#but alas i will finish the series first. no spoilers for this child right here!

[undergoing-mitosis]

i never thought a silly show about skating would make me cry with sadness then cry with joy and then make me feel all the feels and then infest me and give me brainworms

[sunseteyes]

FLUFFVEMBER DAY 10: INOSUKE HASHIBIRA

prompt: netflix binge (prompts are by @jojosmilktea)

word count: 1,329 words | themes: gen!reader. inosuke being tough. horror movies but not graphical anyway.

tags: @kacchanori @chickynn @todominica @sparkleswritings @brinthie @patricia-ceballos @giyuus-wife @bitchtrynafck @astrxrism @animatedarchives @deephasoceanmagic @strawberrysalwa (send a dm or ask to be added!)

rv: i just finished the haunting of bly manor by the time i was writing this so yeah it’s what i wrote here but there’s no sort of spoilers anyway.

✒︎ it’s not a competition

it's a thing for you and the rest of the "kamaboko squad" to always have a gathering at least once or twice a week to watch movies in netflix for one night. it's either going to be at your or tanjiro's house but usually, it's gonna be on the siblings' abode.

however tonight, it's just you and inosuke in your flat. apparently, nezuko is sick and tanjiro is taking care of his sister. and of course when zenitsu has heard of it, he wanted to go to the siblings' home, to which lead to the situation that you are in now. coincidentally, inosuke was looking forward to the weekly netflix binge since you were scheduled to watch the haunting of bly manor that day. inosuke is a huge fan of thriller, horror and crime movies or series, of course he’d be looking forward to such.

as for you, you're not that much afraid of horror stories but you could say that you hate jump scares the most, that's for sure. so yes, inosuke's company could help you, you just hope he wouldn't notice it and tease you to the ends of the earth.

"so what are we gonna watch, (y/n)? it's horror, right? you're not backing down are 'ya?"

you scoffed, "of course not, are you?"

inosuke laughs sarcastically, holding his chest up high. "why should i be?! it's you who's gonna be scared tonight!"

a pout appears on your face as you pressed the play button on the remote control, eventually having the first episode load on the screen. you settled comfortably next to inosuke, instantly feeling the warmth that radiates from his body even if you were only seated beside him, merely inches away. you've never sat beside him before actually, considering that you were much closer to nezuko compared to the other three. inosuke is probably the least closest to you than zenitsu and tanjiro, so this night will probably out of your comfort zone.

still, it is a good sign for the both of you. at least now, you won't get to play favorites. and you're quite sure inosuke's not that much of a difficult person to get close with—you think.

"why are their faces turning like that it looks so weird." inosuke complains the minute the opening started showing on the screen, the array of characters and specific casts in the beginning of the episode. you couldn't help but let out a short chuckle from your chest, unconsciously snuggling further next to inosuke as you brought your legs up to the couch, reaching under the comforts of the blanket that you laid on top of you two—to which he surprisingly agreed on.

inosuke noticed your movements though. the boy flinches on his seat and turns his head to look at you with eyes wide, yet you had yours glued to the television screen, too focused on what was happening in the scene without any clue that inosuke has his attention solely to you.

above everyone, you were the only one who he cannot read at all. to have you and only you here sitting beside him is something that came out of a clear blue sky. it's not that he didn't want to interact with you, he just has no idea how and it frustrates him how much he doesn't know what to say to you most of the time. of course, it’s not like he’ll ever admit to that out loud.

unable to identify why his face was burning up, he automatically looked away, also in fear that you may notice him looking your way and misunderstand it. his gaze may be directed on the screen and the subtitles, but his mind was flying like a bird elsewhere, flapping its wings to the thoughts of you.

as time passes by, inosuke eventually composes himself, his focus now on the television screen as the film and its plot slowly processed in both of your minds. reactions and opinions were shared between you and inosuke like you were pros, used to how you both do this with the others. with how the conversation just falls smoothly like the wave of a water, you certainly felt how natural the talks were and you were liking it.

maybe all too much.

"hey i thought this is horror where are the ghosts?"

"oh calm down, nosuke. we still have eight more episodes, you know? of course they'll have to build the plot first."

"aw man this is so boring i need to see the monsters!" inosuke whines loud like a child but he continued watching, earning you a shake from the head with an amused face. you just know that he was only keeping up a front just to make himself look tough. you're beginning to feel excited of what's to come as you two watch further into the scenes.

and when the dreaded jump scare scenes arrived, you certainly did not expect them. and neither did inosuke.

"what the hell was that?! did you see that?!"

"y-yeah, i did." you tried not to stutter but your voice was too weak to conceal it. it did not left unnoticed by inosuke, immediately recognizing that expression of yours.

"what's that? are you scared?"

your eyes narrowed as you faced him, "i'm not scared! and don't pretend that you're not!" you argued, frowning at the way he was trying to act tough. but at the same time, it was not because you felt irritated by these kind of antics. you were actually having fun by these small banters. it just makes you think of the reason why you hadn't done this before.

"you flinched." you say without looking, the corner of your eyes catching his previous and current reactions.

"s'just cold, that's all!" he spats, making you scoff in almost an instant as he pulls the blanket further to his form.

you never had foreseen for someone like inosuke to be affected with the way you tease them but the more you had gotten reactions from him, the more you were beginning to feel competitive to see until the end of the movie marathon.

but alas, everything has its end and it's all because you fell asleep, as well as the said boy. the morning you woke up, it was like you were greeted with a birthday surprise even if it was not your birthday and you should have expected it because you were the one who insisted to yourself to continue watching despite having your eyes already drooping and begging to be closed.

by the time you opened your eyes, you were greeted by the sight of the living room, with the television still on and the sun peeking through the gaps of the blinds on your windows. you barely had the moment to register the living being beside you because your eyes were already wide when you turn to look at inosuke's still-sleeping form, head rested rather uncomfortably on the backseat of the couch and his lap all open for that's where you previously were.

you were about to look away but you found yourself staring at his face; openly and without any sign of embarrassment and shyness. you do admit that inosuke is beautiful but damn this is probably the time you truly believed in it.

the length and curl of his lashes that could match guys and gals alike, the softness of the look on his face even while sleeping and awake, the hue of his hair complimenting his skin complexion and texture, the way his fringes smoothly decorate his face like it was meant to be there.

damn.

you felt that familiar beating in your heart, almost some sort of drum that beats so uniquely than how it normally would. and for you, you knew what it meant.

it meant that even if it's not a competition, it was clear that you lost.

[houseofglass]

Some thoughts on The Stand, 2021 version on Amazon Prime. There’s spoilers, but dammit the book was released ages ago so buckle up.

I haven’t finished the series yet, I have two episodes left. But this was burning my fingertips so I had to type it out.

I read The Stand by Stephen King back in the late ‘80′s. It was released in 1978 and re-released somewhere around 1990 as an ‘uncut’ edition. The editor had decided to trim the book so it could sell better. My mom looked at the uncut version and said, “If the editor cut 150,000 words, there’s probably a reason.” I agreed with her - Stephen King’s best work was his novellas, not his long novels.

A television series was released in 1994. I thought it was earlier because the character Randall Flagg has a mullet, but nope, IMDB tells me that the above date is correct.

I remember most of the details of the book and series, although the series helped me to see the final battle properly. King didn’t describe it in a way I could understand at all and was confused until the show came out. I felt similar when reading The Handmaid’s Tale. I had no idea what the costume looked like and those hats were nothing like what I imaged from Atwood’s work. I try to keep these examples in mind while writing my own novel.

So when this new iteration of The Stand appeared on my radar, I made a point of watching it. But, alas, there are some problems.

1. Nadine must remain a virgin until she can meet up with Randall. Really? It’s 2021. A person’s virtue is not determined by the use of equipment between their legs. How does remaining a virgin make someone virtuous? Why is she allowed to participate in any other sexual act but not penetration? And why does this only apply to women? Is a man’s virtue intact if he doesn’t insert his penis into someone? No! Why? This also tangles the issue of nonbinary people. What if a woman has a penis but hasn’t used it? Is she virtuous? If a man with a vagina hasn’t used the equipment, is he virtuous? Does this stem from the ancient, outdated idea that people with penises masturbate because they ‘can’t help it’ and people with vaginas don’t because they ‘can help it’?

This might have been okay in 1978, but that was 43 years ago. I need to pause here and clutch my aging heart because I can remember 1978. Whew! Okay. 

This virtue bit is core to the show because Nadine must carry Randall’s child. But I feel like this could’ve been tweaked to better represent the times. Especially since the book takes place in the future, not present.

2. Las Vegas features rampant sex. This, in and of itself, doesn’t bother me. I’ve watched Netflix and HBO. I’ve seen sex, both integral to the plot and gratuitous. What bothered me was twofold:

A) The sex featured was public (in a nightclub, but still public) and people wore what could be described as BDSM gear. Lots of belts, black leather, fishnet stockings, lingerie, that kind of thing. This bothered me because they’re portraying ‘nightclub sex’ as something that ‘sinners’ do.

These people are in Las Vegas, on Randall’s side, therefore are the antagonists to the plot. Randall represents the Devil, where Mother Abigail in Boulder represents God. So people who enjoy public sex in a safe environment are sinners? In 2021? Similar question, so people who enjoy BDSM are sinners? In 2021?

B) The implication that if this kind of sex is allowed in Las Vegas, it wouldn’t be in Boulder. There, people have ‘vanilla’ sex, right? Not much is featured, but what is (or what I noticed) was hetero sex. I don’t recall seeing any poly couples in Boulder, or same-sex couples there. Why not? If they are there, why aren’t they more obvious? I tend to notice and am thrilled whenever I see nonbinary people in relationships or two men holding hands, but I didn’t notice it in Boulder.

3. There's a whole lotta white people. Other skin tones were sprinkled in, but not in the quantity I’ve become accustomed to. Since the diversity rider appeared for Canadian shows, I’ve noticed a much wider range of actors and it’s been delightful. I love seeing a First Nations person played by a First Nations actor. I love that I’m shown wonderful hairstyles for kinky hair. I love the intermingling of skin tones in relationships. This has become so normal to me that when there’s too many white people I notice, and not in a good way.

Here’s a sticky point to consider too: if I can’t see the difference in tones because the overall filming filter makes everyone look similar, this is a bad thing.

The main cast of characters is fairly diverse, but the background extras are not. Are they trying to convey the idea that mostly white people survived this plague? That would be insane. If I strain my brain I can recall some extras being on the lighter side of dark tones, but why should I have to strain to remember that? And if my mind is remembering the sea of whiteness, why? Because I’ve set my brain to glance at the background to ensure there’s a nicely diverse crowd, that’s why.

4. The religious aspect is troublesome. Yes, I’m aware that the book was written with religion in mind. The whole story is good vs evil shown by God vs Devil using humanity. I get that. But the Christianity irked me. I’m not religious, but I do know there are more religions out there besides Christianity. None are represented, that I could see. Instead, these characters dream of Randall or Abigail and go to where they feel the greatest pull. Good people go to Abigail, bad people to Randall. And yes, this was fairly well represented by having selfish people go to Randall and those who want a community go to Abigail.

But this is also a problem. No matter how good or bad you are (or think you are), you can change. You can decide to be different. This show pigeonholes people in a way that rankled me, with the one exception of a main character, Harold. He didn’t dream of either person, and was neither good nor bad. He just hadn’t found ‘his people’. I could identify with this facet of his personality because I know my behaviour is weird for some and not normal enough for others. It’s been difficult, trying to fit in to workplaces and friend groups, and is a measure of my neurodiversity and mental illness.

So here’s Harold, trying to be good, but has had a lifetime of not fitting in and not being included. He’s tried and failed. His behaviour is shown as someone who ‘just doesn’t get it’, and people around him tolerate him more than enjoy his company. He tries to be bad, mostly because he’s angry at the world, but he’s also good at heart. When the plague hits, he travels with Nadine to Boulder and joins the body removal crew. He even makes a friend. This tentative, tenuous friendship is torpedoed when Nadine kills the guy.

Harold is neutral, but he discovered the world can be decent. Rather than resolve this and show that there’s a place for everyone, Harold is killed. This bothered me a lot because there are people out there who just need a friend, they need someone who understands them and wants to be around them. Everyone wants that, and some people are gifted with the natural ability to make friends, but some really aren’t. For them, they spend most of their time knowing they’re disliked but not knowing how to fix the problem, or if it can be fixed. Killing this character off felt like a cop-out.

Back to religion. Imagine that you’ve been dreaming of a kind woman named Abigail, so you go to her only to discover that your religion isn’t represented in the imagery, symbolism, or icons. Instead, it’s another religion, equally good, but not yours.

Oh my, also, Las Vegas has no religious imagery that I can recall off the top of my head. There’s no indication of religion other than people nailed to crosses as you enter the city. Does this mean that if you’re religious you’re good and if you’re not you’re bad? In 2021?

This entire debate could have been avoided by not using religion as a base. Yes, it’s faithful to the book to include this aspect, but like I’ve mentioned, it’s 2021 now. Rather than good vs bad = God vs Devil, why not have: people who want to try to live peacefully vs people who want to take over and rule the world? This would be effective when done well.

