the thesis of Season 0. You can’t make something look awesome when the protagonist does it and then turn around and make it seem evil and inexcusable coming from anyone else.

And while Kaiba does wind up targeting Yugi’s friends, that wasn’t part of his original plan. He’s surprised when random people start jumping out of the bleachers/the Kaibacorp employee roster and insisting that they won’t let Yugi do this alone. The writing uses his surprise as proof that he just doesn’t understand The Power of Friendship, but it’s also evidence that his original target was just Yugi.

“If you’re gonna side with my torturer, then you can have the same fate as him, I guess.” It’s not even that far outside the logic Atem’s been using all this time. Just because there’s only one main gang member who personally hurt his friend, that doesn’t mean that Atem won’t rope every random mook who gets in his way into the death game too. (Granted, this doesn’t really apply to Kaiba’s treatment of Grandpa. Or the offscreen experimentation/blackmailing. Or Mokuba, but…we’ll get to that).

…But like I said before, the big issue isn’t the events. It’s the framing. Maybe the point will ultimately be that if penalty games are wrong when the bad guy does them, then they’re wrong when the hero does them too. Maybe this is all leading up to a big reexamination of Atem’s moral code and some much-needed character development.

Maybe. Let’s keep going and see.

*Great Gatsby comic voice* Baby? What Baby

Death-T runs for 14 chapters, but Kaiba isn’t actually there for, like…half of them.

I mean, he’s technically there? Occasionally? He’ll show up long enough to dramatically play chess for a panel or so, or to stick his head on a TV monitor and provide some Helpful Death Game Hints. But for all practical purposes, he’s pretty much absent for the entire middle section of the story arc.

And, uh…let’s just say I 100% understand and respect the DM anime’s decisionto go straight from Grandpa’s heart attack to the final duel and skipeverything in between.

If Kaiba’s real goal is to beat Yugi at Duel Monsters, then all the death games leading up to that one are basically filler. And they manage to be just as contrived and nonsensical as any anime filler arc, without a fraction of the fun.

It’s largely a tonal issue. The writing swings wildly between grimdark dramatics, sentimental conversations about friendship where everyone hugs and cries (tbh that’s one of the few redeeming qualities of the arc), and “comic relief” where the “““comedy””” is all either bodily function jokes or sexual assault jokes (L̠̤̯͍̦e̮̪͎̞t's̞̮̳̱̰̦̲ ̲G͖͉̹̻̯͉͖e̜̝̗͓̟͚t̖͚ ͚̰̞̮̝̫͎I͓̜̦̳̭͚͎n̪̪͈t͍̥̰̼o͚͎͇̣̘̝ ̪̼̜̣̳G͈̠̫e̳̝̗̪ṋ͚̞͎ͅd͔̙͓̯̹e̯̺̯̩r͔̣̲͔̳̗ ̘͙P̖̦o̩̺͖͎̞̬l͎̺͕̹i͇̣̼̦t̰i̬̰̝͙̗̝c̜̼̺̪̲̞s).

Honestly, in terms of the “stanning and fairness” argument, there’s not much to talk about here. It just adds insult to injury that not only does Death-T throw my fave under the bus, but it’s really badly written.

The Mokuba Thing

Okay, let’s fast-forward through the filler zone and stoppp…here. 

In the context of the anime, where we know (and see multiple flashbacks demonstrating) that their whole life has been an “us against the world” story, this scene is tragic. Seto’s trust in people has been eroded so much that he even thinks Mokuba is conspiring against him? Their love and support for each other, which has survived through so much hardship, has finally cracked under the weight of this latest trauma? There’s a lot of dramatic and tearjerking potential there.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of us bring our baggage from the anime with us when we read the manga. The vast majority of the western Yugioh fandom did start with DM. 

But if we look at this purely in the context of the manga–if we can pretend, for a second, that none of us have ever heard of the anime–this is the first time we see the two of them interacting onscreen. And none of those touching flashbacks of Seto comforting Mokuba and defending him from bullies and promising to be his father exist here. All we ever really learn about their relationship before this point is “They used to be a little closer when they were younger. Source: one (1) photo of them playing chess.”

So instead of serving as the tragic lowpoint of their relationship, this scene sets the baseline for it: Mokuba desperately wants to make his brother happy and earn his approval, while Seto responds with dismissal and cruelty.

In the anime (and to a certain extent in the later manga), Mokuba’s purpose in the narrative is to humanize Seto. But in Death-T, he serves the opposite function. Every interaction they have is an opportunity for Seto to kick the dog and prove what a monster he is.

And it’s all downhill from here.

………………

…So.

I have…mixed feelings about this.

On one level–a meta level–I think this scene serves the same purpose as taking that random high schooler from CwT and suddenly giving him ridiculous amounts of money and power and mustache-twirling levels of villainy. It’s a way of making the Experience of Death seem retroactively justified (and also a way of making the upcoming penalty game look fair).

On the other hand. It’s. 

Horrific.

This scene is supposed to make us hate Kaiba, and it does it’s job really really well.

Personally speaking? I’m of the opinion that trying to hurt the child under your care as badly as you conceivably can is a “don’t pass go, don’t collect $100″ kind of deal. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no fixing or salvaging this relationship.  

(God, this whole thing is wrapped in so many layers of fantasy that I’m not even sure what the real-world equivalent would be. Trying to beat your child not quite to death?)

Mokuba should not have had to continue living with his brother after this, any more than the Ishtars should have had to stay with their dad or Seto should have had to stay with Gozaburo. Mokuba forgiving Seto for this isn’t touching to me, it’s gut-wrenching. Every “heartwarming” brotherly moment in the later manga (all, like…2 and a half of them) feels hollow and sad.

As far as I’m concerned, this scene doesn’t “complicate” their relationship in any interesting or meaningful way. Their anime relationship already has plenty of complications–their sometimes unhealthy co-dependence, the fact that Seto is still a kid himself and he’s not really equipped to be a parent,Mokuba’s difficulty understanding that Seto can’t just “go back to who he was” before his trauma, the times when Seto is too caught up in his own pain to really be there for Mokuba, the manipulation involved in Seto’s takeover plan, etc. This just makes their relationship outright child abuse.

But hey, they hugged that one time in Duelist Kingdom, so it’s fine, right?

ExODiA iiiIIIIT’s not pAHsible

The final duel happens. The big Blue Eyes vs Exodia showdown.

*Bill Wurtz voice* So that’s pretty nifty, I would say.

It’s..? A genuinely cool and dramatic duel. There’s a reason it’s one of the, like, three Death-T elements the DM anime actually bothered to keep. Not much to say about it.

Sure was a whole lot of buildup just to end things with one (1) deus ex machina instawin card, tho.

The Tragic Backstory

So if all this happened because of a penalty game, what do you think the solution could be?

Did you say “another, even harsher penalty game”?

Ding ding ding!

This time, instead of torturing the fifteen-year-old, our hero puts the fifteen-year-old in a vegetative state as he begs for mercy.

Yaaaayy! 

Some fun facts about the Mind Crush that we don’t actually learn until Duelist Kingdom:

1. It lasted for 6 months

2. Mokuba spent that entire time alone, in the big empty mansion, with no parental guidance or adult supervision except the butlers and maids, caring for his brother’s comatose body 24/7

3. When Atem put Kaiba in that coma, he had absolutely no idea if he’d ever be able to wake up or not. He thought he could, maybe–Kaiba’s pretty strong, right? But he also finds the idea that Kaiba died in his coma and came back to haunt him perfectly believable. “Fixed,” dead…eh, it was kind of a coin toss.

But wait, the story’s not over yet! First we have to find out Why Kaiba Is The Way He Is (“Because your buddy tortured him last month” isn’t enough of an answer, apparently).

This is communicated in the most natural way possible: Mokuba just starts monologuing about all his brother’s deepest darkest traumas to a bunch of strangers his brother hates.

The claim that Kaiba’s backstory is “more complex” in the manga than it is in the anime has always confused me, because this is…it. These three pages are the whole backstory. I mean, in Battle City we do get one more passing line of dialog about how Kaibacorp used to be a weapons manufacturer and Gozaburo “sold Seto’s soul to the military industrial complex,” but other than that… The anime took these bare bones and fleshed them out significantly, but from a pure manga canon standpoint, it’s not a whole lot to work with.

But there’s still enough here to rub me the wrong way.

For one thing, this sequence is almost an exact parallel to two later moments in the manga: Pegasus’s backstory dump at the end of Duelist Kingdom, and Malik’s backstory dump mid-Battle City. In both of those cases, the purpose of the scene is to take a villain whose motives seemed cruel and inexplicable and finally reveal the reasons behind his actions. We’re supposed to be seeing these characters in a sympathetic light for the very first time.

But Kaiba’s motives in Death-T, uh, weren’t exactly a mystery. He already made it pretty explicitly clear that this was about the torture. So as a narrative tool, Mokuba’s monologue:

1. seems a little superfluous

2. seems like a way of taking any responsibility out of the protagonist’s hands. Kaiba didn’t snap because of anything Atem did, he just had a bunch of fucked up baggage that Atem couldn’t possibly have known about or accounted for. Who knew some people take it badly when you torture them??

3. seems to suggest that we weren’t supposed to be sympathizing with Kaiba before this point. If this is the big “oh, now that I know why he did it, I guess I feel a little bad for him :(” moment, then that means the part where he got tortured…wasn’t?

And, as always, there’s the issue of the framing.

The grace note of the monologue–the thought it leaves us with, the intended takeaway–isn’t “If only he hadn’t gone through years of abuse, in circumstances he had no real control over because he was a child.” It’s “If only he hadn’t brought all this upon himself by cheating.”

Even if we ignore the fact that it’s physically impossible to cheat at chess (which seems like kind of a big oversight for a gaming manga, but oh well, That’s Yugioh Babe)…

How can you possibly present a ten-year-old cheating at a board game in a desperate gambit to get himself and his brother out of an orphanage as his start of darkness?

Yet that’s exactly what the writing does. This is a story about how games “reveal the true hearts” of their players and bring karmic retribution down on anyone who doesn’t respect the game and follow the rules. The implication is that the child abuse Seto suffered was karma. He rightfully earned it by cheating at chess, just like he brought the Experience of Death upon himself by cheating at Duel Monsters.

Oh yeah, speaking of which…

Wheel of Morality, Turn Turn Turn, Tell Us The Lesson We Should Learn

What was the outcome of Death-T? What impact did it actually have? 

Did it bring about any big moral reckoning? Any questioning of the heroes’ values? Did Atem learn the difficult but important lesson “torture bad”?

Nnnnope!

Death-T is immediately followed by a series of episodic chapters that take us right back to the status quo like nothing happened. Atem keeps merrily handing out penalty games all the way up to the very end of Duelist Kingdom. When he does finally stop doing them, his decision has nothing to do with Death-T. It takes a comment from Pegasus about the Millennium Items having an “evil intelligence” to make him wonder “wait…I’m from a Millennium Item…I’m an intelligence…could evil…maybe include…torture????”

And even after the manga lukewarmly reverses its position to “torture sort of bad I guess,” it never really does anything with that revelation. None of the past penalty games are ever reexamined. No apologies are made. The Experience of Death is quietly swept under the rug, and the Mind Crush, when it’s brought up at all, is framed as noble act that “fixed” Kaiba (because “if you make someone suffer badly enough, you can hurt them into being a better person” is a great message).

Basically, we learned nothing from Death-T, nothing changed, and our takeaway is supposed to be “Atem was 100% in the right and Kaiba was 100% in the wrong, and also he’s an evil monster who deserved everything he got.”

