#can you guys believe this is my FIRST special kaito card???

[kaitofuji]

OOOUUUUGGGHH FINALLY!!!!!!!

[transgender-eichi]

your turn mutual! Top 3 Danganronpa and Enstars characters! :D

big essay type paragraph, so it's under the break:

aahh its been so long since i played danganronpa!!

since i've only played the official games, my faves from eacj game:

Trigger Happy Havoc: Leon Kuwata

rest in pieces. Idk what it was about him but i just really liked him. His design, his personality, his struggles. He defo didnt get enough development (since he got executed first...) but he's my top fave i think. I just really like him.

DR2 Goodbye Despair: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

again, i dont really know why i like him, i just love LOVE his character arc in the game. he's just a little guy tbh. He's also my only fave that actually survived in the games lmao

DRV3 Killing Harmony: Kaito Momota

I LOVE HIM. he deserved better :(. although i dislike how they ended the series with the whole meta thing, i have to say i still liked the game alot. Kaito could be a little annoying but i genuinely loved him. He just wanted to be an astronaut man. Love him

I should really replay the games tbh. I have them all on the switch-

ENSEMBLE STARS!!!!

1. Tomoya Mashiro

oh my god i love this boy so much. genuinely. I cant even remember when i started liking him, because he wasn't my original favorite character. It was his RELOADED card that got me into his character though. I'm a big zombie and zombie apocalypse guy, and seeing this little guy in a ZOMBIE APOC THEMED CARD!! made me go a little insane. And it just kinda spiralled from there- I love his design, his personality, his interests, his struggles, his interactions with the other characters- he's just an incredible character to me. He's the "Average" boy, but he's honestly so, so much more than that. He's the leader of Ra*bits, (my favorite unit and imo the best one~), he's an incredible actor, he reads manga, he loves animals (he's got like a disney princess-like power with animals-), he loves his omurice, he loves idols, he loves his unit, he's just so passionate. His insecurities speak to me personally too, and it's like this little guy was made just for me. He may seem cute and plain, but he's such a nuanced character. It's the way that, since he feels boring surrounded by all of the chaos and such from the idol world, he's able to stay right-minded- such as in the RELOADED story. He's so insecure about being forgotten or being uninteresting, and he wants to stand out because he believe that he isn't impressive or special enough to be a good idol, and he works on that every day. He's a leader, and a friend, and can bring a certain bluntness and reason-mindedness when he needs to. He's just, hands down, my favorite character in the entire game.

2. Mao Isara

Mao was my first ever favorite in the game, and has constantly remained a favorite of mine since the beginning. This can be partially accredited to my bsf ( @autisticmao ) lmao, but also i just honestly love him. He's so underrated and such an interesting and deep character, with a beautiful voice, appearance, and personality. I genuinely love him as a character, and always will.

3. Yuzuru Fushimi

It's actually also Ky's fault that i started liking yuzu aswell, even if they somewhat deny it. They introduced yuzumao as a ship to me (which is one of my fave ships still tbh) and i kinda just started loving his character. His backstory is so interesting and the way he interacts with other characters, and his personality, and just. He's such an interesting character. I may not be the biggest finé fan (im defo not an eichiP, despite my username), but yuzuru's just different for me. I love him quite a lot for many reasons.

aaandd that's all! if you wanna know more lmk, im happy to share :D

especially about tomoya. i love him sm.

ofc there's other characters i like quite a lot, but these are my top faves.

[thebladeblaster]

Finally more information on my Zexal isekai idea

Last time:

Changes:

-Infernoble knights are too good so Aichi is using normal ole Noble Knights 😅

More details!

First off decks for all six of the poor isekaiers that have to deal with the Six Demon Numbers

Aichi-Noble Knights

Kai-Dragon Ruler

Kamui-Super Quantum

Misaki-Bujin

Chris-Fire Fist (It was that or Zoodiac and there’s no way in hell he’s getting Zoodiac)

Ren-Ignoble Knights

I might add a few cards to their decks of new stuff is released or I think of new stuff between now and writing it .

The Six Demon Numbers (SDN)

Note: When I say “the Barians” I mean Vector����. Vector is putting them through this.

Vector + Void team up = bad time for everyone

Overall, I was very vague with this originally because I hadn’t thought up much about them besides them essentially compelling the hosts to help the Barians. I’ve decided to make it a bit more unique by making it similar to Dirriding AKA the coolest concept in G. Essentially when the SDNs are in control it’s more like a full on possession rather than just influencing them. On top of that similarly to Diffriding if they lose 3 times then the number goes. However, they can be snapped out of it by one loss. Aichi and Kai are still the ones at the start who aren’t possessed.