To conclude, overall the show is not bad. It resembles the book and previous television mini-series quite well. The storyline is a bit current, what with a plague and all, but a lot of it feels so dated that I cringed away from my screen while watching.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading my rant.

[just0nemorepage]

In the Time of Dragon Moon || Janet Lee Carey || Wilde Island Chronicles #3 || 480 pages ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Young Adult / Dragons

Synopsis: On the southernmost tip of Wilde Island--far from the Dragonswood sanctuary and the Pendragon Castle--live the native Euit people. Uma, who is half Euit and half English, and not fully accepted by her tribe, wants to become a healer like her Euit father. But the mad English queen in the north, desperate for another child, kidnaps Uma and her father and demands that he cure her barrenness. After her father dies, Uma must ensure that the queen is with child by the time of the Dragon Moon, or be burned at the stake.

Terrified and alone, Uma reaches out to her only possible ally: the king's nephew Jackrun, a fiery dragonrider with dragon, fairy, and human blood. Together, they must navigate through a sea of untold secrets, unveil a dark plot spawned long ago in Dragonswood, and find a way to accept all the elements--Euit, English, dragon, and fairy--that make them who they are.

Finished: February ??nd, 2020.

Progress: 8 / 10. 80% complete.

My Rating: ★★★☆☆. [3/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - NOT SPOILER FREE]

First things first: big TW for sexual assault, attempted rape and victim blaming in the first half of the book.

I have very mixed feelings about this book, and I have to say, generally it was a disappointment. I went into it with VERY high hopes from the last book, but I didn’t like this one anywhere near as much.

I absolutely loved the main theme of English oppression of the natives, and the real-world connotations that represents. I also deeply enjoyed the underlying message of female power, and of not being ashamed of being a woman.

But just.. I feel like there were so many missed opportunities, and a lot of loose ends and dropped balls. Like.. I don’t believe the Tess of the last book would have been as strict and shaming of Jackrun’s dragon fire as she is said to be. Jackrun’s temper really isn’t the best, and he takes it out on Uma a lot without much in the way of apology. Uma is left to figure out her femaleness entirely on her own, with no one to really directly address it with her – which brings up the topic that gender is VERY binary here. Uma herself seems to be more fluid, fighting with two halves of herself – one masculine, one feminine – but what doesn’t sit well with me is that the aspects must be defined as one way or another at all, such as a more personal healing touch is something only a woman can give and understand. Gender roles are really still very strictly defined, and especially when painted under the guise of lady power and gender fluidity, it really didn’t sit well with me.

The female rage coming from Tanya after she was found out is entirely understandable, and I genuinely felt for her. I’ll admit, I was very glad she managed to kill Desmond and the Queen before she was discovered, cause the both of them were COMPLETE dumpster fires and quite frankly deserved it. That much was very satisfying. But of course, she is to be executed for the crimes of murder, and never once does the King admit what pieces of shit his wife and son were. He won’t even let Tanya speak ill of his son, regardless of the fact that his kid tried to rape Uma. Ultimately, I felt bad that Tanya had to be punished at all.

I know this is historical fantasy and all that, but… fantasy. It’s FANTASY. You don’t have to include some things. Like the sexual assault. And the isolation and victim blaming that comes from it. And the fact that Uma never really did have what was done to her acknowledged. And the king and Bianca – Tanya’s daughter, a TEENAGER – marrying a year after the queen’s death. Yeah. Ew. It was painted in a very mutually consensual light, but… no.

I also feel like the idea of “being womanly” or femininity in general was overall painted as being very shameful, and you had to prove yourself “masculine” or “neutral” enough to be seen with any kind of respect. No one really seemed to respect the feminine on its own.

And really, the aesthetic I loved so much in the last book really didn’t have much play in this book. It was still there, especially when the Fey were present and when Uma was in the Dragonswood, but not as much as I wanted it to be.

Also, I really don’t like Uma’s father. At all. Or much of her tribe. Most of them seemed like grade-A sexist assholes.

I am grateful for Jackrun, though. Aside from his temper, I was glad he existed. He’s respectful and kind and considerate, and behaves as a true ally should – and even left everything he ever knew to live with Uma once she decided to return home. A male character doing that for a female character is very rare, and is a pleasant change.

There are so many more little things I don’t remember, but overall, while certain parts of this book left me feeling very excited and happy and satisfied, others… nowhere near as much. There was enough that left me feeling dissatisfied and like “wait, no, that’s not done right,” that it persevered after finishing the book and left me feeling like I couldn’t possibly rate it any more than a three. So much of it felt like attempted cliché subverting, but ended up… kind of playing right into the aspects that make them problematic in the first place.

The characters, the character growth, and the world building I absolutely adore – the world building especially. I’d LOVE more books set in this world. But this one is the last one…and that leaves me feeling very sad. This book being the last one for this setting feels very much like a disservice to its potential.

But, alas. I’ll just keep talking in circles if I keep going, so I’m gonna cut myself off here. This book and this series is done – on to the next one!

[rokutouxei]

Author Interview ✍️

Haven’t done something like this ever here officially, so this is interesting! Thank you @assomoir for tagging me~

Name: Cee

Fandoms: oof that’s a tough question because i have a lot but my most recent ones are Ikemen Vampire, Touken Ranbu, and Mystic Messenger. i do have a few other ikemen series (sengoku/revolution/live) WIPS i haven’t touched... and i haven’t watched anime or read manga in a while...  so yeah those for now.

Where You Post: here on my tumblr and on my ao3! I’ve only cross-posted some of the most recent ones though, so the bulk of my work is really in here. 

Most Popular One-Shot: surprisingly, at the moment it’s one fear.jpg (Ikemen Vampire) which was supposed to be the dumbest fic I have written ever. i swear i don’t understand how that blew up...

on ao3 it’s unfaithful (Mystic Messenger) which i’m pretty proud of.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: i... have only ever written two multi-chapter stories and both of them are unfinished, and the better one of the two had like  70 or so follows and near a 100 reviews on FF.net. yes it’s that old. no i’m not coming back to it i think. no i’m not linking it, i wrote it when i was 12!

Favorite Story You Wrote: hmm that’s a tough one... usually when i finish a fic i just post them and “let them go”, but if i had to choose one, i’d pick a bunch from each fandom maybe? like with these hands you hold (Touken Ranbu), unfaithful (Mystic Messenger) as I said, then, now, always (Haikyuu). and that [spoilers redacted] fic I’m still revising for Ikemen Vampire.

i gotta say though, i have a soft spot for literally everything I have written for the crackship that is shishiyuka (Hirunaka no Ryuusei) because it’s my child, it’s my crackship, it is my baby. 

Story You Were Nervous to Post: i’m generally very nervous about posting fics and will make my friends read them over at least twice and triple check beforehand, but i’d say i was most nervous about unfaithful (Mystic Messenger). yeah, i liked it very much but at the same time i was so so so insecure about it. it was my first actual smut fic out in the world AND it was mild dubcon AND it had cheating in it and it basically had all the red flags possible and i was very worried about tackling it in fiction and how people would react. 

runner up is he will own me and i’ll embrace defeat (Ikemen Vampire) which was a completely different trainwreck of worry because, same, i didn’t know how it would be received. it felt very... intimate, in a different way that the regular smut fic is, and it felt very raw to get it out there.

How You Choose Your Titles: from songs, from poetry, “that one word that is basically the entire story”, or a meaningful clause or sentence from the story. if i think too hard about a title it begins to sound weird so i try to limit my decision making time as much as possible, keep it simple.

Complete: if my contents page didn’t miss any i have 113 finished works so far, not including stuff I wrote for @polyhaikyuu back in the days and also stuff I wrote pre-tumblr (back in FF.net). yes i have no life other than writing.

Incomplete: 

jk if you mean ongoing fics i have none because i only have the attention span for one-shots, but if you mean WIPS then i have, like, a bazillion. 

Do You Outline? i do, but not intensely? mostly I let the fic build itself in my head first, and then when it’s sort of becoming clear, I put it down into bullet points. i outline but only when there’s enough to outline, if that makes sense

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: ooh i have a bunch on my folder right now but a sneak peek of the ones I want to write the most

- a sandwich smut fic with theo/mc/arthur

- a little thing about how arthur likes his coffee

- a modern AU theo/MC fic that’ll probably turn out to be an original novel with how expansive the entire thing is already, but we’ll see.

- my child, a series of fics (9) for theo’s route release in english, exploring his character, his interactions with MC and the other residents of the mansion, and mostly just me gushing about him

and yes, a thing in february to be done with a bunch of writer friends ;) i honestly don’t know how that’ll sail for me but i’m really excited to be doing it! 

Do You Accept Prompts? i actually do! i can’t promise to get to all of them immediately as i am a full-time student outside of this, but i do take them to consideration and i sometimes put themes together to make a fic. honestly the easiest way to get content out of me is to get me to talk about a character... i’ll probably just spam you with headcanons. 

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: one of the nine fics for theo’s route release is really sweet and i want to start on it already but alas. and of course the february thing, which i’m sure you’ll hear about pretty soon! wait for announcements!!

tagging: @attoliattolis​, my shishiyuka co-parent! also omg i need more writer friends........

[shoujocentral]

Symphogear G- Sequelitis Strikes Again...

So, after watching the first season of Symphogear, finishing it in three days, and being hooked in an instant, naturally I was pumped to get to the next season to see what they would do with the plot, what new characters we'd get to see, how the old characters would be expanded upon, and how much more awesome the fights would get. And... would it be too harsh to say that it basically failed on most of that criteria?

Okay, yeah it would. But still, the reason this review took so long to come out is because I found this season to be a chore to get through. I still had a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but it was a far cry from the excitement and investment I experienced in the first season. Where exactly did Symphogear G go wrong? Well, let's dive into that now.

Once again, this review will be spoiler-free for any who haven't seen the show yet.

Plot:

What is Senshi Zesshou Symphogear G about?

After the events of the first season, Hibiki, Tsubasa and Chris along with the DRS are working with the esteemed Dr. Ver to preserve Solomon's Cane, a device that Finé used to summon Noise. However, it is soon revealed that the doctor is evil, and working with a terrorist organization known as Federal Institutes of Sacrist (FIS), and with Solomon's Cane in their possession, they now have control of the Noise.

On top of that, three new Symphogear users appear, only they are working on the side of FIS. The leaders of the three, Maria Cadenzavna Eve, claims to be the new reincarnation of Finé's soul, and she also possesses a dark version of Gungnir, Hibiki's Symphogear. With such a formidable ally, FIS demands that the world's governments relinquish all control to them, lest they unleash the Noise upon them in an all-out assault.

How will our heroes stop this new global threat? And why are a group of Gear users working for the enemy?

At first, I thought the plot had a lot of intrigue and potential. While the first episode didn't grab me by the balls like Season 1 Episode 1 did, I was still interested to learn about the villainous Gear users and how the enemy's nefarious schemes would unfold. Unfortunately, if I could describe the execution of said plot in a single word, it would be "unbalanced."

Basically, the first half of G had great character and plot setup, but I found the fights somewhat lacking. Then, by episode 8, the fights had returned to their usual epicness and badassery, but the plot and characters had taken a turn for the worst.

Whereas Season 1 felt like it was continuous building and building with each episode, stuff just... happens in Symphogear G. Characters motivations are set up, but either forgotten or completely changed halfway through the show. It honestly felt like the writers were making G's story up as they went along.

The issues I had with Season 1's story are present here as well, in that the villain's motivation is incredibly confusing and not made 100% clear until the last couple of episodes. FIS's main goal is to save humanity from the Moon, which will soon crash into the Earth due to the damage it endured from Finé. However, they go about this by... killing people? I understand innocent bloodshed is necessary in most evil "save the world" schemes, but is this really the best way to convince the rest of the world that you're here to help?

Either I'm just really dumb, or Symphogear just isn't very good at explaining things.

Another thing that bothered me about this season was the usage of Swan Songs. In Symphogear G, there's not one, but TWO methods that allow Gear users to sing their Swan Songs without dying. "Tension? Consequences? WhAt ThE hElL aRe ThOsE?!"

However, the worst part about this confused and structurally unbalanced plot is how it affects the character development.

Characters:

I'm going to cover the three lead characters and Miku very briefly (cause there honestly isn't much to talk about) so we can discuss the new characters in more detail.

Remember how I praised Hibiki in Season 1 for being a flat character done right? Well, in G, the writers attempted to give Hibiki somewhat of an arc by having the villains call her a "hypocrite." At first, I was intrigued as to what they meant by this. Then, there was a point where Hibiki went Berserk again, and I figured "Oh, they mean that because she can't control her Gear, she's a danger to the people she's trying to protect!" Nope. Once Hibiki returns to normal, she never goes Berserk again, and her plot becomes about her dealing with the Gungnir fragments slowly killing her from the inside. Soooo... why is she a hypocrite again? An excellent question! ...that's never answered. Weak.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Tsubasa in Season 1, finding her over-the-top EDGE a bit too much for my taste. However, I will give credit that she at least had an arc. In G, she does absolutely nothing. She has no arc, no motivation, and contributes nothing to the plot (thankfully her strict, yet compassionate personality is left untouched). I initially thought she would have some conflict with Maria, given that the two had a bit of a standoff in Episode 1, with Tsubasa angry at Maria for possessing Kanade's Gear. Much like Hibiki's Berserk Mode, though, this conflict was never expanded upon or brought up again, relegating Tsubasa to a glorified background character.