Guess I Need A Satisfying Conclusion of Some Kind Even Through Death-T Didn’t Really Have One, Huh

Wow.

That was…a whole lot of words of Death-T rage that I apparently had in me zjkghzkkf. 

I tend to feel less justified about constantly harping on Death-T then I do when it comes to, like, the racism in Memory World, or the series’ general Miss O’Gyny. It’s not like “magical vigilantism” is exactly a real-word social issue that’s being reflected in this piece of fiction. I realize a lot of my anger pretty much boils down to “hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(”

But I also feel like the issues in Death-T aren’t limited to Death-T.

The manga has this…this thing where it wants to be able to pinpoint a few clear, unchanging moral rules (“cheating is bad!” “graverobbing is bad!” “patricide is bad!”) and just apply them neatly to every situation, without having to take into account any of that inconvenient stuff like “what were the circumstances of this specific situation,” or “how many choices were actually open to this person,” or “how much harm was done by this choice compared to its benefits in terms of basic human well-being.” Yet at the same time, that moral absolutism is somehow coupled with a reluctance to apply any moral judgement to its protagonists at all. 

The two points where that becomes clearest are Death-T and Memory World. And I feel like even when people acknowledge the issues with those arcs, they still want to be able to write it off as “oh, that was just a problem with the early chapters, it was fixed as the writing matured,” or “oh, that was just a problem at the end because of the mad rush to finish the story before it got canceled, it was never a thing before then.” But it’s not an isolated problem. It’s there at the beginning of the story, it’s there at the end, and it’s baked into everything in the middle.

…but anyhow. 

hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(

[curestardust]

if you want: wholesome stories / great comedy / slice-of-life

Hinamatsuri was a last minute addition to my Spring watchlist (yes, I’m STILL watching Spring Season anime) and I almost dropped it based on the first episode. But I’m very glad that I didn’t because it turned out to be a very fun and wholesome experience.

Let me explain. The first episode starts out with Hina appearing at Nitta’s house. She has psychic superpowers. Nitta gets sent on a suicide mission cause he is part of the yakuza and Hina helps him out with her powers. We get some backstory on the place Hina came from and how they used her to order her (possibly) to kill people and such. There’s some minimal comedy as well but it’s not very prevalent. This episode is one of the worst pilot episodes I’ve ever seen. Why? Cause NONE of the rest of the anime even resembles the tone set up here! The yakuza bussiness? Irrelevant. Hina’s powers? Irrelevant. Hina’s backstory? (Almost) irrelevant. Comedy? Cranked up to the max. 

Even if you aren’t quite fond of the dynamic of Hina and Nitta, or their personalities in general, no need to worry cause there are actually 3 main characters in Hinamatsuri. First we’ve Hina of course. She is very careless and childish and I’m not going to lie, I had trouble tolerating her at some parts. Second is Anzu, who’s sent by the “organization” to bring Hina back. She uses her powers for about 2 seconds, loses, realises that she can’t go back and becomes homeless. Her story is the most touching out of the three, with the least comedy. Our third character is Hitomi who’s completely seperate from the superpower/organization plotline as she is just a normal schoolgirl who gets dragged into having to work (keeping it as vague as possible).

Episodes consist of 1 story in the first half and a completely seperate one in the second half. The main character keeps changing which is great, cause as I said all 3 characters’ stories have distinct feel and tone to them. 

The comedy is really good imo. Great timing and great reactions with the jokes being surreal but not too much as to become too weird. The art style may get a little to get used to however the animation quality is up to par. [8/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents 

if you want: cute girls / cute female friendships / some pure fun / exciting story / good character development / basically no fanservice!

And in today’s “only Japan could come up with something like this” we have racing horse girls, The Anime!

And I’m going to start with what’s all on your minds when you look at this the first time. “Horse girls, anime of a mobile game = bad production, no story and lots of creepy fanservice” right? Actually, no! Not even close. I avoided this as well cause that was what I thought it was going to be like but I gave in and I sure am glad I did! Because there’s no fanservice, the production quality is great and the story is actually thrilling! 

So in Umamusume there are girls who are half horse and half human which basically means that they have the physical capabilites of a horse but the looks of a human (with cutesy ears and tails of course because anime). These girls attend schools to take part in races. That’s it, that’s the anime. But wait! It’s actually...pretty exciting?

First off, from reading other people’s reviews and doing some minor googling, it turns out that the characters in the anime are actually based on...real life, actual racing horses. Not only that, but their hair colours are actually based on those horses’ fur! This is why a lot of them have weird white streaks in their hair because the horses often have white spots of fur. I know that’s a minor detail but I was amazed by this because...it shows that the creators not only have knowledge of the base material but are actually dedicated about it. I’ve also come to know that the races we see in the anime are also based on real races that happened with the same outcomes.

We basically have 2 main characters, Special Week and Silence Suzuka. Suzuka is an already established and talented horse girl who however is losing her love of racing. Spe-chan (Special Week’s nickname [incredible]) is new to the school and taking part in races and we follow these two on their journey. 

In regards to characters, there are a shitton of them. First we have the trainers of the 2 teams. The male trainer is the one whom you would expect to be the “fanservice/self-insert” thing character and they kinda set him up as such in the first episode however he becomes more of a father figure to the girls. Then, there’s Team Spica with their members who are the main supporting chars and Team Rigil who’re the secondary supporting characters. We get to know the Spica girls more but they’re mostly there to provide some additional entertainment. Which is a big shame cause they’re shown racing in the opening and they all seem to have different techniques but we’re not shown that in the anime itself. BUT! While I’m sad about that, I’m also glad that the anime knew what to prioritise in its short runtime of 13 episodes. In the end, the focus was Special Week and Suzuka’s character development in which the races WERE the focal point.

And the races! Yes, it’s just a bunch of girls running in a big circle but they made them so exciting! There’s one quite impactful race where the main character is not doing quite well and then the background and sound dissapears and she takes a deep breath. And I was rooting for her so hard and so stressed that I unconsciously took a breath WITH her. That’s how invested the anime can make you. 

Oh and side-note, the winning girls put up basically an idol performance at the end of the day of the race with singing and dancing and all that but the anime basically pays no attention it so I’m guessing that it was only included because it’s in the mobile game(?).

Umamusume is a surprising little gem. The creator’s dedication to horce racing bleeds through the anime and is one of the big reason that it’s so enjoyable. With lovable characters and an exciting and heartfelt story, I’d recommend this to anyone. [9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: (hetero) romcom / adults juggling IRL and being weebs / some not cringy romance / to go “uwu” / relatable shipping problems / relatable gaming problems

Wotakoi is definitely not something that’d be my first choice when deciding what to watch. Romance focused anime isn’t really my style but I saw another user that I like blog about it and saw how high rated it was and as there was the “comedy” aspect I thought...eh there isn’t really much to lose here, at most I’ll just dislike it. But I’m incredibly glad to say that this, just as the other 2 anime included in this post that I only gave a chance due to “peer pressure”, actually didn’t dissappoint!

Our main cast is made up of adults in their mid-twenties, working an office job. In the first episode we are introduced to Narumi who’s switching to work at a new firm where she founds out that her childhood friend Hirotaka is also employed at. Narumi was first planning on hiding her hobby of being a big-ass weeb but she soon finds out that 2 of her co-workers also share this hobby of hers. The first episode then ends with Hirotaka and Narumi deciding to “date” purely because they’re both weebs and it would be convinient not to have to hide it.

There’s a great chemistry between the 4 main characters and the shippers are probably having a field time with this anime as basically all of them are shippable with each other. 

So, obviously this being a shoujo, the main appeal to most fans would be the romance but that definitely wouldn’t be enough for me to enjoy something. But this is where the comedy and the “relatable :100_emoji:” aspect comes in. The 2 work in tandem, with most of the humour steming from typical “otaku problems” and how much being a weeb affects their everyday life. 

One downside would be the kind of rushed ending. Wotakoi isn’t a plot focused anime but they introduce a new character like 2 episodes before the finale and I just didn’t see the point. It DOES show the text “See you later” or something at the very end, so maybe there will be a second season? (Would watch). I also thought there was a missed opportunity with the last character introduced as she is obviously also set up as a love interest for another character (not one in the main cast, don’t worry) but this char thinks that she is a guy. Now, the main 2 female characters are BL lovers and I thought that introducing an actual gay couple into the anime would force them to realise that, you know...it’s not very polite to fantasise or obsess over gay people just cause of their sexuality...but eh, I guess that’d be a too serious topic for something as lighthearted as Wotakoi.

All in all, it was a nice, short and fun 11 episodes and if you like comedy, romance or both, I’d definitely recommend! [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

[ranami68]

The things i didn't expect at first in Enstars

WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS SO PLEASE CONSIDER BEFORE READING IT! Lol XD

Anyway, this post is only about the things i totally didn’t expect before playing or when i played enstars at first. It’s about the characters’ personalities and their relationships. Not about the game itself.

Just my personal thoughts and i want to share it. Enjoy reading ~

By the way, it’s pretty long so prepare yourself or your eyes might get hurt later ;)

• Tsukasa refers to himself with “watashi”. I thought he’s the using “boku” type

• Tomoya’s fanboying side I would never have dreamt about that side of him. It’s cute tho. Poor him all cuz of Wataru’s pranks 😂

“Uhyaa, you look super imposing and dignified! It’s perfect, Hokuto-senpai! Come give me a hug~☆ You’re like the star of a Kung Fu movie. Or actually, you could be one of those top-tier Chinese assassins you see in Hollywood movies! Aa~ah, stab a needle through my heart! Beat me silly with your nunchucksss.” -Tomoya Mashiro

• Izumi is able to cook, knit, and extremely careful with his skin and outside appearance. Gosh, his mother power is perfect if i have to say.

• Izumi’s a tsundere Cuz he gives the yandere aura at first right 😂 he’s yandere only to Makoto and being tsundere with anything and anyone besides him lol

• The fact that Mao can be flirty sometimes Haha at first Mao gives the feeling of a character that absolutely hate brothersome things and totally serious. But he’s actually friendly, and enjoys work (lol).

Mao : If it’s fine with you, wanna go look around the shops together? It’d be fun, and we can have dinner too..

Tori : Ahahah Saru ~ Anzu’s saying “i’m being hit on by stranger!” you know? Don’t worry, i’ll protect you!

Mao : What? Don’t call me a stranger ~ i’m hurt ~

• Mao supports Makoto and only openly shows or gives hints that he likes Anzu in front of Subaru It’s not just my feeling right? Not because i just love Mao so much i feel so right? I mean, in Summer Lesson, Mao totally supports Makoto to get Anzu’s heart. But only when he’s with Subaru he can kinda shows he likes Anzu. There are a lot of those moments so i can’t get to details since it’ll definitely be long lol

• Yuzuru is a butler. I didn’t predict him to be a servant you see 😂 not to mention he’s much more of the mother type than Izumi. Cooking, laundry, cleaning, and his specialty is martial arts. And he’s so handsome with that beauty mark lol

• Mika’s a cinnamon roll Since his outlook appearance screams the ore-sama type 😂 don’t blame me lol

• I can’t find the right word to express it but Souma’s personality. I mean, at first glance he looked so cool and totally the serious type but in reality he’s one of the bunches of cinnamon rolls in the game who maybe would commit seppuku if you don’t look at him properly.