I was thinking that if they do lose the SDN that they would end up back on their Earth. Essentially like how if they lose on Cray they’re sent back. Because it is that. If they lose there they can’t get back to Cray. However, since it’s connected to the SDNs it’s tied to the individual’s losses rather than the team.

However, even when not possessed things aren’t exactly peachy 😅. Their told that if they do get the numbers for the Barians that they will be sent back to Cray and they actually mean it. This becomes very complicated due to forming bonds with the Zexal gang.

They are of course also on a time crunch because Cray is wearing away more and more and they have to get back before it infects Earth. Also, little does anyone though that the Void is getting more than they think out of their little arrangement. It’s influence is able to enter the Zexal universe after its first contact while back on Earth the distortion in the timeline caused by the isekai is causing Jammers to appear in both worlds.

The SDNs are partly influenced by both the Void and Barian power which is how they have their special properties. The game plan is to force both their enemies to destroy each other.

Other Plot Stuff

The story will check out what’s going on in the Vanguard world from time to time. The isekaiers friends are looking for them and the finals to the Asia Circuit is delayed. Ultra Rare is trying to find Takuto to try to fix the situation.

Takuto is being kept deep in Barian World and they will give him back if the isekaiers do what they want. Then Takuto would take them back. Of course the isekaiers don’t know that they have Takuto or even where he is 😅.

Team Dreadnought is wandering around watching things. Considering they know that the Void is going to destroy their world Leon reasons that they could just stay in the Zexal world. Jillian and Sharlene aren’t very happy but there isn’t much they can do😅.

Aichi finds himself talking to #5 a bit. The numbers kinda make Psyqualia flare up. As you guess #5 is indeed the worst and basically just trying to gaslight Aichi into believing that the Zexal cast is their enemy. I mean Kaito doesn’t help😅…Yeah, when Aichi first wakes up it’s near Kaito who is doing what he does to people with numbers.

You can’t blame Aichi for thinking Kaito’s bad guy when he sees this. This causes a chain reaction of other Zexal cast members battling him thinking that he’s the enemy 😅. Poor blorbo.

On the bright side he gets some bonding time with Kai because he’s the first person he finds and Kai quickly realizes that Aichi cannot care for himself so is forced to look after Aichi😅. All he really needed to see is that Aichi can’t cook at all and is just eating whatever is cheapest, can’t balance a budget, or do other stuff and is like “okay he needs intervention”.

[katyatalks]

Mob Psycho 100: The Stage Play 3 - Final performance content spoilers

Here are all the notes I compiled after getting the chance to see the final performance for ‘Mob Psycho 100: The Stage Play - A Clash with Claw’s Seventh Division!’ live. Note this is essentially a write-up of the play from beginning to end - this will also likely be the version of the play that is used for the DVD release in December. I will also edit this when the recording becomes available for viewing and I can gain some clarity on sections I missed...

PRE-SHOW

- Reigen and Mob do a pre-show announcement relating to covid prevention measures (referred to not by name as Covid but an evil spirit) plus standard theatre etiquette rules (don’t use your phone, put it on silent, etc.)

SHOW

- Begins where stage 2 left off as a ‘Previously…’ segment for the audience. We once again witness Koyama knocking Mob out with the spray and kidnapping Ritsu.

- In the Teru/Dimple/Mob discussion part of the stage 2 recap, Teru takes the bird’s nest off his head and throws it off stage - we hear the birds within fly away.

- ((We immediately see how the reduced audience affects the play - a funny physical gag where Teru and Dimple bash heads happens but this receives no response from the audience))

- We reach the end of stage 2 recap with Mob stating he’ll destroy Claw as he does at the end of stage 2. The screen goes black and we hear the echo of a voice saying ‘Give [it] back… give [it] back, [It’s] mine, give [it] back…’ - this is implied to be Mob talking about Ritsu but the lights turn on to reveal S&S and turns out it’s Shou talking to Reigen about Touichirou’s card

- Reigen gives the card back to Shou, calls him a ‘baggy-clothed asshole’ and tells him to leave since Reigen is busy. Reigen puts his feet up on his desk and goes on his phone, leading to;

S: “What are you doing?”

R: “Reading the news.”

S: “You’re not busy, you’re bored!”