Chris was my favorite character in Season 1, with her fiery tsundere personality and redemption arc. But much like Tsubasa, she suffered the fate of being pushed to the sidelines. Chris started out in a tough spot, transferring into Hibiki and Tsubasa's school and bearing little to no social skills. This new environment throws her for a loop, especially when a group of her classmates try to befriend her. I interpreted this as Chris not only struggling with social anxiety due to her hatred of people in Season 1, but also still harboring some guilt over her actions and not feeling worthy of friendship or care whatsoever. Okay, fair enough.

Well guess what else the writers forgot about?! 🤪

And alas, let's talk about Miku...... Oh my sweet little angel, what have they done to you??? Miku was the heart and soul of Season 1; she was Hibiki's emotional support; her Sun that warmed her whenever she felt dark. In G, she's just useless. The writers, like Hibiki, try to give her an arc (that doesn't start till episode 6...) where she wants to protect Hibiki from the Gungnir killing her. The way the writers execute this promising arc, however, is nothing short of insulting. Long story short, she fails to protect Hibiki in any single way. Instead, Hibiki ends up being the one still protecting her. Good job, Symphogear G.

With all that out of the way, I can FINALLY move onto something more positive. While I may not like what G did with the protagonists, the same cannot be said for the villains. These people are what made this season enjoyable to me.

Maria Candenzavna Eve

Maria is objectively the best character of the season. I really don't see how anyone could argue otherwise. She has a gut-wrenching backstory, a clearly defined motivation, and every action she takes, while not always the most logical, makes sense to how she is feeling at the time.

Maria's sister, Serena, who was also a Gear user, used her Swan Song to save FIS from an out-of-control experiment. Immediately following this, the scientists berated the deceased Serena for destroying something they had put so much work in. Maria was enraged by the idea that they would do this to someone, a child nonetheless, who had just sacrificed her life for them. However, instead of retaliating and seeking revenge on FIS for this, Maria dedicates her actions to protecting human lives so that Serena's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. And unlike the rest of FIS, she actually goes out of her way to avoid killing anyone! Of course, she eventually learns the hard way that saving everyone may be an impossibility...

Also, she gets one of the most adrenaline-pumping and yet emotional fights, accompanied by her kickass battle song, which is probably my favorite of the entire series now.

Kirika Akatsuki

Hot-blooded, cheerful, and insistent on ending every sentence with "I say!" Kirika is nothing short of a joy to watch. She's a welcome entry in the villain faction, which desperately needed someone lighthearted to counteract the dead sister angst. Of course, this doesn't mean she's is without her own conflicts.

Kirika's main drive is, aside from saving the innocent, protecting her girlfriend best friend Shirabe. She's constantly trying to cheer her up cold-hearted friend and remind her that what they're doing is the right thing. However, this protective instinct leads to a discovery that changes her for the worst, and the rest of the show is her tragic and slow descent into madness, leading to a heartbreaking scene in the final battle that left me going "damn, they went there."

Kirika's Gear is cool enough, but not my favorite. It's mostly just a scthye and boomerangs, making it not much different from Tsubasa's Gear. Or at least, her Gear isn't as impressive as our next antagonist...

Shirabe Tsukuyomi

Cold, distant, but ruthless in combat (beware the quite ones), Shirabe is a great foil to her lover friend Kirika, or "Kiri-chan" as she likes to call her. One could say that Shirabe is an emotionless husk, but as the story plays out we learn that, like most tsunderes, this is merely a mask to hide how much she cares for the people around her. She harbors a deep respect and admiration for Maria and an unbreakable bond with Kirika.

Shirabe bears a strong resentment towards Hibiki, being the one to drill home the fact that she's a "hypocrite" (for reasons I'm still not hugely clear on...). She believes that FIS is the only hope humanity has for survival. Of course, once her idol, Maria, starts to lose sight of this goal, Shirabe becomes conflicted, and starts to question which side is right. I love it when villains don't know which path to take. Such delicious angst! 😬

As much as I love Chris' Gear, Shirabe's may just be my new favorite. Her pigtails transform into mechanical arms with sawblades! She can spawn a giant sawblade to ride around on like a giant wheel! She can turn into a giant robot with sawblades for arms! Y'know, I'm starting to think I like saw-based weapons...

Professor Nastassja

My only complaint about this character is that no one ever made fun of her name.

Prof. Nastassja, or "Mom" as Maria, Kirika and Shirabe call her, is the serious, straightforward thinking mastermind of FIS's operations. She was there when Serena died in front of Maria, and after seeing her determination to protect people, she decided to push Maria towards their ultimate goal of "saving" mankind from the Moon crashing. Thankfully, this woman actually has a head on her shoulders, and comes to realize that killing people probably isn't the best way to save them (who'da thunk?) and thus sets out on a path of redemption. Damn, what's with villains this season realizing that they might be wrong? I love it!

Of course, on the deep end of the villains spectrum, we have the only one who doesn't realize the error of his ways...

Dr. Ver

Just a sample of the many amazing faces this guys makes.

Everyone loves a good psychopath. And oh boy, does this guy really underline the "psycho" part of that word. Constantly laughing manically, making theatrical gestures, spawning Noise with an itchy trigger finger, and declaring loud and proud that HE is the hero of this story. I could watch him for hours.

While Dr. Ver's motivation does stem from FIS's overly convoluted plot, he makes it very clear that he has his own agenda. He may claim he strives for the salvation of humanity, but his actions say otherwise. And that's why he's so great. He doesn't have a complex backstory or a redemption arc. He's just evil through and through and he loves every minute of it. As Alfred once said to Bruce Wayne: "Some men just want to watch the world burn." 😈

Alright, that's all the new characters out of the way. Time to move onto my favorite section before I wrap things up...

Yuri:

The yuri content this season was, like the rest of it, a mixed bag. The best way I can sum it up is that it took one giant leap forward, and another giant leap back.

First and foremost, our star couple of the show: HibiMiku. Or they would be the star of the show if they had more screentime. Yeah, G really did this couple dirty. They don't even hold a conversation together until Episode 6! And then they throw in the whole conflict of Miko wanting to protect Hibiki. I guess the writers were relying on the sentiment they'd built on HibiMiku from the last season, but I feel like the two could've have at least TALKED about Miku not wanting Hibiki to fight before throwing her into the action. There was one scene twowards the end with the two of them that really got me in the feels, but it was hardly enough to make up for the whole lot of nothing we got from the rest of the season.

Second, we have the two that ultimately saved the yuri content in G: KiriShira. They look good together? Check. Complimenting personalities? Check. Emotional support? Check. Each character has their own motivation and arc outside of their relationship? Check. These two are not only absolutely adorable together, but unlike HibiMiku, which is more implied (even though there shouldn't be any doubt they're dating), KiriShira actually gets a love confession! I haven't seen that in a magical girl show since Sailor Moon Crystal when Hotaru confessed to Chibi-Usa! I'll have to see more of these two before I can say for sure, but I might actually prefer KiriShira to HibiMiku at this point. Gonna have to see how the rest of the series plays out!

Conclusion:

Symphogear G is a considerable step down from Season 1 in my opinion. While I absolutely adore the antagonists and love (MOST) of the yuri content we got, the story and protagonists just didn't do it for me this time around, which is a shame considering how much I liked them in Season 1. The fight scenes in the first couple of episodes were less than impressive, which had me nervous, but they thankfully stepped up towards the end, delivering one hell of a climactic finale.

Also, I'm not gonna lie, the final episode got me choked up.

I may have been to hard on this season when I started this review. Despite my numerous issues, I still enjoyed myself throughout and I am looking forward to the next season. I sincerely hope my issues with the plot and protagonists are rectified because I do love this series. What's done well in G is really good, but what fails in G really fails. Oh well, not every season of a franchise can be a masterpiece. I'm just praying that it's all uphill from here. 🙏

Rating: 6/10

Hope you all enjoyed! I'll see you in my review of Symphogear GX, my fellow yuri lovers! ❤️😊❤️

[theeeveetamer]

Extended Three Houses Thoughts

I’m about two chapters from the end of the Blue Lions route but I do have some extended thoughts on the game that I wanted to type up and share before I get back to it. Spoilers below the cut, in case that wasn’t obvious.

So first off I want to say that I have far more positive things to say about this game than negatives, but I do think this game has some negatives. These aren’t in any particular order I just kind of typed them as I thought of them.

I feel like a lot of what this game does was in direct response to Fates. There was a lot of swinging the pendulum back in very noticeable ways, and for the most part I think that’s a good thing.

The seriously slimmed down cast, for one. I was kind of surprised and a little worried when I first picked up the game and I found out that each house only had about seven core characters, but I like it. Fates had too many characters, and most of the time they ended up being redundant. You had, what, eight fliers in Revelation including children, with at least five more characters potentially able to become fliers through their normal promotion paths? When, at most, you probably needed three. And some were significantly better than others, so obviously you went with those and the rest kind of rotted away in your barracks.

With Three Houses each character feels important. Since you can now train basically any character to be anything it also means you can have some fill specific niches. You can have Sylvain be a sword cavalry unit, and Dimitri be a lance cavalry unit, and Ingrid an axe cavalry unit if you want, drop their breaker skills on them, and they can all be useful and important on the same team.

The supports also feel more meaningful. Don’t get me wrong there’s still a lot of re-hashing of already covered territory (basically all of Dedue’s supports involve either cooking or the fact that he’s from Duscur, most of Ingrid’s revolve around wanting to be a knight or marriage contracts, etc.) but the fact that there’s less of them makes this feel like less of a problem. And it’s nice that, now, they don’t try to force every conversation into a C-B-A-S format. Some characters only have C-B, others have C-B-A-A+, etc. I think it makes sense. Not every character will be as close as others, and not all support conversation threads need three parts to be meaningful and impactful. Some need more, some need less. Trying to squish them in or stretch them out always hurt more than it helped.

That said, I’m a little disappointed there’s no match-making to be had. Everyone in this game gets brother-zoned/sister-zoned so fast it’s kind of comical. There are a few A supports that hint at feelings but you can’t actually make them S-support. Also, a character might indicate feelings for more than one other character in their A supports so it’s not definitive. Maybe there’s more once the game is finished, but within the actual main story there’s nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, it makes sense to me. As young teenagers in school there wouldn’t really be any reason for any of them to get married. I thought that might change after the time skip but it doesn’t. I don’t necessarily hate that it’s gone, it’s just a feature I enjoyed fucking around with in Awakening and Fates (and I was looking forward to, hopefully, more gay representation. I was really hoping that they might allow characters to be gay for each other and not just the Avatar character, especially since they included so many lesbian options this time around. But alas, maybe next game).

The exclusion of child characters was a good call. Barring the fact that the exclusion of S-Supports would automatically exclude child characters, I still think it was a good call. Unless the game had a significant time skip (15+ years) then they just wouldn’t have made sense. They worked in Awakening because the central narrative included time travel, but they didn’t work at all in Fates. The narrative only had tentative connections to the “multi-verse/multiple realities” thing. And, let’s be real, it’s fucking weird to have kids walking around that are the same damn age as their parents (and parents that didn’t look a day older than 17). In Fates they’d just needlessly ballooned up the cast of a game that was already way too big anyways. If they did it then they needed to do it like Genealogy, where the main cast was essentially replaced by their children instead of strapped onto the game alongside them.

I was worried that Fate’s poor handling of them meant the series was doomed to include them regardless of relevance. Glad I was wrong on that one.

The calendar progression is pretty cool, as is walking around the monastery. It was pretty fun to run around and figure out where each character liked spending their time, which characters interacted with which, etc. I’m always a fan of a little flavor text and having each character say a few lines about current events was really cool and helped give each one a little more personality. The more structured pace of things makes sense for the school environment. Though it does take out some of the urgency when the mission is “FIND FLAYN IMMEDIATELY” and then you have to wait until the end of the month anyways to do it. But for other things, like a mission to march on enemy territory, it makes sense (your entire army isn’t ready to go immediately, there’s preparations that need done).

The designs of the characters themselves were pretty well done. I especially appreciate how they toned down a lot of the sexualization that Fates became pretty famous for. And considering basically all of these characters are between 15-18 all I can say is THANK GOD. Even their aged up versions don’t seem too bad, though I’ve only really seen the Lions (because I was dumb and didn’t recruit very aggressively).

I’m still NOT a fan of this “silent” protagonist thing. It just makes some of the cut scenes and dialogue sections feel really disconnected and awkward. From what I can tell a lot of your dialogue choices don’t particularly matter, anyways. You only have two options, and for the most part they have the same meaning (”You shouldn’t talk that way!” versus “I wish you would calm down.”)  and the character you’re talking to responds the same way regardless of your choice. Or you pick between two different options (”Tell me about the officer’s academy” and “Tell me about the church”) and the characters proceed to explain both anyways.

I think the biggest issues I have with this come from the fact that the game itself is fully voice acted. I think Three Houses fell into the same problem that Breath of the Wild did. Dropping a character that never speaks aloud into a cast of characters that are fully and beautifully voiced feels unnatural. I think they had two options here: Either go back to what they did with Fates (No full voice acting, just some lines spoken here and there) or they needed to have Byleth fully voice acted. After Echoes did full voice acting I really don’t think they would have been able to go back without some serious backlash. 