• The fact that Subaru and Tetora can’t really handle Chiaki. Because i thought that both Subaru and Tetora are the same “species” as Chiaki you know. The loud, cheerful and hot-blooded type. But even Subaru and Tetora were beaten by Chiaki 😂 what a guy lol

• Natsume calls the protagonist “Koneko-chan” or little kitten. But i like it.

• Natsume and Tsumugi’s relationship. Seriouly theirs are funny alright!

Tsumugi : Natsume-kun is so advanced, always adopting new techniques like this.

Natsume : Die.

Tsumugi : I’ve been cursed at so frankly!? And you didn’t pronounce the ending strangely, that means those are your true feelings!

• Arashi is… the okama type character Well you can be fooled cause he looked so cool and damn hot and handsome. Right?

• Yuta’s a pure and cinnamon roll kid. Since mostly brother twins have this mischievous synchron with them in anime world. But in Aoi twins’ case, only Hinata is the one like that.

• Hinata’s true feelings. Ouch. I’m so hurt when i read the Christmas Live story and Setsubun Festival story.

• Chiaki suffers low blood pressure. OF COURSE I DIDN’T EXPECT THAT! Well, he did mention he used to be sickly kid but still >

• Chiaki likes Subaru. Yes, he does. I mean, Subaru said that Chiaki has been inviting him to join Ryuseitai and Chiaki clearly stated that Subaru is his sun XD (i’m not lying lol)

• Shu is Kuro’s childhood friend. Beside their ability in sewing and their age, they really don’t have anything in common right? Especially their personality.

• Kuro is Akatsuki’s member. Since his first appearance in the main story is participating in B1 match. Who would have guessed he would be the member of one of the student council’s unit?

• Kanata’s a member of Ryuseitai Yeah.. with that personality, i don’t understand why he would join the superhero unit. Although it seemed like he and Chiaki’s past is a little… sad maybe? With their promises to each other. Still not clear but i hope to know the whole story :v

• Leo’s personality Yeah sure. He’s super hot on the picts i’ve seen before playing enstars. Especially from the cover of Knights 2016’s CD. But he’s actually fun, childish, and cute. He has gone through a lot too. Hhhh i love him (lol)

• Leo’s faster than Arashi and much better in archery than Keito. I was like “wut?” When i read that. Seriously? This guy? Damn genius 😂

“Really, you know! If the King joined the track and field club, it wouldn’t be a dream to conquer the nationals!” -Arashi Narukami

“You’re much more skilled than me. I’m sure we’d be able to go far if you actually showed up for tournaments.” -Keito Hasumi

• (Oh, almost forgot) Leo and Keito’s friendship Hey, they’re bestfriends in the club activities you know! Seriously that was a fun fact.

• Eichi has long fallen in love with Wataru //stabbed Seriously. He has long adored Wataru even before the five oddballs were existed.

“Wow, he noticed me? And he’s waving at me too? Even though there’s quiet distance between us… even though i’m so far away from him right now. But one day.. i’ll definitely close in this gap between us. I’ll come to see you, no matter what methods i’ll have to use.” -Eichi Tenshouin

• Wataru lost purposely in the match between him and Eichi Gosh, really Wataru? Good for you, Eichi. The feeling is mutual 😂//slapped//

• The Five Oddballs’ friendship. Okay, they seriously love each other as a friend you know! They treasure each other!

“Rei, Wataru, Shu, Magician-san… Is my song reaching you? Can you hear it? I want to hear your songs too. In the water, it’s difficult for sound to travel so… Even if it’s painful, even if it’s difficult, i will live on the land. I will sing forever. And so, please you guys do so too.” -Kanata Shinkai

• The BroCon squad Okay, i never thought that there would be many Brother Complex in this game 😂 for example, Izumi to Makoto, Rei to Ritsu, and Hinata to Yuta.

• The fact that Eichi and Tsumugi intended to make Subaru and Hokuto one of the five oddballs before Natsume’s name came up. Like seriously, i can’t stop laughing reading that part.

Tsumugi : But considering those who were the topic o f discussion when they enrolled, how about Hidaka Hokuto-kun?

Eichi : On that note, i suppose we should put Akehoshi Subaru-kun on hold as well.

—

That’s all? Well, there might be more later lol. And it’s not like i don’t like it okay? I just didn’t expect it and i want to see if there are other people who have the same feelings as me. No offense. I really like stories that are hard to predict.

I really love Ensemble Stars and the characters ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[card-gays]

Which of your ships could you see getting married and/or having children? And which ones would, at most, just move in together and maybe get a pet?

I love this question!!! But some preamble first: some couples are in lifelong romantic relationships, but don’t actually want to get “married” in a legal sense. Which I only mention bc I do have some ships like that~ And, since I definitely have too many in general, I’m only gonna do a few here. Other than that, you can feel free to ask if there’s one I don’t mention that you want an answer for. ^^ One in particular I left off was Prideship. Which sounds funny considering it’s My OTP, but I know I’m gonna have a mile long answer for it, and I wanted these to be about the same length so.. lol

(Also, prepare to see how different combos weirdly change my ideas for whether or not certain characters have kids/get married.)

So here we go- 

THE COMMITMENT CHART!!

Peachship (Anzu/Yugi):- Anzu and Yugi I can easily see going from dating to getting married. They’re not exactly traditionalists, but they plan on being committed long term, and they love the idea of saying so publicly to everyone they know with a huge commemorative party. So why not! Like, especially after they’re both well established in their careers enough that Yugi can work from anywhere and just location hop with Anzu if she’s going to be abroad for work for more than a few months, or if they need to move so she can work at this one really prestigious theater… Either one of them would absolutely pop the question once they’re sure they’re happy living like that. And the Mazaki-Mutous would be a wonderful couple. As for kids… idk. I know Yugi’d be happy as a homemaker, so that’s taken care of, but I think Anzu would have to have branched out into acting or something first. I’ve heard being a professional dancer and a parent is really difficult, what with the travel, and while she’s said over and over her dream is dancing, her not mentioning kids makes me think Dream First? So I imagine her dream would have to shift to a different career before she’d consider it. After that? Probably yeah.

Rishid/Otogi (Totemship maybe? god help me):- Rishid and Otogi seem like they would be a really really really fun couple, but while I don’t have a hard time seeing them being a serious couple, the endgame couple/marriage headcanons elude me… because I don’t have a very firm grasp on Otogi? ^^” So I can definitely see and headcanon as far as “they date for a few years, have a great time together, and definitely get as far as moving in and getting a dog", but that’s about it. They are absolutely a pair that’d just be enjoying it as it happens, so I can easily think of them as being a long term committed couple, I just need to work on seeing the details. This is absolutely an open invitation for you guys to throw some headcanons at me. xD

Identityship (Rishid/Ryou): (I don’t get the ship name but I saw someone already made one and I’m taking it for now xD)- Okay so… I don’t even know how, but this ship’s really gotten me wrapped up in it. and it’s gonna have to be it’s own post because it’s A Lot. I think it takes awhile for them to get to the Dating stage because they’re both really careful people due to their pasts, and they both really want to be sure it’s not going to be anything that could get between Rishid and Malik’s bond as siblings. But the moment they’re sure everything’s in the clear, they’re near to inseparable. Ryou is a Cuddler if ever I’ve seen one, and Rishid never really had a chance to realize that was something he is Totally About until that first time cozied up on a couch for a movie. They probably move faster than they should for a bit, moving in right away, letting their ~pillow talk~ bridge into talking about their future a lot relatively soon, but somehow for them it just Works. Probably because they’re both totally honest about it. The only hiccup I can see is imo Rishid would absolutely want children, whereas Ryou’s got some anxieties about being 50% responsible for a small human bean. But, considering Ryou’s roadblock are fears capable of being worked through, instead of just not wanting any, I can see him getting on board with the idea all by himself the easiest if he’s with Rishid. I mean… the guy’s not only got experience helping to raise a kid, he’s got experience helping to raise a kid who is partially possessed. As far as well equipped partners go? Rishid’s got that pretty darn covered. (and as for the fears Ryou’s got about what kind of parent he’d be? Rishid’s right there with all the reassurances anyone could need) Their wedding would be simple, I think, but sweet. The people closest to them, a few of their own traditions mixed together in a lovely ceremony, and then Lots of pastries. (who knew Rishid shared his weakness for cream puffs…)

Visionship (Isis/Mai):- Okay so like…. these are No Kids Please people to me. Like they enjoy them, love them even, but… from someone else. Their nieces and nephews (in the traditional sense but also their friends’ kids) are adored and spoiled beyond belief by Isis and Mai, but they are not having kids. They’d rather travel the world and live in peaceful luxury, feeding each other fruit while sunbathing as people look at them in envy and awe. Or blowing exorbitant amounts of money on clothes and makeup and jewelry and perfume. Backpacking across Europe or relaxing in Spain, etc. They’d have a wonderful life together, with 0 regrets to the path they chose. Funnily enough, they are also probably the first of all of them to actually get married. It’s formal, it’s gorgeous, and honestly almost everyone cries when they first look at each other to walk down the aisle together because they are So In Love. The reception is a Party And A Half though. So whichever one of them (or both, if both) wanted to wear a dress definitely has a second one to have a great time dancing in…. Mai probably throws the bouquet, just so she can make sure Malik catches it and watch him have a meltdown trying to hand it to someone else.

The next three are just different combos of the same three people (Yugi/Ryou/Jou), and actually could all function together, so I’ll list them in one go!

Wishship (Jou/Yugi):- I see Jou and Yugi bouncing back and forth on the idea of a formal marriage because it’s not That important to Yugi (though he does want a cake) and Jou’s never really considered it so long as they’re gonna be together anyway. That said, they are fairly sure about wanting kids. Yugi’s always been an “either way is fine” kind of guy, and since Jou is really about adopting some precious kid of his own one day, Yugi is completely for it. If they did get married, they’d probably pick something fun and informal. Small and sweet ceremony, “reception” at a rented out arcade (thanks, Mokuba!)… Who’s ready for some laser tag? Family and friends of the grooms divided up into two teams, with Jou and Yugi as team captains. The losers still get cake but the winners get bragging rights. GO! (the fate of the match actually comes down to Shizuka, a sharpshooter, and Rebecca, the princess of finding cover)

Heartship (Ryou/Yugi):- By contrast, Ryou and Yugi are very sure about wanting to get officially married, and probably talk a lot about it well before the actual engagement. They know they don’t want to get married right away, but hey, they’re comfortable talking about ideas for it anyways…. They land on saying their vows beneath the projected ‘sky’ of a planetarium, with a similar motif for the reception. Their engagement and wedding bands, too. It’s all very sweet, though the vows get kind of existentialist. xD But because (as mentioned above) Ryou’s got some anxieties about it, and because it’s not super important to Yugi, I’m not sure about them with kids. Which is fine. They adopt some cute pets and have fluffy-children instead, plus they make great uncles to their friends’ kids! It’s a wonderful life.