Personally I would have preferred it if Byleth were fully voice acted but they got rid of some of the dialogue “options”. They don’t feel like a meaningful feature, it’s just a thin veneer so they can say they had dialogue options, because that’s what every other game on the market is doing. Part of me wonders if they did this as a response to the Corrin hate after Fates. It’s hard to hate a character when you pick all of their dialogue, right? If that is the case, then they clearly didn’t understand why people hated Corrin so much.

Overall I don’t really feel any connection or attachment to Byleth. That might just be me, though. The three “lords” of the game are clearly meant to be the main focus, especially when it comes to character development. Maybe I’ll change my mind on that after I beat the game.

That said, thank fuck they toned down the avatar hero worship. Circling back a little bit, I just feel like the character of Byleth is handled much better than Corrin. It’s kind of unfortunate that Awakening, Fates, and Three Houses kind of have this avatar hero-worship vibe to them but if we’re going to have to live with it then I guess I’ll explain myself.

In Awakening the hero worship worked. Robin was, essentially, a brilliant tactician that brought a lot of success to Ylisse’s army. There were at least a few characters that were initially wary of Robin, but they were treated respectfully by the story and it’s presented as though they are just exercising a healthy amount of caution.

In Three Houses the hero worship works. It feels much less like worship and more like genuine respect and admiration. Byleth is a professor and a mentor to these young people so it makes sense. There are a few that were initially skeptical of him/her (which is totally justified in the story because Byleth appears to be barely older than them with zero teaching experience) but they come around after Byleth’s skill is demonstrated to them throughout Part 1. The only character I’d say seems to blindly worship Byleth is Rhea, and that’s justified because she clearly knows something about the main character that no one else does.

In Fates the hero worship was excessive. Corrin as a character is nothing really special. He/She isn’t particularly intelligent or particularly skilled at anything. The most you could say is that Corrin is probably supposed to be charismatic (since every character falls at their feet the second they meet) but Corrin doesn’t feel charismatic to me. They have multiple characters that seem to exist for the sole purpose of worshiping the ground they walk on (Camilla, Ryoma, Sylas, Jakob, Felicia, etc.), to the point that I felt it ruined otherwise interesting characters (Camilla mainly). Any character that doesn’t immediately worship Corrin is either forced to come around, brainwashed by the big bad and turned into a villain, or just wanted to love Corrin so much but circumstances made it impossible so they had to be evil. I could make an entire post about how much I hate Corrin but I’ll stop it here since this is supposed to be about Three Houses.

So considering where they were coming from... Byleth is fine. I don’t know if I like them more than Robin, but I definitely like them more than Corrin. I’ll feel more definitively about them after I’ve finished the game and played some of the other routes.

They re-use maps in this game. A lot. I noticed it pretty quickly about five chapters in, but IMO it’s a serious problem that this game never quite seems to shake. If the battle is in a city, they pick one of two city maps. If it’s in a forest they’ve got one of three forest maps. And I’m not complaining about Auxiliary battles because I only did a handful of those (and they always reuse maps for those, even in Fates and Awakening). I’m talking about main story and paralogue mission maps.

Sometimes they have a unique map (like the tomb/catacombs) but it invariably comes back later for a paralogue or another main mission. Sometimes it comes back less than two chapters after it first appeared (the monastery fight right before the time skip and then defending the monastery two chapters after the time skip.) I could understand if they re-used maps across different routes (because Fates did the same thing), but so far I’ve only been in one route and it’s the same maps over and over.

Finally, I have no idea how I’m going to survive playing this game two (three?) more times. I mean, I like it. It’s fun. But it took me like 40 hours just to complete one route I have no idea how I’m going to do all three (possibly four, since I’ve been told the eagles route can be different depending on if you side with the church or not).

[mel-animeland]

Back in March, I wrote a post for the “Squad” OWLS tour, the prompt was about friendship and as support for the topic, I decide to go with the anime and manga series, Seraph of the End (Owari no Serafu). I decided focus the post on Guren to show what one can do for their friend(s), even if they shouldn’t be friend with them in first place.

I have to say, I really enjoyed writing this post, not only cause I love the series, but also because of what Guren was ready to do for his friend, in fact, more I was writing the post, more I was liking him and seeing him under a new light (I still have trouble to fully trust him tho)

I was almost done with the post when I thought of and other series I could have used for the March tour. The series I was thinking about, portrayed a really different kind of friendship than seen in Seraph of the End.

The series I’m thinking about is K-Project, the focus would have been on the relation between Fushimi and Yata. The more I was thinking Fushimi and Yata, the more I wanted to write about what happened between them and why their friendship ended the way it ended.

K-Project also simply known as K is an original anime series, produced by the studio GoHand (Hand Shakers), counting two seasons and a movie (starting from July 2018, seven other movies will be release) different manga and light novel. The first season, aired from October 2012 to December 2012, the second season title K: Return of Kings aired from October 2015 to December 2015. The movie was released between the two seasons in July 2014. To know more about the K franchise, you can visit the Wikia fan page. This post gonna be mainly based on the information found in the manga “Lost Small World” which follow the story of Fushimi and Yata from before they joined Homra until they part away.

GoRa

The manga gonna get a movie adaptation that will be presented in -Japanese – theaters on October 6th (from all the K Seven Stories coming out it’s the one I’m looking forward the most.)

After talking about it with my really good friend Zel from ARCHI-ANIME, she said that I should still write a post about it and since I’m a really good friend, I’m listening to her.

So here we are, after a long introduction, my thought on the relationship between Fushimi and Yata.

** As always the post will or might contains spoilers **

************

What do we know about the relation between Fushimi and Yata, if we only take in consideration the anime series?

On one side, Fushimi seems quite enjoying pissing-off Yata and on the other Yata thinki Fushimi is traitor and cannot be trusted (which is not too far from the true since Fushimi left/defected the Red Clan to join a rival clan).

This is what we can understand from the anime, of course thing change a little bit between them toward the end of the second season, but for the most of the series Fushimi is seen teasing Yata and Yata reply with his flame.

This is what the series show us, however, there was a time where both were really close friend, they were what we would call best friend.

So why they aren’t best friend anymore? Why Fushimi left, betray, the Red Clan and Yata for the Blue Clan and Munataka?

First off, you need to know their friendship didn’t had a solid foundation since the beginning, the reason why Fushimi and Yata became friend is because the former was craving for attention and the latter was giving him this attention. Between you and me, this doesn’t make a really solid base, cause soon as one or the other change their surroundings, thing stop being the way they were before. In the present case, when Yata and Fushimi joined the Red Clan (I have to say Yata was way more thrilled about it than Fushimi), Yata got a new group of friend, new interests. Yata always been the friendly type, an idiot that need a lot of explanation, but he was always friendly with a kind of child’s innocence. Fushimi never really find his place in the Red Clan, it wasn’t his idea and always thought they were better off without them, they didn’t need those rascal in their life. More days they were passing with the Red Clan furthers was drifting away Yata from Fushimi, Yata fitted in the group and he was always in adoration in front of the Red King, Suoh Mikoto, the very cool blazing king. This adoration Fushimi was once the object, he was slowly losing him, this attention he craved so much for wasn’t his anymore.

Fushimi needed it, he needed to be noticed, acknowledged. He needed someone to look at him like if he was the coolest guy of Japan, the smartest of the planet. He needed because no one in his family never gave him. His mom was always more interested in her company than in her son well-being, Fushimi always referred to “This man wife” when talking about his mother and for her he was only “Niki’s son”

His father, Fushimi Niki, wasn’t better, in fact he was worse than her, he was barely at home and when he was, he was making sure to torment his son. Niki was an intelligent man coming from a wealthy family, but alas money and intelligence doesn’t make him a competent father. If he named his son Saruhiko it’s because the first time he saw him not long after his son birth, Niki said that he was ugly and looked like a monkey (Saru means monkey in japanese) just to tell you how he was seeing his son (and as a really good mom, Saruhiko’s mother just laugh telling her husband he was right).

I can give you a more concrete example of how twisted his father was.

One day little Saruhiko was examining an anthill, for a school project, he was fascinated by it. Seeing how much his son was enjoying watching the anthill, Niki decide to pour fuel in it and set it on fire in front of his toddler son…great father right. I can also tell you about that one time little Saruhiko wanted to race against his father to solve a Rubik’ Cube, Saruhiko finished quickly and look at his father proud of himself thinking his father would have done the race with him, however, Niki never solved the cube puzzle instead he waited for his son to finish his cube, looked at him and break the cube apart while smiling.

Niki always took pleasure in destroying what Saruhiko cared about.

Little Saruhiko learnt the hard way that everything that he loved can be destroyed.

His family was clearly dysfunctional, he never really had friend, how one can develop social aptitude when he is ignored or psychological tortured by the people who should have taught him how to socialize with the people around him, his parents. Saruhiko was relief when his father died, Saruhiko go see him at the hospital, he screamed his anger at the corpse. Yata had to stop him cause he was about to go out of control. That was the effect Niki had on his son. Even after his death, he was still tormenting Saruhiko. He was still seeing him in his dreams (nightmare is more appropriate), he was hallucinating him, he even saw him through his smartphone (until Munataka come in and hinted Saruhiko his phone had a virus, virus sent by Aya his cousin)

His familial background made him asocial, preferring the company of computer than human being, during his middle school days, Fushimi was passing more time locked in the toilet stall with his own computer program than in class. And that is where he met Yata. (no wonder their relation became like shit…)

Yata Misaki didn’t really have a great life either before Fushimi, but it was still better than his friend. While he didn’t came from a wealthy family, he came from a loving one, his mother was remarried, but his step-sibling loved him and he was a caring big brother. Yata always been pretty friendly and easy-going, however he was also not the smartest tool of the shed. He state it himself, he is an idiot that need to have thing repeated and explained to him more than once before he get it. This also made him a little bit naive, there is time that people pretend to be his friend for later just throw him away, which affect him. He might have come from a pretty normal family, but Yata was still looking for friends he could trust and a place where he could belong.

He found the first when he met Fushimi in the bathroom stall of their school (fanfic material here) Fushimi was playing a game involving calculation and Yata was pretty amazed about that Starting from there, they boy start to hang out together and eventually they became best friend, they were always together and they both decide to not go in high-school, they found a place to live, not a great place, but it was their place, a place where they both belong, where they talk, talk about taking over the world.

Thing could have stayed like that and their friendship would have remained unchanged, however one day they cross the path of the Red Clan and his King, Mikoto and few days laters That Yata had to beg the Red King to protect his best friend. This day Yata wanted to find a way to be able to not rely on other, he wanted to be stronger, that is why he reach the Red Clan, and Fushimi just tag along. To this day, I still have the feeling Yata never really planned to join the clan, but after receiving the Homra mark, he felt like he finally had found that place he had been looking for.

Quickly, Yata made friend with the other member of the group. While Yata was making his place within the Red Clan, Fushimi looked from afar wondering why Mikoto was so incredible, not only he was slowly losing the attention Yata was giving him, but for the other clan member, Fushimi didn’t had something special, they wasn’t acknowledging for what he could to, Fushimi didn’t had any purpose within the Red Clan. Fushimi never felt like he was belonging to this place, a place where his best friend was happy, where he could be happy with him he doubted that he was at the right place, the Homra sign on his chest was painful which shouldn’t normally be and he was scared of Mikoto. Yata and Fushimi was slowly drifting apart, and thing become harder for the old friend.

Fushimi realize that Yata wasn’t the same anymore, at least in his eyes, when the latter stopped being there for him. Fushimi is not the type who would open up easily, so if he need to talk about so matter, like the scary hallucinations he had of his deceased father, his friend should have been ready to listen to him, however it wasn’t the case, Yata was more busy talking about how awesome the Red Clan and Mikoto was than paying attention to Fushimi, he never realized once the one he used to call best friend needed him to be by side. Of course Fushimi always wanted to monopolize Yata attention that what he needed since he never had it before.

Yata always lacked of discernment not being able to read the mood, now don’t get me wrong I don’t blame Yata for what happened between them, Fushimi was also in the wrong for not trying to talk more to him, Fushimi knew how Yata was, he was already like that when they were in middle school. Yata Misaki always been a little bit pushy, no matter how many time Fushimi tried to push him away, the chestnut-haired boy always came back without taking in consideration how Fushimi was feeling, Yata is not the type to listen other. despite the fact that at first Fushimi was annoyed by that, slowly he came to accept Yata presence and stop to push the one who will become his best friend away. Fushimi knew Yata wasn’t able to read the situation however there was time his friend could figure out what was going on with is own process of thinking and there was time he hit the middle of the target. The one time Fushimi had wished Yata would get by himself that his friend needed his help, Yata didn’t and I think it affected Fushimi more than he let it appear. However Fushimi being Fushimi, he said nothing to make himself to be understood and pushed Yata away one last time, thinking he didn’t need him anymore. Fushimi was bitter, Yata wasn’t the one he use to be, they weren’t talking about taking over the world anymore, Yata was all about Homra a group where Fushimi didn’t fit in, a group where Fushimi never tried to fit in. Yata is surely not the only one to blame for what happened between them, Fushimi also have his part of responsibilities for not speaking earlier to Yata, for not telling him how he felt.

By pushing Yata away, Fushimi didn’t had anything to tie him back to the Red Clan, plus Munataka, the Blue King saw the potential the young man had and offer him to join his clan instead. At first Fushimi wasn’t sure of the choice he should make, however he saw in the Blue clan something he needed, something the Red clan didn’t gave him, acknowledgement. Munataka would give Fushimi a reason to use his skill and purpose in life a d place where he could belong. All the thing Mikoto and the Red clan could give to Fushimi, Munataka and the Blue clan would give it to him.

As you can guess, Yata didn’t welcome the news with his usual cheerful attitude and it didn’t took long for him to call the one who was his best friend a traitor. Fushimi burned the mark he had on the chest mocking Yata and his pride.

Fushimi and Yata friendship was probably bound to be broken, it didn’t have a stable foundation like communication or mutual understanding, both were polar opposite. While Fushimi never missed a chance to piss-off Yata, in the end he still cared about his old friend and former clan, finding information for them. The one of the thing Fushimi was scared of, was to become like his father, however Yata told him that it will never happen since Fushimi had something his father, Niki, didn’t had, a conscience and in his “ book he was straight up guy”

I know my title include the words broken friendship, however while their friendship was indeed broken for some years, in the end they made up and start a new  when Fushimi finally decide to talk to Yata about what happened

  Friendship are important in a person life, friend are there when the family is not, they are there to support you, this is why they need to be chosen and once you get them you need to nourish this friendship and make sure it never wither.

It wasn’t an OWLS post, but it could have been one, hope you enjoyed the read, cause I really enjoyed writing it.

Once again thank to my fabulous friend Zel for pushing me to write this post.

~ Thank you for Reading ~

The Tale of a Broken Friendship Between a Monkey and a Crow Back in March, I wrote a post for the “Squad” OWLS tour, the prompt was about friendship and as support for the topic, I decide to go with the anime and manga series, …

[aoi-mikazuki]

The Briefest of Reunions

Huge spoilers for DGS1 and 2, but I wanted old people love and reminiscing so here is my contribution... >>;

Also on AO3 if shorter chapters are your jam.

SPOILER SPACE

Title: The Briefest of Reunions

Series: Dai Gyakuten Saiban

Words: 5,765

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/Mikotoba Yuujin

Chapter 1 - The Train Ride

"I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw Miss Susato on that ship, you know," Holmes suddenly blurted as he sat at his desk hunched over his fancy instruments.

"Hm?" I looked up from my book and over the back of the settee I was lazily reclining on. The children had all retired for the night, and I had been hoping to finish this last chapter before I headed up to bed myself. But alas, I could see that my relatively relaxed evening was not meant to be.

"She looks just like her mother," my friend continued, lowering his goggles into position on his face, "though she has your eyes."

I had, on a few occasions, shown a picture of my dear, departed wife to Holmes during our six years together, but to think that he still remembered her face ten years on was remarkable; the man could barely remember what had happened on a case an hour after the fact and yet he had identified Susato with ease, it seems.

Then again, one should never underestimate Holmes's capacity to remember things -- especially those even tangentially related to me -- is something I learned about him relatively early on. He had always chalked it up to his keen powers of observation, yet, I daresay it was more due to a combination of his youthful spirit and a keen personal interest in me.

It was 16 years ago that I first met the then 18-year-old Sherlock Holmes. I was only 27 myself back then, and though I was a rather privileged and well-educated man back in Japan, it was something of an eye-opener to travel with the intent of living in an entirely different country -- I was suddenly intensely aware of how very small and very ignorant I was here among a people and a society with a set of rules all of their very own. Suddenly, all of the book-learning I had done felt very inadequate indeed in preparing me for my new adventure half-way around the world, so it was a godsend that I had met a young man who was willing to share his home with me and acquaint me with different people of all stations of life.

As with most people he encountered, Holmes instantly struck me as a strange and curious fellow, and perhaps that is what drew me to him in the first place. From the poorest of the poor up to the noblest of the noble, the man had a way with every soul in London, it seemed. I had initially assumed that this was a perfectly normal state of affairs for the average British gentleman, but I soon grew to see that he is actually a most singularly peculiar specimen among his countrymen. His strange mannerisms, raucous laughter, and ridiculous theatrics endeared him to the masses, but his intellect and deductive reasoning were what made him a necessity to the upper elites. But none of that seemed to matter to him, for I never saw him with anyone I would label as a "friend".

That is, until a little under a year after we’d first met. We were on a train traveling back to London after a most thrilling chase through the English countryside when we hit upon the topic of how we should celebrate yet another great success.

*********

"Let's go out -- just you and me! A night on the town!" Holmes proposed.

I laughed at that, my slightly larger frame bouncing in time with the train as it leaned into a curve in the tracks.

"I'm too old to be running around piss drunk like a teenager, Holmes. And you know how I feel about 'female entertainers' and brothels in general."

"That I do, but you still never gave me a good reason why."

"Does a man need to have a reason to decline the company of certain persons in this country?" I rebutted. I was beginning to sense that Holmes was going to try to push that topic again today.

Holmes stared at me from his seat across the cabin, making observations and filing the information away for future reference. I released a small sigh in response.

The Western custom of casually sharing one's personal life with strangers and friends alike is something I continue to find rather odd, and the expectation that I should divulge such similar information about myself to others still seems immensely invasive to me. Yet in the year of our acquaintance, Holmes had proven himself to be a trustworthy flatmate.

I ran my hands over my face to clear my mind and buy myself some time. I needed to phrase things in such a way as to satisfy his immediate curiosity without opening the door wide enough for him to barge right on through to ask gods know what else.

Placing one hand on each thigh, I leaned forward and looked Holmes in the eyes. "I know I haven't shared very much of myself with you, Holmes, but I... I’m actually still in mourning. My wife passed away in childbirth, you see... and I..."

In my mind's eye, I saw my wife's pained face as she slipped away from me -- me, a medically trained doctor who was powerless to stop her rapid decline. The piercing cries of our new baby girl grew muffled in my ears as my mind focused solely on the woman in front of me.

"Ayame... Please..." I had pleaded then, as my eyes darted around furiously, searching for the source of the bleeding. I scrambled and tried to find a tear, a rip -- anything -- but it was like dowsing for water in the middle of the bloody ocean. Precious minutes passed like seconds, and eventually, my wife reached down to me and lifted my face up to meet hers.

"Yujin," she had said though a pained smile. "I am counting on you to raise our daughter now."

"No, we'll raise her together...!" I answered in denial. But she knew me, and gave me one last parting request.

“Please take good care of Susato for me.”

And then, she was gone.

"...kotoba! Mikotoba!" The force of Holmes shaking me snapped me out of my reverie and back into the train cabin.

"I-I'm sorry, I appear to have..."

Holmes gave a flourish of his hand. "No need to apologize. I assume you were transported back to that moment?"

I nodded in affirmation.

"I see," Holmes states. "So..." he started, "you have a child then?"

I nod again. "A daughter. Her name is Susato."

"And yet you are here with me in jolly ol' England?" he questioned.

"Holmes, don't..."

"You... didn't come all this way just to escape your responsibilities, did you?" he said with one eyebrow cocked as he drew ever closer. Uncomfortably so, even.

"I wasn't-- I'm not trying to escape my responsibilities!" I answered indignantly. And yet, he was right. I had come to escape something, but I decided that the sordid details could wait for another day.

His eyes lit up for a second, and I knew he had made some deduction in that short span of time. But he quickly hid it.

He moved to sit next to me, his long right leg against my left -- the man really had no concept of personal space -- but when he reached out to grab my left hand with his own, I pulled it towards my chest instinctively. His hand was quicker and he caught it mid-air and laid it over my heart, holding it there. He slung his other arm around my neck, his hand reassuringly gripping my shoulder.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to impugn on your honor. But... just humor my curiosity for a second, Mikotoba."

A long moment of silence passed between us as I considered my options:

Push Holmes off and away from me and switch to another topic

Ask him to extricate himself from me and then switch to another topic

Talk with him like a goddamned adult

I breathed in and steeled myself for what I knew I needed to do.

"You've probably already deduced that there is more to my story, but..."

"But...?"

"I'm sorry, my friend." The word "friend" couldn't have felt more right just then. "But I'm afraid your curiosity will have to go unfulfilled for now."

Holmes was strangely silently next to me. Perhaps I had been too forward, or perhaps he did not see me as a friend. I turned my head to see what was the matter. He seemed at once somber and yet, somehow, comically dejected.

"Ha ha! You are a tease, Mikotoba," he rebounded. "But I will get the truth out of you yet!"

I smiled back at the young detective. "I have no doubt you will, Holmes. But for now, I ask that you simply stay by my side."

"Isn't that what partners are for, Mikotoba? To be there for one another in times of need?" he gently said into my ear over the rattling and clanking of the train as it continued on towards home.

Chapter 2 - The Advertisement

Recalling the details of that train ride brought to mind another lady I couldn't save.

"...Is everything alright?" Holmes asked, concern in his voice. He had turned around and was now kneeling on his seat, facing backwards over the chair’s tall back. Holmes lowered his goggles to where it usually hung around his neck to get a better look at me.

"Ah, yes,” I started. “I was just remembering how I came to tell you about Ayame--"

"And it brought up memories of Lady Baskerville, right?" Holmes surmised.

"Yes," I replied, not the least bit surprised anymore by his ability to read me like an open book. "I can only wonder what she thought of me -- whether she honestly believed that this Japanese stranger would take care of her daughter, or if she had simply given herself over to me because she had no choice in the matter."

"But you explained yourself to her -- about how you came to know of her hiding place and your promise to Mr Genshin."

"I did, but she was delirious from blood-loss by that point. All I could do was help her finish delivering Iris and let her hold her child in her final moments." I squeezed my eyes shut in frustration. “What’s worse,” I continued, “is that I couldn’t even keep my promise to Genshin and I had to leave Iris in your care.”

Holmes looked at me as though I had just proffered him the world's most complex puzzle to solve.

"Mikotoba," he started cautiously, "to this day, do you really still doubt that you've been a good father?"

"...Sometimes."

"Is it because of me?"

I looked up at my partner. "...I can't tell Susato what really happened, Holmes. You know that."

Holmes gave a small sigh and put his head in his hands as he leaned on the back of his chair. "She's not a child anymore,” he said as he looked me straight in the eye. “Sooner or later she will find out. Especially given how much liberty you allow her."

"I am only allowing her to claim her full birthright as a human being. After seeing the different kind of freedoms women are allowed here, and far be it for me to be a hypocrite, I found myself unable to justify my ability to act as I wished while she was bound on all sides by social expectations."

“Or is the real truth that you feel guilty for not being around for her -- be it that you are always busy with your teaching, or research... or that you were gallivanting around solving cases with me half-way around the world for six years?”

“I...” Holmes’s words stung with the pain of truth, but while I was still reeling from his pointed observation, he had leapt up and over his chair to close the distance between us.

“Wake up, Mikotoba! And see how highly your daughter thinks of you!” he said. “It is you, and only you, that thinks you have done her harm.”

Holmes’s countenance softened for a second before he came around to sit by my side, trapping my legs between himself and the back of the settee.

"Just as I will have to explain the circumstances of her birth to Iris someday, Yujin, you should explain how it was you really came to England in the first place to your own daughter." Holmes reached out to clasp my hand.

"I know. I've left her in the dark for long enough."

Holmes was right, of course. Susato would find out in her own way someday, just as he had in his usual, persistent way one morning, not long after that fateful train ride.

*********

Holmes was reading the paper at the breakfast table again -- as he is still in the habit of doing -- with his meal in front of him lying wholly untouched. Yet, I could tell his mind wasn’t actually occupied with the paper, but rather, with me, as I sat on the other side of the table gently tapping the top of my egg open.

“Out with it, Holmes.”

I had no patience for his whimsical games today. I had a medical forum to attend, and before that, a train to catch.

“Nothing. I was merely scanning the personals and found an interesting listing.”

“You? An interesting listing? In the personals?” I laughed at the thought of Holmes finding anyone genuinely interesting. By this point in our relationship, I had been with him long enough to know that people were only as interesting as they were a source of puzzles and mysteries to solve. Otherwise, the ever-aloof Sherlock Holmes had little use for actual, intimate relationships.

“Indeed, for the comings and goings of society itself are reflected in these pages. One never knows when a particularly juicy piece of gossip may be the lead that cracks the case.”

“I suppose I’ve never thought of it that way,” I replied, dipping my toast into my not-quite-as-soft-as-I’d-hoped soft-boiled egg. My face scrunched up at the less than runny yolk. I knew there was a reason why I usually got up earlier than Holmes to make our breakfast.

“Here’s a fine example, Mikotoba: ‘Wanted: Male partner for a night of passion. Am willing to pay for transport, and utmost discretion.’ Now, what would you make of that?”

I felt myself slowly tense with each word of that infernal advertisement. Holmes had to know what he was doing, I thought. Curse the man’s inability to let things go until he’s solved the living daylights out of them.

“I’m afraid I must be going, Holmes,” I said as I ungracefully dropped the remnants of my toast on my plate.

“Fine,” he pouted. “But you will think on this listing and let me know your conclusions when you return?” he requested as I wiped my mouth with my napkin.