(side note: Atem would be a bit jealous of the planetarium vow idea when he first hears about it. it’s Such A Good idea. Kaiba would offer off-handedly a honeymoon on the rebuilt space station when Atem mentions it. And Atem nearly drops his fork in surprise because they’d never talked about…. that’s the first time he’s…)

Jou/Ryou/Yugi (Cuddleship?):- This is where it all kind of comes together. xD Jou would consider the whole wedding thing a bit more seriously with Ryou involved, because while for Yugi it’s not a very big deal (so he wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it), it is a pretty big deal for Ryou. So while the three of them initially plan to just be long-term committed with each other, with Yugi and Ryou being married officially as well, their planning would lead him to wonder if, you know, there really is much of a difference between what he wants out of not getting married and what he’d get if he was officially married. And the thing is? There’s really 0 difference for him. So if it really makes a difference emotionally to Ryou, yeah, he can do that. And (answering the very first question Ryou has when he says it) he can happily do it, wants to do it. “It’s just a promise made in front of a bunch of people, instead of in private. I’m okay with that.” Tbh he probably sort of catches some excitement for the idea before he even decides to tell them about it. He still doesn’t get the difference, personally, but he’s really excited and all about what it itself means and how happy Ryou and Yugi will be to plan it with him. As for kids….. okay, anxiety aside, Ryou honestly loves them? They’re messy and expensive and loud and all but made to give you a heart attack… but he loves them, and he’d want to have one. And with two other parents around to help, after a couple years, he feels comfortable bringing it up himself and saying he’d like to talk seriously about possibly adopting a baby. (they do. and name her “Amane”)

[evilkitten3]

Ad Nihilum, Chapter Four: Ab Existentia

AN: Not getting many reviews for this one… talk about discouraging! Still, this fandom (most fandoms, come to that) has always preferred shipping fics over anything else, and romance has never really been my genre. On top of that, Anzu is despised by a huge portion of the fanbase (as is generally the case with most major female characters in an anime where most fans are yaoi fangirls). Eh, it doesn't really matter, though – I'm relatively new to this fandom, and most people who read my stories are in the Fairy Tail fandom. So there's that too, I guess. Anyway, here's another chapter of this. I hope you enjoy it, I really hope you review it, and if you decide to tell all your friends about it, then that's… a bit weird, actually, but you do you. Kitty out.

Warnings: Disassociation, flashbacks, nightmares, possibly squicky imagery, Kaiba being Kaiba, suicidal thoughts, and your daily dose of existential identity crises

Chapter Four: Ab Existentia

Atem finds the drawing the next day, after he's gone through the morning ritual of coaxing the Thief out of his mind and back into reality. He picks it up carefully, squinting at the katakana on the side. Now that he's out of Yuugi's body, it's much more difficult to read Japanese characters. He can manage katakana and hiragana fairly well, but it takes him awhile with kanji. English, something Yuugi himself was still learning, had been lost to the former Pharoah entirely.

"A… tsu… ya…" he reads slowly.

"Ashiya," the Thief corrects him. Atem jumps slightly, not having heard the other ex-spirit reenter the room. It only takes him a moment to regain his composure.

"I thought this one was 'tsu'," he says, pointing to the second character.

"'Tsu' and 'shi' are almost identical in katakana," the Thief slips across the room, slipping a shirt on. He's been more active lately, Atem thinks absently, and then wonders whether or not that's a good thing.

"Why didn't you write it in hieroglyphics?" Atem asks. He realizes the answer a second later, and the Thief doesn't bother dignifying the stupid question with an answer, simply rolls his eyes. Peasant literacy, Atem remembers, wasn't really a thing back in Ancient Egypt. "She's beautiful," he says before he can stop himself.

"She was," the Thief replies calmly. "My– his sister's wife." Atem frowns.

"Yours," he objects. The Thief just shrugs. "Your sister married a woman?"

"Kul Elna didn't really care about gender," he says. "As far as we were concerned, people did what they did. My father fell in love with my mother after he saw her break up a bar fight by smashing a stool over someone's head, or so he said." Atem smiles slightly.

"She sounds like quite the woman," he muses. "Ah, not to say–"

"She would've liked you, I think," the Thief cuts him off, not really paying attention. Atem wonders whether the Thief realizes who he's talking to – this is the closest thing they've ever had to a civil conversation. "At least, as much as any dirt-poor peasant can like royalty. Always said royals spent too much time on their asses and not enough doing their damn jobs." Atem can't stop himself from smiling.

"I can't say I disagree," he admits. "A lot of things happened that shouldn't have. I couldn't have stopped all of them, but there were some things I certainly could have."

The Thief doesn't reply. When Atem turns to look at him, his eyes are a million miles away. The Pharaoh sets the drawing down on the nightstand as carefully as he can.

"I'll be back later," he tells him. If the Thief hears him, he doesn't show it. Atem keeps the image of the girl in the drawing – Ashiya – in his mind for the rest of the day.

***

In history class, Bakura zones out. The teacher isn't saying anything he doesn't already know, for once, so he just absently doodles. When he looks down at his notes, he realizes he's been writing in a completely different language.

בָּבֻרָ

He doesn't realize how fast his breath is coming until the teacher's panicked voice shakes him out of his thoughts. He looks up, tries to speak, and feels his knees buckle as the world around him fades to black.

***

The rest of the gang finds out what had happened to Bakura at lunch, courtesy of Otogi, who was in the same history class (as was Kaiba, but he hadn't shown up that day, for whatever reason).

"Did you know what set him off?" Jounouchi asks. Otogi just shrugs.

"If he fell asleep, he might've had a nightmare," Anzu says. Marik tenses. He knew that Bakura, like Marik and Yuugi, was having nightmares, but he was fairly certain no one else knew. Anzu catches his eye and shakes her head. "I guessed," she tells him, "but thanks for confirming." Marik bites his lip and looks down.

"I guess he didn't want to worry us," Honda says. A pointless endeavor, in his case – Honda always worried about Bakura.

"Officially, it was just lack of sleep," Yuugi reports, sitting down in between Marik and Anzu. "He went home early."

"Lack of sleep generally doesn't cause panic attacks," Otogi points out.

"They can cause hallucinations," Marik tells him. "Those can definitely cause panic attacks." And I should know says the look on his face. Otogi nods, thoughtfully.

"He could just be sick," Jounouchi says hopefully. Anzu rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, of course he could be, but when have things ever been that simple?" she frowns as her chopsticks break unevenly, before wrinkling her nose and getting over it.

"Normally?" Otogi says, grinning. "They usually are."

"Nothing about any of this is normal," Yuugi murmurs.

"Well, sure," Marik smirks, leaning back against a tree. "I mean, you hang out with a bunch of freaks, Yuugi; what did you think was gonna happen?" Jounouchi lunges for him, intent on giving him a noogie, and Marik ducks out of the way, sniggering. The rest of the group laughs.

"Not sure if you realized it, Marik, but you're part of that 'bunch of freaks'," Honda calls over Anzu's head. "No backing out now, buddy, you're already on the Christmas card." Marik freezes for a moment, before relaxing slightly.

"I don't celebrate Christmas," he says nonchalantly, examining his fingernails. "I was under the impression that it was a couples' holiday in Japan, though." He gasped dramatically, pressing his hands over his chest. "Honda-senpai! Are you trying to ask me out?" Honda chokes on his ramen, and Yuugi laughs so hard he falls into Anzu, knocking her bento out of her hand. Tako-shaped sausage spills onto the grass.

"Yuugi!" Jounouchi says, horrified. "Now you owe Anzu a new sausage!" Both Yuugi and Anzu turn red, and the rest of the conversation is spent cracking jokes and trying not to think about Bakura or the Thief or the dreams – memories – still plaguing almost half of their little group.

***

Isis doesn't know how to react to any of this – to her little brother helping Yuugi talk to the Pharaoh, to said duo resurrecting the Pharaoh, to the Thief being cast out of the shadows to balance Ma'at's scales. And now the Thief is staying at Yuugi's house, trapped somewhere between the realms of sanity and madness, in a body that – if Yuugi's theory was correct – was probably a worse fate than being devoured by Ahemait. The religious part of Isis reminds her that the gods knew what they were doing, but she can't help but feel more than a tad disgusted at their choice of punishment for the Thief.

Was it because he'd stolen from the dead or because he'd tried to destroy the world? Were the gods trying to punish the Thief King or the Spirit of the Millennium Ring? And most importantly, did it matter? Was this an actual punishment, or was it just spite? The fact that the line could get so blurred was cause for concern. For the first time in a while, Isis finds herself longing for the certainty she'd had when she bore the Millennium Tauk – but that was gone, long gone, and Isis knows well enough that there are some things mortals were never meant to know.

***

In the village of Kul Elna, there was an old woman named Bitya'a – an outsider, who'd come to live there when her granddaughter had fallen in love with the village chieftain's daughter – whose milky white eyes had forever been unseeing of the surrounding world. But there were whispers amongst the people of the village that Bitya'a saw more than anyone realized.

This woman, they said, this outsider – this woman whose eyes had never absorbed a glimmer of light – could See.

***

Seto Kaiba has missed so many days of school that there are teachers who are genuinely surprised to see him when he shows up to class. It had no effect on his grades, as the teen was a genius, and everyone understood that he had to put his company before his education. After all, Kaiba technically didn't need to go to school – he chose to. He wanted to learn (the way other people had; without collars and harsh words and a cold terror filling his lungs at the mere thought of failure). He probably could've tested out of all of his classes, should he choose to, but no one ever asked why.

Recently, however, the number of absences for Seto Kaiba on the attendance lists had shot up, which usually only happened when KaibaCorp was working on a new device (or an upgrade for the existing Duel Disk system) or when a soon-to-be-fired secretary accidentally made a mistake in scheduling a meeting. Teachers had learned not to ask, as the explanation was generally clipped, sarcastic, or so full of technobabble that it was nearly impossible to decipher.

This time, unbeknownst to the general public, the absences were entirely unrelated to business. Yuugi Mutou and his group of friends were, most likely, under the impression that Kaiba was preparing to challenge Atem to a duel – and assumption that, in fairness, there was a certain amount of truth in. But there was another reason for his absence, one that didn't necessarily relate to Duel Monsters (at least, not entirely).

Yuugi Mutou was the King of Games, and Kaiba had made it his life's goal to defeat him. Even after he learned that yes, Yuugi was indeed possessed by a Pharaoh, and yes, that Pharaoh was technically the one who'd won the title, his goal shouldn't have changed because Yuugi beat the Pharaoh. Yuugi was, undeniably, the King of Games, and Kaiba had challenged him for the title multiple times since the Ceremonial Duel.

But it wasn't the same. Kaiba wanted to be the best, and Yuugi currently was the best, so it only made sense for Kaiba to want to Duel him. And it would have, but Kaiba didn't want to Duel him. He wanted to Duel Atem. Perhaps "wanted" was the wrong word – he needed to Duel Atem. Atem was the one who had beaten him so many times, Atem was the one who had been willing to let Kaiba die in order to win, Atem was the one person in all the world who was truly a worthy opponent. The obsession was becoming a problem. Going to school felt almost like an act of masochism nowadays, because Yuugi was there and the Pharaoh wasn't.

And then, out of nowhere, Atem had returned. He'd come back to the world of the living, in his original body, and for a moment Kaiba had been foolish enough to hope that his return would calm the insane thoughts that ran through his head when he thought about Dueling his rival – thoughts that ranged from acceptable-yet-annoying to frighteningly dangerous. One time, he'd almost considered consulting a professional after the thought that maybe he could Duel Atem in the afterlife had crossed his mind (but that would cause problems for his business, so he simply pushed the thoughts to the back of his head and carried on).

And then there was the matter of how to handle all of this. Kaiba shut his eyes and rested his chin on his interlaced fingers, frowning. It would be easier, he thought to himself, to make a list.

Item the first: Atem was back, and Kaiba needed to Duel him. Easily solved – he simply had to approach and challenge him.

Item the second: Atem was back, and Kaiba had no idea how to challenge him at all. Problem – how to challenge an Ancient Egypt Pharaoh to a children's trading card game wasn't exactly something one could Google.