“Yes, yes, of course, my dear man,” I hastily replied as I checked for crumbs in my mustache on my way out of our drawing room. A quick glance back provided me with the picture of a close-eyed Holmes, deep in thought. Before anything further could transpire, I quickly shut the door, ran down the stairs, threw my coat on, and strode briskly out -- cane in hand -- into the mid-autumn air.

At the time, I had no intention of answering Holmes in any way whatsoever. What was private, was private. He had no right to pry, I thought. But as the day wore on, my mind kept drifting to my dear friend.

Surely a man with as many eccentricities as him could understand my plight without judgement. Not to mention, if he had indeed, already correctly deduced what my secret was, he had been more than generous in allowing me to stay on in our lodgings.

And so I resolved that should he ask for my opinion about the advertisement upon my return that night, I would do my best to be honest with him.

I arrived back at our lodging a little past seven, and found it to be empty.

“Holmes?” I called, but received no reply. On the arm of the settee was the paper from that morning, a giant red circle around a small block of text. I picked it up and read it for myself.

“‘Wanted: Male partner for a night of passion. Am willing to pay for transport, and utmost discretion,’ huh.”

I gave a long sigh, and wondered where Holmes had gone off to. If he was on one of his expeditions again, I feared what little courage I had scraped together would be lost by the time he returned.

I spent the rest of that evening reading, though honestly, I could hardly call what I did that. Rather, it was more akin to staring at a sea of English words with the more than occasional glance at my watch. At a quarter to eleven, I finally gave up all hope of seeing Holmes that night, so I placed my bookmark in its place and closed the book.

“Of all the days to be out, you had to pick the one in which I finally have something worthwhile to share.”

“Ah, then do feel free to share,” Holmes exclaimed as he twirled into our drawing room.

“Wh-Where have you been, Holmes?” I stuttered, bewildered at how my words had seemingly summoned him home somehow.

“My story can wait,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand, “while I suspect that yours cannot. Therefore, I request that you go first.”

“At this hour? And after you left me waiting for an entire evening?” A twinge of irritation slipped out of me. “I’m inclined to say that we should have to wait until tomorrow--”

“Un, un-un.” He tsked his finger at me. “I did ask that you provide me with your thoughts upon your return, did I not?”

I placed a hand on my forehead and looked down in defeat. I might as well get it over with, I thought.

“Well, then, I suppose I had best get on with it, haven’t I?”

Holmes took a seat in his chair and nodded, and urged me to continue. I took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.

“Let me just start by saying that it was an awful trick you played by placing that advertisement.”

“Ah, but how do you know it was me?” His eyes twinkled in mischief.

“You’re not the only one with deductive powers around here. I’ve gained quite a bit of insight into your methods by now, as you should know.”

“Quite right! Aha ha ha ha ha!” he laughed raucously, doubling over in amusement. “Well done, Mikotoba!” Holmes’s laugh subsided as he recovered into an upright position. “But I won’t be derailed so easily.”

“Very well. Where shall I start, then?”

“How about with why sleeping with a man compelled you to travel to the complete opposite end of the world when, unlike here in England, it has once again become perfectly legal to do so in Japan?”

Well. Let it never be said that Sherlock Holmes is the master of subtlety, I thought.

“Because,” I began, “as you are no doubt aware, I come from a country where honor and dignity is valued more than gold. And ever since Western culture began pouring into my home country, all of Japan has been most thoroughly taken in by your ideals and way of thinking. On the topic of human relations, a book titled ‘Psychopathia Sexualis’ by a Dr Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing has been quite influential, to say the least.”

“Ah, yes. The Germans have been rather vigorous in their pursuit of knowledge in the emerging field of sexology.”

“Then you are familiar with its underpinnings?” I inquired.

“Only that it seeks to explain anything outside of the everyman experience as perversion.”

“Yes, well, it got my own countrymen talking, and not wanting to be seen as closed-minded, perverse barbarians, I’m afraid that most people of my station in society and above have quickly turned their thinking around to match that of their European counterparts.”

There was a brief moment of silence as Holmes looked at me in all seriousness, the mirth gone from his eyes.

“And what about you, Mikotoba? As a medical man, does your thinking on the matter fall in line with those of your colleagues?”

I had never been asked to state so clearly my thoughts on such matters before, and I struggled to put them in some sort of order before I opened my mouth again.

“I... I must admit that I have a great deal of trouble reconciling the scientific literature with my own lived experiences, Holmes. It is hard to look back on more than a thousand years of Japanese culture and history and simply wave it all away as wanton perversion when truly beautiful relationships did emerge from such acts. Indeed, some of them have even endured the test of time through glorification in poems and art.”

Holmes nodded at me. “Which explains the lack of disgust on your own part at your rented liaison.”

I give a small sigh. Of course he would also quite correctly deduce that my partner was paid.

“Yes, he was slightly younger than me, and an actor of kabuki theater. Oh, Holmes, it wasn’t that he meant anything to me, though. I fear my act of indiscretion was the result of severe loneliness and grief.”

Holmes took my statement in and processed it as only he can. “Yet you chose a man. Why?”

“Ayame... She had only just passed. And I... I did not wish to dishonor her by replacing her with another woman so casually, or so soon. It is with greater shame that I reflect on my inability at the time to control myself and deal with my grief properly, and instead, succumbed to my emotions and need for another person’s touch.”

“Well, depression can do drastic things to a man, as you know by my own dark moods.” Holmes paused for a second before he continued on. “I think I have an idea of the shape of things now. Your family must have thought it best to use its clout to send you far away -- perhaps allowing you to regain your sanity by redirecting your focus to your professional studies and training here -- while they tried to repair any damage you may have brought onto yourself and your daughter’s reputations. Is that about the long and short of it?”

“Yes,” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Excellent. I’m glad we resolved that little issue. Now, on to the next!”

“N-Next?” I sputtered in Holmes’s direction as he got up and started for his room.

“Of course, my good man. Did you forget what I actually asked for your opinion on this morning?”

I thought back to my mad dash out of our drawing room earlier in the day and the truth of the matter began to dawn on me.

“The advertisement...”

“Correct!”

“Holmes... I’m flattered and honored to have your attention, but... I hardly know what to think right now.” I answered honestly. “If you would give me some time...”

“As much as you need, Mikotoba. As much as you need,” he said with a flourish. “Just don’t expect me to pay for your transportation fee when you do come around.”

“Wh-What transportation fee?! I live with you, Holmes!”

“Right, so you do! Aha ha ha ha ha!” His laughter continued down the hall as he walked through his bedroom door. “Good night, Mikotoba.” He tipped his finger against an imaginary hat and closed the door behind him.

“Good night, Holmes,” I replied lamely from my chair, alone in the drawing room.

Chapter 3 - Our Family

“You should explain how it was you really came to England in the first place to your own daughter.”

“I know. I've left her in the dark for long enough.”

Giving my dear Holmes’s hand a squeeze, I picked up my train of thought from where I had left off. “I just hope she can understand and forgive me for the time I’ve stolen from us as father and daughter.”

“I’m sure if you start at the beginning, she will,” Holmes reassured me with a warm smile on his lips.

“I suppose that means I’ll have to more fully explain how it is that you and I came to live together as well.”

"That’s right! She did seem as surprised as Mr Naruhodo when she found out you were my partner!” Holmes paused for half a second before exclaiming, “Wait, are you saying that you never mentioned me to her -- ever?!"

"There was never any good way for me to do so!” I retorted. “It's bad enough that I haven’t been able to set my selfishness aside to do the socially correct thing and find myself a new wife to give her a mother. How was I supposed to explain why?"

"Pshaw, that’s simple: Susato, did you know that THE Sherlock Holmes used to call me "daddy" too?"

I threw the nearest pillow I could grab into Holmes's face.

"And sometimes," he continued as he sensuously licked his lips from behind his newfound cushion-shield, "he'd feed me a most thick and juicy sausage--"

"H-Holmes!" I ejaculated. "She could come down here at any minute!"

"Excellent! The perfect chance to fill her in, wouldn’t you agree?"

"N-No!" I sputtered. "I am nowhere near ready to divulge such information."

Holmes's eyes lit up.

"And you are not to divulge it either. Understand?"

The world’s most immature man gave me his most disappointed look.

"Time and place! And context, Holmes! This isn't something one simply blurts out over breakfast."

"Pooh, pooh! Why do you have to be such a spoilsport?" he pouted.

"Because you saw what happened when she thought Iris was my biological daughter. She was literally ready to punish me over an imaginary affair."

"But you did have one... with me."

"It's not the same. You weren’t some one-night stand. You were the one who taught me that I could still honor and cherish Ayame while loving another. And had I not been forced to leave this country, I might have called for Susato to come join us and raised Iris with you.”

“Thus bringing her into the very sort of inverted household you were sent here to cleanse yourself of!” Holmes chuckled.

I gave an exasperated sigh at the bald irony staring me in the face.

“Regardless, Holmes, there is so much more nuance to what we have than she can imagine."

"You mean the fact that we are two men in an actual honest-to-god relationship."

"...Yes."

"Come on, now," Holmes said, looking rather serious. "Do you honestly think she has never imagined the domestic home life of 'Sherlock Holmes' and his partner 'Dr John Watson', and the sort of sexual congress they might have enjoyed?"

Oh.

In truth, the thought had not crossed my mind, though I had seen my share of female students throughout the years whisper wild and taboo fantasies amongst themselves about their favorite fictional characters. Why had it never occurred to me before that my own daughter might enjoy such flights of fancy?

I could feel the tips of my ears burning with embarrassment. I harrumphed and twitched my mustache as I tried to think of something suitable to say in return.

“Speaking of those novels, do you remember when you sent Iris’s “Baskerville” manuscript to me?”

“Of course.”

“I must apologize for being so negligent as to leave it out in my study where Susato could see it.”

“It’s quite alright,” he forgave me with a flourish of his hand. “I deduced as much when she let it slip. To be honest, it was my fault for jeopardizing our case by even sending it to you in the first place.”

“Regardless, I’m glad you did, Holmes. You were so genuinely torn up about prohibiting Iris from publishing it that it was the first time I really saw that you had let her into your life... and your heart.”

Holmes looked sheepishly to the side. “I’ll admit I did spend a number of years trying to distance myself from her.”

“I’ll say you did! You told her I was her father!”

“Well, you were! You were the one who promised to look after her, after all.” Holmes grew quiet. “I only agreed to keep her safe because I thought you’d come back to England once everything had been resolved. I never imagined that so many years would pass in the interim.”

The fire crackled loudly behind us in the silence that enveloped the room. It was my turn to reach out to my dear partner. I gave his hand a squeeze.

"Do you remember how frantically you would telegram me at all hours of the day, asking me how to change Iris's diapers and how to tell whether she was crying from hunger or discomfort?"

Holmes turned and smiled in return. "I do. And I still remember your frustrated replies, reminding me that you never had to change Miss Susato's diapers so you had no idea!"

“What a spectacle you must have been at the telegram office with Iris crying on your back!” I laughed. “I wish I had been here to see it for myself.”

“I’m afraid that before I gained the moniker ‘Great Detective’, I was known as the Great Nanny Sherlock Holmes,” he joked and laughed. As his laughter subsided, the warmth in his eyes remained as he cupped my face. "Must you return to Japan so soon, Mikotoba? You've only just arrived! Why not relax a little longer here. We've barely had a moment to ourselves," he gently complained.

"That's what happens when you have kids, Holmes. I thought you'd have figured that out by now."

"I guess I have to take my fatherly duties more seriously now, don’t I?"

"You've got a charming young lady with even greater expectations of you than before."

"I get the feeling it won't be hard to live up to virtually no expectations," he gestured melodramatically.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. You are a brilliant father raising a most extraordinary daughter. I daresay she has even picked up a few of your mannerisms.”

My mind drifted back to the night before, when Iris had made her fondness of Holmes clear. A number of things had been brought to light that day -- some of them big, some of them small. But one thing had remained unchanged throughout it all: I had always intended to call on my dear friend Genshin.

“About my plans, Holmes,” I began. “I would still very much like to go and pay my respects to Genshin, and see about arranging for his remains to be returned to Japan, now that he has been cleared of all charges.”

“Why not let Mr Asogi deal with that?” Holmes said with a rather considerate look on his face. “Perhaps he would rather keep his father close by, though probably in a better grave than the one he is currently occupying.”

“Indeed. I suppose I’ll speak with him in the morning. To be honest, I’m glad I am able to speak with him at all.”

Holmes nodded his agreement. “Things did get a little too close for everyone a few times, didn’t they?”

“But you managed to keep things under control, and that’s what’s important.”

I thought back to that day when the children had left on the Alaclair, bound for England. Holmes had urgently telegraphed me two months prior about two things: “I’m sending you a package,” he had mysteriously said, “and I will be on the Alaclair”. I suspected something had begun to move in our case of ten years past, and I was not mistaken when I finally received the package containing the Baskerville manuscript and a note regarding some sort of conspiracy spelled out in a series of dancing men.

I sent the manuscript back after they had gone so as to delay its arrival until after Holmes’s return home with a simple, pleasant message about how enjoyable the story was, and added a few words of caution through a line of dancing men of my own.

I admit that sometimes, it had filled me with great regret to know that my partner had been on that very ship, and that we could’ve met then to strategize further, but as long as he was watching over Susato, I knew she was in good hands.

“You have no idea how many times I wished you had been by my side, though. Truly, as my fictional self would say, ‘I am lost without my Boswell.’”

“Well, there was at least one circumstance that was a conundrum of your own making. Naruhodo mentioned that you told him that sometimes Great Detectives lie. Far be it for me to be surprised that you would do such a thing to him, trickster as you are, something tells me your brilliant plan backfired when you'd set yourself up as the fool during your first encounter with him."

"It would have only aroused suspicion had I suddenly reverted back to my charming, clever self, wouldn’t it?"

"True, but to maintain the act for so long! You are truly a consummate actor, and a master of disguise, Holmes."

Holmes took a dramatic bow. "It was nothing really, especially in this case. After all, there is but a fine line that separates genius from jackass."

"I think you mean brilliant and bumbling, since there is certainly no line separating jackass from any part of your beautiful, Bohemian soul."

"Aha ha ha ha ha!" he laughs in that way I love. "We've come a long way, haven't we?"

"I dare say we're certainly much better off than we were back then."

"Who would've thought that the great Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr Mikotoba would have two daughters to round out their rather unconventional family?"

"Indeed, I'm not sure that the world would believe it, even if Iris wrote it up in one of her stories!"

"As she said, you really are the only "yujin" I have in the whole world," Holmes said as he doubled over in laughter at the silly cross-language pun.

"I honestly still can't believe you made Iris write that!" I joined in my partner’s mirth.

"My Yujin, the only one I will ever need," he whispered as he leaned in and took my last snide remark of the night from my lips.

NOTES:

- Technically, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was published in 1886 in Germany, and then later in Japan, but since DGS is fairly liberal with its historical timeline, I figured I could be, too...

- Japan had outlawed sodomy at one point in 1872, but in the quickest of turnabouts, it seems that it was repealed only 10 years later (8 - 10 depending on which dates you count) when Japan adopted the Napoleonic Code into what would form the basis of all Japanese law, the Six Codes. Thanks, Japanese Wikipedia article “日本における同性愛”!

- DGS Holmes seems more likely to initiate things between the two of them, but I wouldn’t say he is an especially sexual creature either. He comes across as demi-sexual to me (or he would if he had any other true friends to speak of other than Mikotoba). I like to think that he seems asexual in Iris’s accounts partially because he has no other partners that she can see (his only partner is off in Japan, after all), and partially because it probably didn’t occur to her that her papa could be interested in such things.

- Maybe someday I’ll get around to writing how they actually get together, but I fear that that will take another long fic on its own... ^^;

- Watson “ejaculated” a number of times in the real Sherlock Holmes canon. I guess that was just the hot word to use back then instead of “exclaimed” XD

- Mikotoba’s first name is phonetically the same as the word for “friend” but it uses different kanji.

[emilyjanestuff]

From The New World and Bisexuality

Warning: The series I am reviewing contain depictions of child abduction, disappearance, murder and violence in a future totalitarian society. It also depicts sexual violence. The show also contains relationships sexual relationships between young people. That is the trigger warning.

Leave now if you wish.

Also spoilers for  the whole series. Do not read any further if you don’t want spoilers.

I know I said I would post this at the same time as my recap of episode eight but this is finished and I want to get it out there. I will recap episode eight asap though. Also this based only on the anime, I have not read the novel nor the manga.

Are the characters in the anime From the New Word bisexual?

The characters in From the New World (FTNW) never verbalized their sexuality in terms we in our culture would use-i.e. words like bisexual, gay, straight, lesbian etc. But similarly so characters like Bo and Lauren from Lost Girl never express a label either yet from the show it is clear that they are bisexual and lesbian respectively. So from watching the anime can we tell what orientation these characters are?

First off I need to address the fact that the characters in FTNW are from a very different culture and time period to me. They are living in a fictional future in dystopia Japan. So the cultural context these characters are in is very different from my own. So how does this cultural context view sexuality? For starters most of the characters are engaged in relationships with members of the same sex. Satoru and Shun are together, Saki is with Maria. Only Mamoru is not engaged in a same sex relationship instead in Saki’s words he spends his time pining after Maria.

In their society it is presented as the norm to have same sex relationships until a certain age with Mamoru being viewed as unusually for not having a boyfriend. They are expected to later form a relationship with a person of the other sex. In other words they are expected to grow out of their same-sex sexuality. There are no adults in the series who are in committed same sex relationships. None of the teenagers in episode sixteen pair with a member of the same sex. It seems that same sex relationships are expected to be something one grows out of.

The False Minoshiro in episode three further supports this. Human society has become like Bonobos (whom have sex many partners of any sex). A society of love. This basically means that I doubt these characters are meant to be monogamous either. But I won’t be talking about that here that is a topic for another post entirely. Getting back to the subject at hand, this idea of someone growing out of their same-sex attractions happens to Queer people in the real world. In the show this is referred to as playing a game. I myself have been on the receiving end of this. Another problem with this depiction is the idea that everyone is bisexual. Because if everyone is bisexual then rather then bisexual being an identity and community it is instead a universal human experience. This is a form of bisexual erasure. Putting it into a future does not change that. So is problematic tropes the only thing FTNW offer us in terms of bisexual representation? No it’s not that simply.

For starters Saki and Maria continue their relationship when they have paired with Satoru and Mamoru. There is no problem expressed in the story or from any of the characters with this. Saki’s and Maria’s relationship clearly remains strong and even at the age of twenty six Saki still thinks of Maria. She even has a moment when she dreams of Maria and the following takes place. Maria is justifying why she left with Mamoru and one of those is ‘It’s not like two girls can start a family’. Did Saki and/or Maria want that with each? It is very possible that they did but that their society clearly does not facilitate it. Maria leaving breaks Saki’s heart and Maria’s letter clearly shows she too is devastated. In short even though their society expected them to outgrow their same sex relationship they clearly haven’t.

Saki and Maria are both bisexual women. Are they marginalized in the village for their sexuality? There is no indication that is the case in fact these two have other things to be worried about. Maybe because it happened in their youth they were accepted for the time being. Maria does not stay in village so we don’t get to see what kind of conflict if any their relationship would have caused had it continued into adulthood. That’s unfortunate but it at least does enough to subvert the whole ‘you grow out of queerness’ trope that could have been present.

So I’ve talked a lot about the girls in this anime but what about the boys? I talked a bit about Mamoru before so what about Satoru and Shun. At the start of episode eight they are in a relationship but on realizing he is becoming a karmic demon Shun breaks off the relationship rather coldly. Even going as far as to say ‘Haven’t we played this game long enough?’ Satoru is hurt by this. He later starts seeing another boy as part of a rebound or to make his ex boyfriend jealous. Shun dies soon later. Shun says he was in love with Saki.

He never says anything similar to Satoru even though there is clearly tension between them after they break up. We don’t get a enough of Shun’s perspective in the anime to really tell us how he viewed his relationship with Satoru. But we do know he was in love with Saki. The tension after they break up and why Shun broke up with him show that he did at least care for Satoru in some way. There are examples of him caring about Satoru through out the series for example in episode seven when they are reunited he and Satoru are the first to embrace. Shun may have cared for Satoru not in the same he did for Saki but in some way he did.

However Satoru is another story. There is much more information on his feelings for Shun then on Shun’s feelings for Satoru. Satoru was very much in love with Shun. Saki even saying when they spoke about Shun’s replacement Ryou that ‘(Ryou) is not the person we both fell in love with’. Satoru’s actions after he and Shun break clearly show he is not over him. He is worried about Shun and is the first to leap into action to find him when he disappears.  With Shun dead and Satoru’s memories of him erased he doesn’t think of Shun as Saki thinks of Maria. But we learn in episode twenty that he still wants to regain his memories of the faceless boy (Shun) so he can come to terms with whatever happened and move on. When Saki says Shun’s name in episode twenty five we see Satoru’s eye widen.

Is it possible he has recalled who Shun was? Very much so. The ending only further supports this when we see Saki had regained all her memories, even those of Reikio.  I like the interpretation that he did. Even if he didn’t Saki may have restored them. She clearly shows she is able to work well with hypnosis in the series. Because he is able to remember Shun Satoru is finally about to move on. Satoru like Maria and Saki subvert the toxic tropes as well. Making him not just a bisexual character but a male bisexual character. Boys who are bisexual are still so uncommon in media so it is great to see one.

There are other things the show does that is praise worthy, even with all the characters who die there are two bisexual character who get a happy ending Satoru and Saki. Happy ending for Queer characters are still so rare and it’s great to see one. The heterosexual relationships in the show are treated with respect and developed rather well. None of the hetero relationships come out of left field.

Despite the good the anime does with bisexual character there are few things that could have been done better. I wish is that the show had gone a little bit further in showing these character’s relationships. Especially Shun’s and Satoru’s romance. Since Saki is the point of view character we only get inside her mind in depth. Also this begs the question what about monosexual queers (gays and lesbians) do they not exist in this world since human society is meant to be a society of love? If that is the case how come someone like Mamoru the token heterosexual exist? Even if you make the argument that he is not straight just always in love with Maria what would the situation have been like if she was a boy? Alas we never get an answer to this.

So how does From The New World hold up as a representation for bisexuality. It is a very solid one. Does it do everything right and explore everything about queer identity in this world? No but it does more then enough things to represent some pretty cool bisexual characters including subverting some pretty toxic tropes. If you want a cool science fiction anime with bi character this is probably the best out there and well worth watching.

[press-a-repeatedly]

Zul’s Top 9 Games of 2018

By Zul Edwards

Heyyy it’s me. I’m back! What a year! 2018 has come and gone and many awesome games have been played by everyone here at PAR. The votes were tallied, the results are in, and I am included in that bunch. However, some of the games I played and loved this year were no-shows on our list. Some AMAZING games that I think deserve a little love on our corner on the internet.  So, I thought, if you out there reading this were interested, (spoiler alert, nobody is) here is my OWN personal top nine games of 2018.

So, let’s get this thing started with my number 9!... oh yeah, I only played 9 games in 2018. heh.

9) No Man’s Sky – So I was one of those gamers who was excited for NMS when it was first announced a few years back. Thought the idea of exploring a quintillion planet was awesome. Then the game came out, I heard it sucked, and I ignored it. Enter a couple years later when it was on sale, had a ton of updates and new features: true online with friends, customizable characters, base building, and a brand-new story. However, it wasn’t enough to keep me hooked. Don’t get me wrong, I liked exploring the various galaxies and doing various side quests, engaging in dogfights with pirates and mining for space gold, but overall it just still felt so empty, so repetitious, and so… blah. I guess I still prefer quality over quantity, even if the quantity is in the quintillions.  

8) The Alliance Alive – The first on the list of “Games only Zul played this year”. The Alliance Alive is a 3DS game from the creators of the classic “Legend of Legacy”, literally a game I borrowed from Justin, played for all of 30 minutes, then promptly returned to Justin never to be spoken of again. So, to my surprise when he told me the same studio was making another game, The Alliance Alive, but it was helmed by one of the writers of the Suikoden franchise, I was cautiously optimistic. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, the game was good! A blend of classic JRPG turned based battles with flairs of modernization: skills learned through fighting, increased stats based on the location of fighters in battles, and a darker story not usually found in those classic SNES/PS1 RPGs this seems to emulate.  While the main characters fall into some pretty cliché tropes, the side characters really shine. From giant axe-wielding lizard men that remind me of my own D&D character, to a demon-dog-man butler, to a mad child genius scientist who rides a duck robot, this game has a lot of flavor. I really should go back and finish.

7) Chasm – While it’s no secret that I love Castlevania games, I think it’s fair to say I’m not really a giant fan of Metroidvania games. I prefer the simpler side-scrolling action of Castlevania, constantly moving forward towards a goal of smacking Drac in the face with a metal whip, to the backtracking and map completing chore of most Metroidvania games. With that said, something about the less intense and simpler format of Chasm kept me hooked till the end. I didn’t mind backtracking and completing the map in Chasm because it wasn’t as vast or complicated as other games in the genre. It was colorful, had great music, stellar pixel art and a fun yet challenging battle system and platforming. Overall it was a blast to play, but it just got overshadowed in a year filled with superior games.

6) God of War – “WHAT THE FUCK?” I hear you slam on your keyboards as I place the unrivaled GOTY in a paltry 6th place. Don’t get me wrong, this game is good. In fact, it’s VERY good. However, for whatever reason, I guess this game didn’t hook me like it did for everyone else. I only have a passing familiarity with the GoW series. Even though I’m a diehard SonyBoy, I only ever played GoW 1 and never beat it. Kratos and Atreus are some of the best written and best-acted characters to come out of a video game in this year or any year. Hell, if we had a “best new character” category again this year, I would struggle to not put Atreus in the top 3. The music is amazing, the writing is fantastic, the scope, cinematography and the constant one camera perspective were all stellar achievements in the medium of gaming, not to mention I’m pretty much obsessed with all things Norse… BUT. I dunno. Little things kept taking me out of it. Atreus’s sudden, jarring mood swings. The poor pacing in certain parts. The sudden introduction of major characters and/or story elements, that felt kind of brushed over and/or rushed. The lackluster side content, the padding and the empty worlds. The game is good. But it never felt great to me. Most games that I love, I think about when I’m not playing them, then I rush home from work to play them because I want to complete them, either for the story or because the gameplay is addicting, but this game felt more like a chore sometimes. I didn’t even buy it, I just borrowed it from Butch earlier in the year when it came out. I’m sorry Cory. I tried but I just didn’t love this game.