Item the third: Atem was back, and Kaiba needed to shove that thought aside and go back to school. Also easy – he knew how to compartmentalize his thoughts and feelings, and all he really needed to do was avoid the Dweeb Patrol™.

Item the fourth: Atem was back, and Mokuba was probably getting worried. This was a problem as well – he really couldn't fool his brother, especially not over something like this.

Item the fifth: Atem was back, and the words "Atem is back" were starting to preface every thought going through Kaiba's head. Easily solved – all he needed to do was challenge him to a Duel.

Kaiba groaned, rubbing his temples as he realized that his train of thought had not only fallen off the track, but was now trying to go in circles despite being overturned, badly dented, and probably also on fire. And so, Kaiba did what he always did when his brain was racing thirty thousand miles over the speed limit – he went back to work.

***

"Damned brat!" the old woman cuffs the child upside the head, scowling. "You think I don't know when there's a runt like you running around causing trouble?"

Wrinkled skin, sightless milky white eyes, a scowl that could petrify the gods themselves

"I don't approve of this arrangement," she'd grumbled, watching her granddaughter kiss the village chieftain's daughter. "They're too young for marriage. It won't lead to anything but disaster." Something in her sightless eyes glimmered, and told listeners that perhaps she didn't truly mean the words she spoke.

Too old to stay with the traders' caravans, too close to her only surviving relative to bear being parted from her

"Don't you know what happens to little brats who sneak around after dark? The gods will send scorpions after you!"

"Scorpions?"

"That's right. Enormous scorpions – twice the size of a caravan! Back inside with you, brat!"

Harsh words concealing good intentions, a proud nod at a great achievement, stories woven with such care that it was easy to forget they weren't real

"The caravans will not return."

"What did you See, grandmother?"

"…Never you mind, brat."

***

As the Thief's pencil details the worn scarf that covered the old woman's head, he wonders to himself if Bitya'a had known the true reason that the traders would never again set foot in Kul Elna. He likes to think she would've warned them all, but Bitya'a had been old and fatalistic and might have thought there was nothing to be done. She wouldn't necessarily have been wrong. But it's far more likely for the gods not to have shown her anything – to take away Kul Elna's one chance at survival.

The Thief wants to hate them for it – wants to scream and curse and break things and get back at them, but he can't. The bottomless pit of hatred that had welled up inside of him had only grown during the three thousand years he spent inside the Millennium Ring with Zorc, but it all seemed to have vanished upon his defeat.

He's tired, now. Too tired for vengeance or hatred or even grief. He just wants rest and he doesn't think he can ever forgive Yuugi and Marik for pulling him out of the blissful nothingness of wherever he'd been before. And Marik, that bastard, didn't even have the decency to let him go back.

He wishes he had enough strength left to hate them, but that only lasts a moment before the tattered souls of his people pull him back into his mind to remember all the things they no longer know how to remember on their own. His days are filled with the whispers of the dead and his nights with Yuugi, Marik, and Bakura dragging him through memories that aren't quite his but aren't not. He can't decide which he hates more.

AN: I'm gonna end this chapter here, since I think this is a pretty good stopping point. I'm tired… anyway, I've been working on a few more YGO fics, but I doubt I'll post any of them until this one is done. Shouldn't be too much longer – I'm pretty sure I know how I want it to end. Just gotta get there. Well, thanks for reading, let me know what you thought, and I'll see you later. Kitty out.

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Favorites 2018 Part One: Anime and Manga!

2018 was a wild ride for all of us, but at least we had a whole lot of great anime and manga to keep us entertained along the way! We laughed, we cried, we recoiled in horror, and we waited for the "ahh, you are motherf**ker?" moment in Pop Team Epic's anime that never actually came.

  We recently talked about our favorite anime of the past season, and our most-anticipated anime of the coming season, so that brings us to now, to the now-annual tradition of Crunchyroll Favorites (can you believe we've been doing this for eight years?!), where CR's staff, editors, and writers share what stood out most to them over the entirety of 2018. The rules were simple: for Part One, only anime, manga, and related media that were released in 2018 (or received a Western release in 2018), or experienced a major milestone (like starting a new season or closing up a major arc).

There's a whole lot to look at in Part One--let's get started!

Nate Ming

Devilman Crybaby - Satisfying violence and a pulsing soundtrack headline this savage modern retelling of the Devilman legend--this is the kind of thing that got me into anime in the first place, and it felt great to be back.

Dragon Ball Super ending - Meanwhile, Dragon Ball Super wrapped up with an insane 3v1 fight to the finish in the Tournament of Power. Imagine a group of grown men sitting around screaming at the TV like excited children--because in that moment, with a gassed-out, shoulder-to-shoulder Goku and Freeza meeting Jiren head-on… we were again.

HINAMATSURI - MY SMARTPHONE!! I figured Hinamatsuri would just be this goofy domestic comedy about a beleaguered yakuza adopting a psychic child, but then it got real. Like, "why am I crying so much at Anzu's story" real. It's so good, and one I really need to rewatch.

March comes in like a lion - The beauty of March is that it's sad, and sometimes a downer, but never a miserable pity parade that constantly dumps on its characters. There's growth, and a light at the end of the tunnel--healing and catharsis that come after the worst parts of life. We're going to lose the people we love, and we're going to be treated like garbage by the people around us… but that's never the end of the story if you have people you love and trust by your side.

Shonen Jump - This is what I'd been dreaming of for years, but always felt too difficult to implement… until now. New chapters? Free every week. The massive back catalog, along with an updated list of currently-running titles? TWO DOLLARS A MONTH. This is madness, and it's never been a better time to see people reading classics like Dragon Ball for the first time ever.

Honorable Mentions: A Place Further Than the Universe, Asobi Asobase - workshop of fun -, Laid-Back Camp

Cayla Coats

Liz and the Blue Bird - Sound! Euphonium is one of my favorite series, and this film takes the franchise to new artistic heights. Director Naoko Yamada and composer Kensuke Ushio reunite and create something truly special together.

A Place Further Than the Universe - This wasn’t the best-directed, best-animated, or best-scored anime of the year, but the sum is greater than the parts in this case. A Place Further is by far my favorite broadcast anime of the year.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - I love “another world” anime that focus on worldbuilding and characterization over action, but Slime has both in spades. Also, protagonist Rimuru is super OP, but they’re so likable that I don’t really care.

Violet Evergarden - There’s a lot I could say about this stunningly-produced show, but I’ll just note that toward the beginning of the first episode, Violet picks up an object using her mouth. While it seems like a weird character eccentricity at first, it’s later revealed that she has trouble using her new prosthetic hands. That’s a pretty good indication of how thoughtful the entire series is.

Dead Dead Demon’s Dedede Destruction - The newest series to be brought stateside from Goodnight Punpun author Inio Asano, Destruction is easily my favorite work from him to date. Taking the trademark eccentricity and attention to detail of his other titles, Destruction merges it with a much less grimdark tone that I find hugely refreshing.

  Nicole Mejias

Golden Kamuy - It’s no secret that I love Golden Kamuy to bits! The unique characters got me hooked, and then everything else (the story, action, drama and comedy) reeled me in to keep anticipating each and every episode. When’s season 3?!

Pop Team Epic - Where were you when the anime gods blessed us with Pop Team Epic? It’s basically anime shitposting, and it’s absolutely GLORIOUS! Yeah, I’m gonna be thinking about Hellshake Yano for a very long time.

Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles - If you know me, you know I love my ramen. And this show was a testament to how amazing and delicious ramen is while presenting a different array of wonderful ramen you can find in Japan! Of course, after each episode, I was left with the overwhelming desire for ramen, which was hard to curb.

Banana Fish (manga reprints) - Once news of the reprints began spreading around, I knew it was time for me to actually experience the majesty of Banana Fish! I don’t know what I expected, but I was addicted, reading all the volumes so fast, and I had to know what was going to happen next, so I went from volume to volume until I reached the end… What a thrill! I can’t believe it took me this long to check this series out. I’m glad I did!

Pokemon marathon on Twitch - The second Twitch announced this marathon, I was SO ready for it! I watched the old Pokémon anime when I was a kid, and watching the marathon brought back a lot of fun memories. There were also a bunch of moments in the anime I didn’t remember at all, like that bizarre Kangaskhan episode… It was a fun time to relive the show with thousands of other fans on Twitch!

Daniel Dockery

Dr. Stone - This is the “Are you reading this? No? WELL YOU BETTER GET ON THAT” manga of the year, along with Promised Neverland. It’s so good and funny and I just love it.

“Mr. Osomatsu In Hell” - The second season of Mr. Osomatsu was more uneven than the first, but the season finale is a work of art. I really hope the movie is good, and that we get a Season 3.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind - I only got into JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure this year, and the more I watch it, the more I like it. It’s one of the few pieces of media that I’ve seen that is just as good as everyone made it out to be.

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes - No theater experience will ever top hearing an entire audience erupt into applause when All Might yelled “CAROLINA SMASH.”

That Time I Got Reincarnated As Yamcha - Poor Yamcha. His stock has dropped significantly since he went toe-to-toe with Goku in his first Dragon Ball appearance. Luckily, this manga knows that, and is more hilarious for it. Next I hope for “That Time I Got Reincarnated As That One Pterodactyl That Tried To Mess With Goku In Dragon Ball Chapter 1.”

Peter Fobian

A Place Further Than the Universe - A Place Further felt like it was going against the grain in many ways, as a character-driven drama without many of the usual anime trappings. It’s a damn near perfect show with an excellent story, tight character writing, and some truly brutal emotional beats delivered in novel and creative ways.

Planet With - Maybe some of the tightest storytelling I’ve ever seen, getting 24 episodes' worth of content finished in half that, at a pace that felt perfect. If you decide to check it out, be ready for two full narrative arcs and a ton of interesting character-based subplots all serving the overarching message of the value of compassion and forgiveness.

SSSS.GRIDMAN - It feels like I’m always waiting for the next TRIGGER anime that has the same bombastic energy as Gurren Lagann or Kill la Kill, but GRIDMAN proved they’re able to deliver a muted and thoughtful show as well. Amemiya penned a love letter to tokusatsu so reverent that even people like me can feel his passion. Some characters felt underutilized, but GRIDMAN was charming, mysterious, and stuck the landing.

Laid-Back Camp - I wish there were more anime like this: realizing a new episode of this anime was out became a weekly highlight. It’s chill, it’s funny, it’s educational, and it doesn’t pull any anime shenanigans. Just like the title says, you have absolutely nothing to worry about while watching this show.

HINAMATSURI - I remember seeing a promotion for this anime almost a year before it was released, showing Mao’s kung-fu sequence and thought: this would be a martial arts anime. Nothing could have prepared me for one of the single funniest anime I’ve ever seen. Hinamatsuri has some of the greatest comedic timing this year, and still managed to pack in beautifully-animated psychic fights and some ridiculously powerful emotional moments. I still have whiplash.

Ricky Soberano

Fairy Tail Final Season - This marks the end of this legendary shonen and inevitable Fairy Tail-induced tears well up with every episode that inches slowly to the end. It may look like a victory lap on the surface, but the show is answering every burning question, fueling a fire in hearts, and cementing every reason why it’ll be missed.

As Miss Beelzebub Likes It. - As someone who doesn’t go out of their way to look for cute anime, I was pleasantly surprised at myself and this show for the effect it had on my well-being. It was my guiltiest and fluffiest pleasure of the year and I enjoyed how light, adorably cute, and heartwarming it was.

Attack on Titan - I’ve been holding off on watching this for as long as I could and I definitely regret holding back on it. I will note: I did become vegan for a month after watching the first episode. Now I’m left screaming at the screen and dissecting every moment. With stakes as real as they could get, and consistent losing, I live for the small but progressing wins in the neverending battle for humanity.

Food Wars! The Third Plate - The tables have turned and a new set of rules have left our favorite food orgasm inducers to fight for their survival despite an entire system against them. The creations only got more mouth watering and frankly so did the more visible presence of Joichiro-san. In all seriousness, Hayama-san’s betrayal and Erina’s heightened courage in front of her father was enough to induce a lot of stress eating. Next stop: the final showdown.

Emily Bushman

Mo Dao Zu Shi - Technically a donghua (Chinese Animation), and not traditional Japanese anime, this is BY FAR one of my favorite shows of the year. There’s magic, it takes place in ancient China, and there’s lots of zombie slaying. The character designs are gorgeous, the pacing and action are exceptionally well done, and there’s juuuuuuust enough romantic tension to keep my blood warm.

Banana Fish - I didn’t catch this manga when I was younger, but my roommate told me I was missing out. We started watching the anime, which entranced me with cool character designs and excellent pacing. I got impatient and read the manga (which is just as good, if not better than the anime), and cried my eyes out at the ending.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai - I thought I was going to hate this, and instead ended up loving it. The dialogue is fast-paced, which keeps otherwise off-color jokes from souring, and instead transforms them into witticisms worthy of a chuckle. It is fun, heartwarming, and a little nostalgic, but does a wonderful job of transforming those perceived insurmountable imperfections into challenges worth overcoming.

A Place Further Than The Universe - Great characters, wonderful development, original story line, dramatic without being overwrought, an improbable scenario without being impossible. It made me cry big, fat tears (I was alone, in my apartment, it was kind of sad honestly), but I loved the salty-clean feeling of relief and forgiveness that came after I finished the show.

Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits - This is a great show that DID NOT get enough love. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, but also great from a cooking blog perspective. Aoi, the main character, makes a lot of foods that are interesting and not pedantic. It’s definitely a slice of life, but has a main character that is steadfast in her determination to burn through the prejudice, anger, or sadness of those she meets through her cooking.

Noelle Ogawa

The Promised Neverland - I got into it this year and what an absolute treat! Having grown up on the slow pacing of the Big Three, this turned the Jump formulas all around. Excellent cast of characters, a condensed story, intrigue about the world, a constant wonder- this series had it all. Emma is the rare female shonen protagonist who is completely capable on her own terms, and every character is sharp. It’s worked its way to be one of my favorite Jump series, and I can’t wait for the anime.

Pop Team Epic - I genuinely looked forward to this every week. It’s so hard to describe how absolutely wild it is. It’s hard to describe what exactly Pop Team Epic is but it’s definitely some kind of an experience. Being able to catch all the many cultural references were always a fun game to play for every episode, as well as seeing what chaotic entities Popuko and Pipimi had to shove into our faces.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime - This caught me off guard because I really am not a fan of 99% of isekai. I’d passed this series off as silly because of the title but I was wrong. It’s still an isekai in its bones, but it combines having fun with having something to say- with a slime protag, of all things. I’m really excited to see more!

My Solo Exchange Diary - Nagata Kabi’s autobiographical work always cut me to the core. Her dealing with both depression and her seuxality with finding her place in the world really speaks to me. At the same time, it’s not a dismal story at all, but one that’s filled with hope. It’s about trying to find your way in the world and make do with what you have, and I think we can all relate to that.

Paul Chapman

Planet With - A series that squeezes 52 episodes' worth of story into a trim 12, Planet With is packed with honesty and heart. Few shows leave me with a feeling of hope for the future, but Planet With's relentless positivity and effortless heroism in the face of unspeakable tragedy speak to how fiction can embody the best aspects of humanity.

A Place Further than the Universe - Blurring the boundaries of the “cute girls doing cute things” subgenre, A Place Further than the Universe is a heartfelt (and sometimes heartbreaking) drama about coming to grips with loss while on a journey of self-discovery. Incidentally, any moe show that features the main cast becoming seasick barf-monsters for an entire episode is A+ material.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby - It's hard to imagine that a tie-in anime for an as-yet-unreleased smart phone game that's supposed to sell viewers on the glories of Japanese horse racing can also be so consistently entertaining and emotionally sincere, but that's just the sort of thing that makes Umamusume: Pretty Derby a dark horse candidate for pure viewing pleasure.

Cells at Work! - Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, Cells at Work! makes learning the basics of human biology fun, because it's nice to imagine that every individual part of my cellular anatomy is just as dorky, self-conscious, and occasionally inept as I am.

Pop Team Epic - Every so often, there comes a work of art that so overwhelms me with its beauty and its ugliness that it leaves a scar upon my soul. But enough about Devilman Crybaby, 2018 is also the year that gave us the inimitable, inscrutable anime adaptation of Bkub Okawa's Pop Team Epic, and no one's complaining (except you).

Nick Creamer

Liz and the Blue Bird - As an unlikely followup to a side story from Sound! Euphonium’s second season, Liz and the Blue Bird was basically guaranteed to have niche appeal. But even if you haven’t seen the show it’s spun off from, Liz is a stunning accomplishment in any right, a gorgeous expression of love composed by one of the greatest directors in anime. Beyond its overt beauty, Liz uses visuals and music to perfectly evoke the mental states of its heroines throughout, making it easy to get carried into their world. Liz is a perfect jewel of a film.

Violet Evergarden - This has certainly been a strong year for Kyoto Animation! Along with the stunning Liz, their full-length Evergarden took my breath away again and again, elevating a poignant melodrama with all the animated splendor and thoughtful visual storytelling you expect from this team. It feels like my favorite animation studio are somehow leveling up.

After the Rain - There are far too few dramas about actual adults facing realistic problems in anime, and After the Rain stands as a welcome and brilliantly executed counter to the trend. Equally sympathetic to its teenage heroine’s feelings of displacement and its middle-aged hero’s feelings of regret, After the Rain paints a thoughtful and sympathetic portrait of its melancholy leads from start to finish. More people need to check out this insightful and very pretty show!

Planet With - Satoshi Mizukami has long been one of my favorite mangaka, and so I was thrilled to see his work finally debuting on the small screen. The results don’t disappoint; Planet With is a wildly ambitious, creative, and emphatically humanist tale of interplanetary war, secret identities, and much else besides. Along with providing some of the most thoughtful human insights of the anime year, it’s probably also the only show this year to feature a space general in a giant cat suit.

March comes in like a lion - March has stood among the best anime dramas for three straight years now, and the conclusion of its second season was an absolute triumph. Having slowly and compassionately articulated Rei’s journey from depression to genuine self-love, the show was at last able to extend its focus outwards, and celebrate the journeys of all the people Rei has come to care for. From its vivid visual embellishments and keen psychological insight to its great empathy for all its characters, March was a wonderful experience this year, and a show I’ll dearly miss.

Wilhelm Donko

A Place Further Than the Universe - The heartfelt story about four girls’ spectacular journey to Antarctica is not only my personal anime of the year; it also managed to secure itself a spot among my all-time favorite shows. Add highly-likeable characters, a great soundtrack, as well as gorgeous visuals to an excellent story, and you have one of the most well-crafted anime in recent years.

Laid-Back Camp - Laid-Back Camp accomplished the feat of making camping out alone in the cold look extremely enticing. Its cozy atmosphere, light humor, and the simply gorgeous-to-look-at backgrounds always made me want to grab my tent, and head out to the great outdoors after each episode.  

Harukana Receive - This was a perfect fit for this year’s summer anime season, getting us in the summer spirit with a whole season of nothing but beach volleyball in tropical Okinawa. On top of its vibrant visuals, the show also had a great upbeat soundtrack.

Kara Dennison

ZOMBIE LAND SAGA - The series’s vagueposting approach to publicity was as interesting as it was risky, but none of us could have been prepared for undead idols finding closure while Mamoru Miyano yells a lot. The back half of the series was especially good, touching on everything from personal identity to the spiral of depression. And in spite of all that heavy stuff mixed in, it brought me so much joy.

Lupin the 3rd Part 5 - I will always be a sucker for new Lupin, but there was something extra special about this season. Maybe it was the no-fear approach to action balanced out with the characters staying in-character, a dichotomy the franchise sometimes fumbles. Maybe it was just how deeply important the characters’ intelligence was, to the point of reminding us that Lupin is no mental slouch. Or maybe it was the callback filler episodes. At the moment, probably my favorite of the many Lupins.

Pop Team Epic - From a news standpoint, this series was a disaster to cover because we never knew the truth from the troll. Watching as a fan, and one with very little experience with the 4koma, was delightful. The cultural references were on point, and Norio Wakamoto made his way onto the cast list at least five episodes earlier than expected.

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And that's a wrap for Part One! Be sure to tune in at the same time tomorrow for Part Two, where we share our favorite VIDEO GAMES of 2018! If you're in the mood for more CR Favorites, here are the links to past years' features:

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2016 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One | Part Two

What were your favorite anime and manga of 2018? Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST-OF list, so there are no wrong answers--sound off in the comments and share your favorites!

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Nate Ming is the Features Editor for Crunchyroll News and creator of the long-running Fanart Friday column. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateMing. His comic, Shaw City Strikers, launches January 15, 2019.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[prixmiumarchive]

Jounouchi is a Freeter (Gen; Jounouchi & Honda; Jounouchi & Kaiba)

This is part of a series of fics perhaps misleadingly called It’s Always Sunny in Domino City.

Jounouchi is a Freeter

Characters: Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto, Kaiba Seto

Rating: M (not for sex, y’all, sorry - not yet!)

Relationships: Honda Hiroto & Jounouchi Katsuya; Jounouchi Katsuya & Kaiba Seto

On AO3 - the best place to make sure the spacing makes sense.

Previous Installments: The Gang Graduated High School - Honda Isn’t Good Enough

So far, Jounouchi has done a lot better for himself than he figured he would after high school. He doesn’t have to wear a uniform every day, and he has managed to bring home a paycheck more weeks than not. It's tiring work, but it makes him feel competent, like there might be something he is good at in the real world. As much as he would like to break into playing Duel Monsters professionally, he knows that it’s going to take multiple lucky breaks to make that happen.

In the meantime, he has to find some way to make this life of his work. He knew he wasn’t going to do a great job on his exams; that ship had sailed a long time before he had become friends with Yugi and found any outlet for his anger or any particular reason to use his head. Whatever it is that Honda has in him that made him able to buckle down and get that done – well, that’s one kind of tenacity Jounouchi doesn’t have.

What he does have is another temporary job for a company that staffs a lot of the same kinds of gigs. He learns balance that even his weird, castle and blimp and middle of nowhere adventures with Yugi hadn’t prepared him for, climbing in and out of the back of big trucks supplying some of the many construction and remodeling sites around the city. Sometimes, he gets a few extra hours in, offloading huge crates of booze into some liquor store somewhere. He still lives with his alcoholic father, so those jobs aren’t his favorite and yet they make him feel right at home.

He hasn’t starved to death or made too big of an idiot of himself. A month passes, and while Anzu and Honda start their classes and are a little less available to hang out, Jounouchi keeps himself busy, too. His arms ache, deep in his wrists and down from his shoulders. He can feel muscles behind his shoulders and running up into his neck that he didn’t even know he had. His abdomen sometimes strains and makes him glad that there was at least a little something there to start with. He sleeps a lot and actually goes to bed on time. It’s weird, but he doesn’t dread it so much because waking up doesn’t mean attending a bunch of classes with tests that eventually end up telling him that he doesn’t know even what he does know.