5) Moonlighter – Now here’s a game I absolutely adored. Flew under my radar and was recommended by Nick. By day you’re a humble shopkeeper, selling various wares and curios. By night, (by… MOONLIGHT) you explore dungeons ala Link to the Past style in a top-down view, into randomly generated maps. Each area has different items to collect & new materials to find, which you bring back to the shop to sell, which with the money you earn, can craft new weapons, which will get you further into dungeons, which will mean you find more items to sell which means you make more gold to spend on armor and weapons, which means you can get better materials to keep delving deeper, WHICH MEANS… ahem. Ah yes. That classic feedback loop. It sucked me in. It’s simple but effective in keeping me engaged. Coupled with a great art style, fluid beautiful pixel graphics and a surprisingly good amount of story for this type of game, Moonlighter took a nice chunk of my time early in the year.

4) Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – Another entry in “Games only Zul played this year”, NNK2 was a surprise hit for me. I never played NNK1 and heard rather negative things about it from Nick over the years. I bought NNK2 on a whim months after it came out because it was on sale and I was craving a good JRPG, and it did not disappoint. I loved pretty much everything about this game. The music, the story, the beautiful not quite Ghibli, but practically Ghibli art style, the characters, the mechanics, the town building, the combat… it was everything I was looking for. There were certainly parts in the middle that lagged a bit, and the general “go to town > solve town’s problem > make an alliance with the town” could be considered cliché or predictable, but every town felt unique and its inhabitants all felt genuine. Recruiting citizens into your kingdom and assigning them all a role in your castle was a time sink I didn’t realize I would be so into, but I think I spent more hours on that than anything else in the game. And it also gets marks for being the other child in a video game besides Atreus, King Evan, that I didn’t want to strangle, and in fact by the time the credits rolled, he’d probably be #2 or 3 in Best Character of the Year for me.

3) Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Now as far as JRPGS go, Dragon Quest is the ultimate grand-daddy, even more so than Final Fantasy, but it was a series I never really got into. I played some previous games in the series and found passing enjoyment in a couple titles but never enough to ever want to complete a game or seek out other entries in the series. That all kind of changed when I played DQ 11. DQ has never really strayed too far from its classic turn-based JRPG roots. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” would be their mantra I assume, and I love it. In a time when the turn-based system is all but gone from genre giant Final Fantasy, DQ has instead chosen to stick with it, and fully master the dying style. It was hands down the best JRPG I’ve played all year, and probably one of the best I’ve played in several years. It has everything: a great story, compelling characters, awesome music, amazing art style, engaging combat, fun side quests, a challenging yet fair difficulty curve, and it’s actually, really funny on top of all that. While the length might scare people away, (I clocked in right around 120 hours after getting the platinum trophy for 100% completion of the game) it’s some of the best time I spent gaming in a long time. It’s a classic in a modern era. It’s weird, if you said to teenage Zul “one of your favorite JRPGs ever will be Dragon Quest 11, and one of your least favorite JRPGs will be Final Fantasy 15”, he would never have believed you… but here we are.

2) Monster Hunter World – Ah yes. The one oddball in my gaming repertoire. I think we all have one of these, right? That one game/series that for whatever reason, sits outside your normal gaming habits, yet you love it, nonetheless. Maybe you love Halo and FPS games, but you also really like Animal Crossing for some reason. Or maybe you’re a diehard Dark Souls series fan but just can’t get enough of Cooking Mama as well. Variety is the spice of life they say, and while I’m primarily a “character & story first, RPGs, video games are art” kind of dude, something about smashing Monsters in the face with a giant hammer has kept me hooked on the Monster Hunter series for nearly 10 years. I love the challenging but fair battles, the deep customization, the various weapons and armors for both male and female hunters, the varied and unique monsters that all have their own ecology, musical themes, and battle styles you must learn and adapt to if you want to survive. It’s also linking up with friends (or even strangers online) and tackling a beast as a team. For all these reasons and so much more, this series sunk its claws in me from the very first time I played it, and it hasn’t let go. Monster Hunter World is the next-gen, beautifully realized game I’ve wanted for years; and it took the story, art, gameplay, and fun I’ve come to expect from this series to another level.

1) Red Dead Redemption II – I honestly don’t know how to write about this game. I can say all the other things I’ve said up until now about how great the music is (it’s amazing), how varied and alive the characters feel (they’re amazing), how stunningly awe-inspiring the scenery is or how fluid and lifelike the character animations are (they’re amazing), how the story and personal journey of Arthur Morgan literally brought me to tears more than once (he’s #1 in Best Characters btw. And they’re amazing), how rich every side quest is, how fun the mini-games are, how great the dialogue is, or any of the other truly breath-taking aspects of the game, but I don’t think I could do them justice. Hell, I don’t even know how to put them into words myself inside my own head. To me, this is one of those games that surpasses all of that. Yea, it has flaws, every game does, everyTHING does, but to me, it’s perfect, warts and all.  I can’t give it much higher praise than that, and it is absolutely the best game I played in years. When a game can give me an extensional crisis during some of its final moments, I think it’s safe to say that It’ll stick with me and has undoubtedly set a very high bar for all future games. The team at Rockstar outdid themselves and have my thanks for bringing this game into the world.

PHEW. Well, that’s it. Top 9 games of 2018 according to Zully Boy. Another great year in gaming for me personally and here’s to another great year in 2019! Lots to look forward to, and hopefully some hidden gems that’ll surprise me along the way. Happy Gaming everyone!

[kaiowut99]

Dark Side of Dimensions - A Lance Review

So yeah, got back from watching DSoD, and first and foremost, let me just tell you, the animation was stunning.  Aside from a few lolquality shots, but more on that later haha.  Spoilers below--I repeat, SPOILERS--(and given this is the dub, I’ll be using the dub names; expect an update with the originals whenever I get to see JP!DSod):

1. Acting: solid for the most part, especially coming from the veterans we haven’t seen since DM.  Téa, Joey, Tristan, Bakura, Duke... They all sounded spot-on.  Even Duke’s dad’s voice was appropriate.  Dan Edwards NAILED it as Aigami/Diva; there were his laidback scenes, but then he really shone in his more emotional scenes, like when he confronts Bakura or when he voices over Joey’s running through his crumbling memory world, and he was also good during his Ring comeback.  Sera sounded good, if just a tiny bit high-pitched for my liking, but otherwise no complaints.  KAIBA... While I’d still like it if he went back to his Duelist Kingdom voice for him, nothing about Stuart’s performance took me out of it.  His delivery on the quality 4K lines I’ll get to got a few chuckles out of me, haha.  Dan Green was perfect.  Remains to be seen how well he does compared to Kazama, but his line delivery was on point, emotional scenes or otherwise.  I do like how he voiced those lines about Atem leaving; as extraneous as some of those lines are, he does get across the angst that Yugi must’ve felt. 

2. Visuals: Again, the animation alone is worth the price of admission! Being the geek that I am, I was taking notes on my phone throughout the movie (mainly for any lines that stuck out because lol4K but also for other key stuff), and I definitely noticed some Ebina and Kagami in there (specifically, the “Where are they? They’re running late” Yugi scene and the Yugi/Atem smile staredown scene), but the best was that awesome Takahashi cut of Yugi setting up his Duel Disk against Aigami.  Such detail, much flow... It looked hella good.  One lolQUALITY shot I remember is the shot after Kaiba comes down to meet Yugi post-Aigami and they exchange some words; oh Yugi.  Oh, also, that was totally Junpei Ogawa who animated the glorious Atem returns scene with the Puzzle glowing.  Had to be.  In terms of backgrounds, Joey’s dream world crumbling looked pretty, and overall things looked sharp and detailed; think backgrounds in ARC-V.  I’m amazed they didn’t take the chance to make this a 3D movie... Speaking of ARC-V, one of the Plana kids was totally Masumi.  That explains where she’s been throughout this war... 

3. Script: ALRIGHT.  My FAVORITE part.  So, for what it’s worth, I think the script overall came out alright.  There were many parts that sounded like they’d be lifted from the Japanese version (Kaiba’s “It’s not a Monster--it’s a GOD!” line reminded me of Tsuda so much), and they surprisingly kept “Solid Vision” when he mentions Duel Links.  The scene with the Ring taking out Shadi seemed alright to me, too.  They did add a few offhand lines (like the gag with Bakura’s accent, Yugi’s “My cardio stinks” [same], or “You fight me with fRUIT?!”), which were fun, but there were more 4K-isms that made me sorta groan because I could tell they wouldn’t be there.  From my notes, they are:

Joey jumping down to Aigami with Kudaragi, stumbling: “That was on purpose!”

Kudaragi: “We got ways of making you cry, and I don’t mean an onion!”

Kaiba’s talk of his Atem simulation: “Quiet, you sniveling syncophants!”; “...to imitate his skills...his perfectly coiffed hair--that part took the longest” made me laugh, lol

Kaiba, after throwing a bottle: “Have the engineer who developed that bottle fired. KaibaCorp’s bottles shouldn’t bend that easily” PFFT. Also why.

Kaiba, on why it took Yugi 8 years to finish the Puzzle: “Because he’s a simple-minded child;” I think at this point, “was” would be more appropriate, no?

Kaiba to his Puzzle Assemblerbot’s system exposition: “Don’t you think I know that?”; its response: “I’m aware that you like to be reminded of your genius” or similar; also lol’d.

Aigami explaining Joey a thing: “Oh, you’re the slow one, aren’t you?” Because character shots fired

Yugi using Lemon to attack Kaiba: “Make some lemonade out of that!” why

Lots of 4K’s typical move punch-ups ala ARC-V, like “Bring the pain, Pandemic Dragon” or “Unleash your fury, Blue-Eyes!”; Yugi saying that Celtic Guard would cut something’s ATK down to size made me think we lost out on an effect explanation.  Also, why don’t they just call these “effects” and not “[special] abilities” already

And the good/funny:

Aigami, responding to Kudaragi’s goon saying he’s history: “No, history is remembered” bc OH SNAP

EDIT: How could I forget Atem’s “I take it you want to duel?”/Kaiba: “I didn’t come all this way to dance!” dance duel revolution when konami

Atem: “Not bad...”; Kaiba: “Got that right!”

Atem, in classic sore wa dou ka na fashion: “I beg to differ.”

Kaiba’s lead excavator or Roland, I forget, when Kaiba gets to the site: “You grace us with your presence”

The aforementioned “It’s not a Monster--it’s a God!”

Kaiba, leaving his duel with Aigami: “Aigami! To be continued!” which instantly made me hear “Roundabout” in my head (I love JoJo)

Joey, after Kaiba reveals the plane blowing up was Solid Vision: “You owe me a new pair of drawers!”

Yugi, to Kaiba trying to control things with Bakura taken: “Now, back off or we’re going to have a problem!” Because DAMN.

4. Music: So the music was surprisingly well-done, and I have to give credit where it’s due to Michael Brady and the other composers and editors who worked on it! It flows like a score should, with plenty of moments of silence (which sounds really nice for a 4K production), there were a few really nice pieces, and they generally fit the mood of the scenes; the music wasn’t just there like it tends to be in their series dubs (especially ARC-V given the treasure that its score is replacing).  As a fan of nostalgia, having grown up with the 4Kids dub, I appreciated the “I’m Back” use, as well as the “Kaiba Hacker” theme (seemed to be from that awful Duel Madness song, but the instrumental is hella nice).  I’m super disappointed that we lost out on “To Believe in Something” for what sounds like a drum-n-bass remix of YGO Theme (which was ok, but like, ehh). Also, according to the credits, “One Card Short” played, but I don’t remember hearing it... Very eager to hear the placements in the Japanese version. (And to rescore the dub to those placements hehe)

5. Side-Notes: -So while Yugi’s working in the Game Shop, we see he has a game called “Dice Panic.” Is that Duke’s? -When Aigami summons his Cubic King against Yugi (I think it was), its name rolls off the screen for it; unintentional editing goof, I’d think. -People were saying the duels were kind of blowing by fast, but moves didn’t seem to be going that quickly to me. Remains to be seen if we lost out on some helpful explanations though. -The end credits touched on the Japanese staff, but unlike BBT’s, made no mention of any of the animators. :|

So, overall, if you’re a fan of the franchise, you’ll enjoy this movie; I feel like I’d have liked it a bit more if I got to finish the manga like I’d wanted to before seeing it, but hey, that’s what the DVDs’ll be for.  Wish Viz could release these 3-in-1s sooner... I’m still super curious about what got cut from the originally 3hr runtime this movie would’ve had, too.  I’m glad I got to go by myself so I could appreciate it before dragging a few friends along who’ll likely rip on it here/there, lol.  Have fun when you go see it! I just have a bone to pick with someone over an Obelisk card I should’ve gotten

(And yes, I do plan to work on a dub/sub comparison when we get the DVD rips.  May also contribute to a sub, but we’ll see...)