He likes his coworkers sometimes, too. It feels like they know where he came from and that they’re a lot like him. Sure, he’s learned to do a lot of things to quell the anger he holds toward his father and to stay out of trouble, but by no fault of his own Yugi tends to be a little more in his own head. Jounouchi likes stretching his legs, his arms, his back, and for just forgetting everything but the steady, measured movement of his body for a while.

- - -

Jounouchi’s dad’s place, Domino City, Japan

One night, in the middle of April, he comes home. He comes home after dark, but that hasn’t been anything all that unusual – not for a long time. It doesn’t do a thing to explain the loud slurring and the shattering glass that greet him against the doorframe. The pieces of a beer bottle clatter down in front of him before he can get his shoes off. There is a sudden, cool spatter that runs down one side of his shirt. It feels so violent and sudden that an instinctive part of him goes into fight-or-flight mode, a panicked feeling that it might be blood creeping in. The cool temperature reassures him that it isn’t blood, but he squints and scowls in the direction of his father anyway.

It doesn’t have to break skin to piss him off.

“Where th’ hell have y’ been?” his father asks.

Jounouchi doesn’t feel impressed upon to give him a straight answer. He looks around as he steps over the glass, shoes still on his feet, and looks for something to get the glass up with. He’ll do it, automatically, but every day it gets a little more absurd that he still has to.

“I don’t know which bothers me more. You wasting it or pouring it down your worthless throat,” he grumbles. His father bristles, visibly, from within the worn folds of his easy chair. Images from a television screen flicker against a sickly, sweaty pallor. If the place didn’t smell like beer before, it does now. He keeps moving, ignoring the fact that it seems like his father is looking around for a way to brace himself and come after him for his mouth.

It’s too late for that, though. Somewhere along the way, Jounouchi got too big and his father got too old and too out of shape for it to get that far.

Just around a tight corner in the kitchen, Jounouchi finds a broom and a dustpan with a long handle. He quickly sweeps up the pieces of glass and the beer that the broom bristles will catch and hurl into the container. His arms are tired, but one more job won’t break him. He gets as much as he can into the dustpan and hauls it to the largest trash can in the place – back to the kitchen – where he beats it against the side to make sure every drop of beer drips out along with some of the pent-up frustration that his father has awakened inside him for no good reason. Every bit as frustrated, he runs hot water down the drain of the sink and rinses the stench of beer out and gives the dustpan another couple quick hits against the side of it, too. Then he is getting a roll of paper towels and an actual towel and a bottle of lemon-scented cleaner to clean up the rest of the mess.

He knows how to do it. He’s done it before.

“I asked you a question,” his father reminds him after a fairly long delay.

“Yeah? Remind me,” Jounouchi says though he hasn’t forgotten and has no interest in answering.

“I said… where… th’ hell… y’been,” his father says as if slowing down will show some greater drunken mastery of his tongue. It doesn’t. It just makes Jounouchi have to listen to him for longer. “Don’t you have school or somethin’? Worthless… kid…” he says, turning his attention back toward the television as if he can somehow make the idea that it’s a rhetorical question a little more convincing.

“I’m done,” Jounouchi announces when he has gotten as much of the beer cleared away as he can. He hopes there aren’t little shards of glass by the door that are going to jam themselves up into the soles of his feet. For now, though, he just carries the sodden towels off to the laundry basket and tosses them in with disgust. “I’m done,” he repeats, and he isn’t sure if he is reminding his father that he’s done with school or just trying to convince himself that, one way or another, he’s done with him again.

If only it were that simple.

He doesn’t stop once he puts some distance between them. He heads to the bathroom door.

“I’m going to shower,” he announces, and it feels like more information and concession than the drunk version of his father – which is the most-often seen version of his father – really deserves. “You should try it once I’m through,” he calls as he slams the door behind himself.

That makes him feel just a little better.

When he finally gets in bed that night, it takes him a while to go to sleep. His eyelids are heavy, but they stay open. He stares up at the ceiling and occasionally glances over to the window of his tight, cluttered bedroom. The ambient light from outside seems to keep him awake though he’s had no trouble ignoring it most of his life.

His father is a good-for-nothing, lazy alcoholic who has given up on anything he used to be. Jounouchi wondered about it a lot more when he was younger, but lately the thought has come back to mind. What did his dad want to be before he started losing himself in a bottle? What the hell had left him keep his mom as long as he did? Was there anything behind all stale bullshit?

Jounouchi hates his father. Only, sometimes, he can’t hate his father. It isn’t that easy. Besides, without a bigger income, he’s not going anywhere – at least, not anywhere fast.

- - -

The Izakaya

The way he finds out where Honda works is an overtime shift taking a shipment of alcohol and vegetables to the back entrance of a local izakaya. He hauls the second or third box load into the back and sets it down where the boss had indicated when he hears his own name.

“Jounouchi?”

He starts a little when he recognizes the voice but can’t quite calibrate himself to accept that someone he knows so well is here. He manages not to drop the crate and turns around to meet dark eyes that are as familiar as anyone’s.

“Honda?” he asks, just as incredulously but with a little note of doubt creeping in towards the end. “What are you doing here?”

He looks at the apron tied to the front of Honda’s clothes and notices that he’s standing there in the back like he belongs there. He knows the answer before Honda answers. He just wonders why he didn’t know the answer before. He isn’t sure why, but he feels a little afraid when Honda responds.

“I work here.”

Jounouchi frowns and nods at once.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I… figured,” he admits. “So… how long have ya been working here? I thought you were going to school and stuff,” he replies, holding whatever it is at bay.

“... ‘And stuff,’” Honda echoes, gesturing around him.

“Oh, right, so you’re still going and everything,” Jounouchi explains to himself.

Honda nods. Jounouchi feels out of place.

“... Yeah, I’m… still workin’ too. Look, I’ll catch you later,” he says. He reaches up and claps Honda on the shoulder and leaves out the way he came, climbing back up into the passenger’s seat of the truck, waiting for his free half-ride home.

He isn’t sure why it bothers him. He wonders why he didn’t know from the moment Honda got a job. He tries to put it behind him and decides it must have just been an easy oversight. Honda has been really busy. They’ve all been. He resolves that he’ll drop by and see Honda one day. No harm, no foul.

- - -

A hot, rainy week at the beginning of summer

Jounouchi had managed to keep it together for a couple of months – maybe three. He’d been proud of himself. Then, as it usually happened, upon reflection, it took just about a week for everything to go to shit.

The first thing that happened was that he awakened one morning to a tight, burning sensation in the back of his throat, up along the roof of his mouth. It almost itched. It annoyed him. When he went to take a shower, it didn’t clear away at once no matter how much he tried to gargle hot water as he brushed his teeth (also in the shower.) His arms felt heavy when he went to his loading job that day, but he made it through. Another day’s pay secured on a day when he didn’t know how soon each day was going to matter so much to him.

Two more days later, he knew he was sick. It was temporary – a bad cold or something. He’d had worse, and he’d get over it. The problem was, even though it was temporary, it felt like it would last forever. His nose ran like a faucet, clear snot getting to his upper lip over and over again. He wiped it away as often as he could, but even in the muggy, miserable weather that one broke right after one of the rainstorms, his face was getting chapped. Plus, sometimes he couldn’t have use of his hands if he wanted to keep moving.

On the fourth day, he wakes up and thinks he might feel a little bit better. Then he blinks a few times and frowns. His room seems brighter than usual. He fumbles for his phone and almost puts another crack in the screen when he sees what time it is. There are three different notifications about missed alarms and one text from his boss. It’s polite, but his heart stops.

He texts back with trembling thumbs – as polite, apologetic, and grammatically correct as he knows how to be. He promises he’ll be there. He gets himself as put together as he can with the fever still running a slow and steady course through his body. He finishes the work day. He almost dares to hope that he hasn’t ruined it.

Then, the next morning, he makes sure to get to the base site early. It’s then that his boss tells him that he’s noticed that he’s been feeling down lately. It would be hard not to with the constant sheen of mucous and the sneezing and coughing and clearing his throat and the sluggish pull against his movements. Jounouchi hates it. He barely hears it but nods anyway when his boss politely tells him that there will be other jobs. He can reapply later.

He gets fired. And it might be as temporary as the job itself, but it feels like a punch to the stomach.

His father doesn’t give a dan when he walks back into the apartment before noon. He goes back to bed. He lies there face-down, only taking a breath when it’s absolutely necessary. He feels feverish and sick and tired and after a while, very quietly, the heat in his blood gives way to heat in his eyes and, just for a little while, very privately, he lets the tears go.

- - -

The Izakaya  

“Hey, Honda,” Jounouchi greets his friend as he takes the seat at the bar nearest to the place where Honda is wiping down the marbled surface to a clean shine. It doesn’t smell like it’s drenched in beer here despite the tingling presence of alcohol that seems to permeate the air. Jounouchi wonders. He looks Honda in the eye once he has his attention.

“What are you doing here?” Honda asks in a low, hushed tone.

“What? You ashamed of me?” he asks. He sniffs, but it’s because he’s still getting over his cold. He’s got himself pilled and washed and glued together as best he can. He doesn’t have a job, but he has money in his pocket. He pulls out a few bank notes to show to Honda. “Here,” he says. “Paying customer. That way it doesn’t matter if you’re ashamed of me,” he says.

“Jounouchi, that’s not what I mean,” Honda complains at him in a low tone that immediately makes him feel guilty. He wishes he didn’t feel guilty. “I mean… what’re you doing here?” he repeats in a different tone that is somehow supposed to make the meaning different. Jounouchi guesses that it does.

“I want you to do me a favor,” Jounouchi explains. He has rehearsed this part in his mind for a couple of days, knowing that if he thought about it too much in the moment, he’d have chickened out.

“... Yeah?” Honda asks him, and he feels another sag in his chest. More guilt. He knows from that tone that if he asks for almost anything, he’s got it.

“I want you to get me some sake. Or some whiskey. Or anything, really. Whatever it is guys drink when they’re here to do that,” Jounouchi says, managing most of it without too much improvisation. Then it’s out there, and he can’t take it back, and he keeps his mouth shut – pursed together even – as he watches Honda and waits for an answer.

“... Jou—” Honda starts to ask, but then he glances around and stops. He doesn’t want to draw too much attention to this apparently. Really, Jounouchi can’t blame him if he is ashamed of him. “Well, I’m not a bartender,” he offers as some kind of feeble excuse. It is an excuse that Jounouchi has anticipated and, just like he’d rehearsed in his mind, he rolls one shoulder in a weak shrug, like he doesn’t care whether it happens or not. For some reason, he does, but he has tried to brace himself, too, for the idea that if it doesn’t work out, maybe it is destiny or the universe or whatever greater force holds sway in more important people’s lives doing something for him for once.

“Eh, it’s–” he starts to say, but then Honda is gone, smooth-talking some girl who appears to be the bartender. She smiles and laughs easily and glances down in Jounouchi’s direction. He doesn’t quite know what to do with his overheated face that has more than one source of inflammation, so he gives her a weird wave that comes across more like a salute. He wonders if she likes Honda. In just a second, though, Honda is coming back with a glass prepared for him. He looks down at it and guesses that it’s sake. In truth, he’s almost tried not to learn the various differences.

Anyway, in spite of all those lifelong precautions against this – against the substance itself, against becoming his father, against actually thinking about giving up on himself – he gives Honda a cavalier grin and downs it. Honda watches him with raised eyebrows and widened eyes, the whites of them looking clearer than anything Jounouchi feels at the moment. He swallows and takes a breath.

“How was it?” Honda asks.

“Like you don’t know,” Jounouchi teases.

“I’m asking  you ,” Honda presses, and he sounds so genuinely concerned that Jounouchi smiles and takes a stab at a real answer.

“Not as bad as I thought it was gonna be,” he replies. He looks down at the emptied glass and feels it in his hand, turning it over a little – thoughtfully. “Can I have another one?” he asks, reminding Honda with an absentminded flick of his thumb of the bank notes on the table.

He does have more. Honda gives them to him, and he knows he gets past three and then he stops thinking about it so hard. He isn’t sure if he has one more, or if he has several more. He gets distracted. The first thing he notices as the tingling sensation settles into the muscles of his legs and then up his torso and all the way up to the tips of his ears is that he feels a kind of calm like anything could happen and it wouldn’t bother him one bit. He doesn’t say much while he drinks. He tells Honda, at one point, that he’s been sick lately and that he’s read that alcohol can calm the coughing down. When Honda expresses concern about him going into work the following morning, Jounouchi waves him off reassuringly. He has the day off. He neglects to tell him that, as far as it stands right now, he might have the rest of his life off as far as he knows.

Eventually, he notices some of the faces of people along the bar. They aren’t people he knows. He looks back down at the bartender and notes that she’s pretty – dark ponytail on top of her head, dark complexion, bright smile. In a red, button-up shirt with quick, small hands, she’s just the kind of person who looks like she belongs there.

Jounouchi doesn’t know where he belongs.

He also knows that one of the next people who darkens the door of the izakaya doesn’t belong there, either.

Honda seems mercifully oblivious when he comes to check on Jounouchi after clearing the table just behind his seat at the bar.

“Please don’t sit here, please don’t…” Jounouchi finds himself praying to someone who most certainly doesn’t accept that form of credit.

Honda stares at him blankly and looks at the empty bar stools on either side of him.

“You shouldn’t be antisocial, Jounouchi,” he encourages him with a hand that briefly touches his back between his shoulder blades. Jounouchi is still feverish enough that the touch seems to tingle. He is drunk enough that it seems muted and far away, slow to register in his brain.

“I’m not,” Jounouchi promises. “Look, could you just make sure they – you know, he and whoever those old guys with him are – don’t sit there,” he says with a jerk of his thumb behind him at the freshly cleaned table.

Honda looks up along the bar and finally tunes in to what their conversation is actually about.

“Ohhh,” he intones. “... Well, like I said, I’m not a bartender or a waiter here, really, but I could, maybe make sure Kaiba and his friends—”

“Shut up, you moron,” Jounouchi says with, maybe, a little less hesitation than he should have as he reaches over and tugs Honda’s shirttail. It isn’t vicious, but it’s damned insistent. He doesn’t want someone who isn’t his friend to see him like this, and right now, there’s enough liquid truth running through his veins not to delude himself into thinking that some rich guy who has just so happened to help them for mutual benefit in several weird, hardly believable life-or-death situations is their friend now. Luckily, before Honda’s loud mouth can have any impact whatsoever, his bartender friend has some kind of impact on the thin, middle-aged guy with a thick middle and some male-pattern baldness starting to happen who seems to be the man Kaiba is most interested in chatting with. He gives her a bashful smile, and they sit a long ways up the bar from Jounouchi. It is one of those rare moments when he feels pure, unadulterated relief through everything else.

“You don’t look so good, man,” Honda says. “I learned to hold my liquor a long time before you ever tried it,” he says kindly, like he doesn’t know that this is Jounouchi’s first time giving in except for a tongue-test of the stuff once when he was ten. Maybe he doesn’t know. Jounouchi can’t remember. “Let me get you something to eat. If… If your money there doesn’t cover it, I’ll get the rest. Let me let the guy in the back feed you. One of the best cooks in the city,” he says.

“Fine,” Jounouchi murmures, reaching up and rubbing at his skull just above the inner edges of both his eyebrows.

“What?” Honda asks, as if he thinks Jounouchi might be offended by the suggestion.

“Fine,” Jounouchi repeats, but he puts a goofy, wobbly smile on his face and looks up at Honda and does something very controlled like a dizzy person’s nod. “Sure! I’d love to eat,” he says. He doesn’t know if it’s true or not, for once, but he knows that he probably should.

He sits there, slumped down on his elbows, holding his forehead and lightly rubbing it from time to time while Honda goes and gets him some food. Even if he isn’t a bartender  or  a waiter, he sure comes through in a pinch. Jounouchi wishes that he was at least half as useful. He look up slightly and blows just a little at the freshly washed and dried light hair that hangs in his face. Then his nostrils fill with something that actually does manage to perk up his sloshy-stomached, sickly appetite.

He has some dinner. It seems like it takes a while, but sooner or later he is full, warm, sluggish. He feels content, but it is almost like if he moves that he might come in half, spilling guts and bile and delicious, recently chewed food all over the floor for all of the patrons that are still there.

Time stops seeming to mean much of anything. He feels Honda’s hand on his shoulder. He trusts Honda’s hand on his shoulder. He feels like he could just sleep here for the night. He leans more heavily on one of his triceps. His fingers thread into his hair like they’re what holds his head up. Honda tries to force him to drink some water. He reluctantly nurses it. Then, he hears a conversation worm its way into his ears. He doesn’t know if it’s because the ambient noise got lower of the voices got closer or if it’s just because he knows those voices. Both of them. He hears it out against his will.

“Hey, sir. Mr. Kaiba… sir,” a familiar voice says. Jounouchi hopes that there’s some sarcasm behind it, otherwise it’s just humiliating.

He hears a gruff response. It doesn’t quite form into its constituent words in his head, but it’s him and not the voice.

“... I just saw you shaking your friend’s—”

“Business partner. Or potential business partner if you didn’t just scare him off at the last possible moment.”

“... ‘Business partner.’ He seems like a nice guy!”

“What do you want?”

“It’s just that I saw you shaking your business partner’s hand, and I didn’t know who else to turn to. It’s not like I can call his parents, and his sister doesn't need to see this. And I don’t know if she drives or has a transit pass or anything. I don’t get off for another two hours, and he’s…”

“He’s drunk,” the second voice decides with disdain.

“Yeah,” Honda says.

“Why is he drunk?”

“I wanted to be, you smug bastard,” Jounouchi announces as clearly as he can. He isn’t sure how clear that is. He feels himself being hauled to his feet. He isn’t sure whose hands are on him. He blinks and finds himself eye-to-eye with Seto Kaiba. “Great,” he remarks, giving Honda a somewhat wilting glance once he figures out where he is in his field of vision.

“I’m sorry, Jounouchi,” Honda says, quite seriously for Honda. “I think someone needs to help you get home, and I don’t get off for another two hours.”

“Get off,” Jounouchi repeats. “At least somebody wants you around, right? You and your perfect doin’ more than your job, better than your job…” he finds himself saying, and in spite of the plaintive tone in his voice, in spite of knowing that Honda would likely, in the long-term, forgive him for anything, he reluctantly hears himself and realizes that Honda is probably right. He gives Kaiba another look, and suddenly the offer seems a lot more attractive.

If being drunk makes him point out a person’s characteristics in the worst, most self-serving light there is, he would rather not be around anyone whose feelings he actually cares about.

After that, Jounouchi allows Kaiba to guide him out of the izakaya. This is done with a tight grip at the back of his shirt dead center of his shoulder blades. He gets steered like some kind of ventriloquist’s puppet, but at least he manages not to run into anybody. He manages not to be ungrateful.

- - -

Outside the Izakaya  

Suddenly, everything goes a lot faster once they’re past the step down onto the sidewalk outside the izakaya. Fast. Too fast. It takes him a second to realize that Kaiba has pushed him by the center of his back and that his feet are moving on their own like a friction-motor car trying to keep up its own momentum in vain. He is nearly bent over but manages not to fall when he rights himself and looks back at Kaiba.

“Gee, thanks,” he intones. Then, for good measure, he spits on the sidewalk in Kaiba’s general direction. “I’ll be on my way,” he says.

He starts walking in the general direction of what he assumes is home. After all, it was the direction he had been pushed. He’ll go his way, and Kaiba will go his, and this whole unpleasant encounter will be mercifully brief.

That’s what he thinks anyway before Kaiba opens his mouth.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he says.

“... Excuse me?” Jounouchi asks, blinking at Kaiba. Coming from him, it invariably sounds like a threat.

“The way you are right now, you’ll wander into traffic, and honestly I don’t feel like seeing your face on the news.”

Jounouchi is, honestly, too drunk to argue with it.

It takes him a couple of blocks to start trying again. At one point, Kaiba’s coattail brushes just a little too close to his calf and it sets him off into trying to point out how stupid he’s realized it is.

“If you had just let me wander into traffic, you’d’ve seen my face on the news  once  – maybe twice – and then I would’ve been out of your hair forever.”

“You’re not in my hair,” Kaiba replies as if that’s the operative part of what he had been trying to say. It frustrates Jounouchi who isn’t sober enough to stop it from doing it.

“Out of your face, out of the place where you keep all the considerable pain that must be in your ass all the time to make you act the way you do. You know, gone.”

“Shut up, Jounouchi,” Kaiba cautions him curtly.

For some reason, Jounouchi notices that they are walking along beside a very shiny, glass-paned building that gives off a blue-cast reflection of the night-lights and sky of the city wherever he manages to half focus on it when he chooses not to shut up.

“Then you could go back to your stupid, permanently employed, rich-boy life, and I wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not I lost the only kind of job I could get ‘cause I was sick and overslept one day and ‘cause it doesn’t even matter if I keep my stupid little job, ‘cause I’m replaceable just like every other guy who’s ever carried boxes in the history of—”

He was talking, and then he isn’t anymore.

Pain radiates from his cheekbone through every bone in his skull, rattling, making his brain feel like it might bounce just a little. He has stumbled back into the glass-paned wall behind him. He is looking at Kaiba and sees his fist, realizing what happened. He notices that Kaiba’s breath his a little heightened.

“What the—” he starts to ask, but he doesn’t get a chance. As soon as he starts to make a sound, that same fist makes an uppercut into his stomach. There is only one thing he can do in response. It isn’t even something he does so much as something that happens to him. Suddenly, on the sidewalk in front of him, on the toe of one of Kaiba’s shoes, there is a puddle. It is a puddle made of bile, acrid and sweet half-digested alcohol, and food. Perfectly good, partially digested food that Honda had scored for him. He’s sorry for that part. His eyes are wide. He looks up at Kaiba, ready to martial his strength and remind him which one of them has generally done the punching.

Before he can formulate a response, though, Kaiba is talking.

“Good,” he says. It bewilders Jounouchi for a moment before he understands that Kaiba is talking about the vomit on the ground. Some of it one one of his expensive-ass boots. Jounouchi blinks at Kaiba with something that feels disturbingly like confused-clarity that doesn’t make any sense. He leans back against the glass pane, almost limp if upright and not in any way about to defend himself, let alone go on the offense.

“... Good?” he manages to question hoarsely.

“Now that you’ve got some of that poison out of your body, you might be sober sometime tonight,” Kaiba replies, exasperated and furious. Jounouchi doesn’t know what to do as Kaiba pries him away and leads him along – through the puddle of his own vomit, but maybe that’s fair play. He doesn’t know where they’re going. The buildings are too tall to be headed back to his place. He can’t think. All he knows is that he was, apparently, having a much different conversation with Kaiba than the one he’d thought they’d started out with.