- Shou mentions that he’s also got 10k yen missing from his wallet and accuses Reigen of stealing it - Reigen insists he didn’t but starts doubting himself

- When Shou leaves, Reigen salt splashes in his direction (An English translation is now given under each of Reigen’s special moves ala Olympic parody)

-Reigen calls Mob, leading back to the Mob/Dimple/Teru scene - Terada and his cronies enter and Mob tells Reigen he can’t talk right now, hang up which leads to…

***

OPENING

- Yoru no Honki Dance - Call Out (as the previous two plays)

- Action takes place on the upper and lower stage - Ritsu and the lab kids on the lower stage with Ritsu in anguish with Mob, Teru, Dimple on the top stage

- Action shot with the show’s “Yeah!” line focuses on Reigen and Mob on the top level

***

- Teru tortures Terada with a taser rather than water - Terada is also wearing a ballgag with multiple kazoos inside it leading to a great sound whenever he screams

- Mob and Dimple are terrified of Teru’s taser torture whenever he does it

- Matsuo’s performance is sensual and slimy - great stage presence

- Ishiguro’s voice is distorted using a pitch filter resulting in something creepy rather than the female voice used in the anime

- Ritsu and the lab kids are seen in the jail cell - great banter with them and their Claw guard (Guard to Rei: “I won’t hit you because you’re a girl!” Kids: “A gentleman!”). Guard tells them they won’t get any food and they start rioting

- Mutou is VERY creepy and accompanied by terrifying music - he skulks around the stage with his ridiculous silicone chin

- When Mutou “kills” Kaito off screen we get a ridiculous extended segment featuring Daichi reacting to what is initially cries of his brother’s pain that turn into pleasure as if he is getting a massage - then turns back into pain

- Kaito is wheeled back on in a luggage/weight carrier with 4 knives in his chest

- Teru vs Terada is visually very fun - movement choreography is great, lots of Teru’s dance techniques that got cut from the anime

- Back in the jail scene Ritsu states he doesn’t remember the kids names so they re-introduce themselves to the audience

- Asahi and Hoshino heating up the spoon/bending spoon/on repeat is very well performed

- Ritsu tries to high-five with with one of the other kids when they escape the jail but finds he has no-one to do it with :(

- Back to Dimple/Mob/Teru - when Dimple-chan(puppet) says “Oh who’s that good looking guy? A model?”, Nadagi pulls a whole bunch of model poses

- When Teru tries to knock the security guard out he screams for AGES leading to one of the funniest moments in the play - he finally is knocked out but when Dimple tries to possess him he takes ages to be possessed - Taa (Teru) breaks character completely and doubles over laughing and Itou (Mob) refuses to face the audience making it clear he is losing it as well

- Muraki is creepy looking but his cloak is see-through and sparkly - his actor plays him as quite a timid guy

- Great visual gag with Mob throwing Koyama around and then sending him through the stage wall

- Ishiguro has a moment where he talks to the audience/the new recruits where he shows off the Claw face mask available as part of the merch

- Great fight choreography between SG!Dimple and Gen (played by Baba) - ends with SG!Dimple pulling his trousers down

- Teru tasing people left and right in this play…

- Great stage effects in Teru vs Miyagawa - Teru tases Miyagawa as well

- Tsuchiya calming down Mukai is lovely - followed by Mukai finding a puppet that she believes hasn’t been destroyed by Mob and getting excited - but the head rolls off so she breaks down crying again

- ((My stream cut here so I didn’t see the start of the Ritsu vs Shou interaction and whether or not he recognised Shou from their interaction in stage 2))

- We see a little Shou vs Ritsu - Ritsu flings an array of spoons at Shou - Shou lands a punch that sends Ritsu off stage

- Character design for Takeuchi has been corrected slightly from the anime

- Matsuo vs SG!Dimple stage effects are great. They’re both very flashy actors which creates fantastic visual comedy

- Matsuo takes off his jacket like he’s at a strip club - it’s all very flamboyant and fun

- ((Stream cut again so I didn’t actually see the joke, but some kind of adlib happens with Reigen in the taxi scene that causes Baba to break character))

- When Mob uses his powers to blow Takeuchi away someone comes on stage with a leafblower to blow his hair away

- Screen goes black and we cut back to Shou delivering the final blow on Ritsu. Shou says someone interesting is coming and leaves stage for Mob’s entrance

- Mob finds Ritsu passed out and holds him, finds he’s breathing but won’t forgive who did this to him

- Mutou enters and stalks around the back and creates the image of Ritsu dead on the floor with a knife in his chest for Mob which causes his freak out

- “What a great pair of brothers” - Shou leaning over Mob and Ritsu’s passed out bodies

- Shou floats Mob and Ritsu into the room with Sakurai/Teru/Ishiguro

- Small cut away to Reigen - he sees 500 yen on the ground and immediately runs to go pick it up

- Mob and Ritsu’s hug is very emotional - Ritsu is more panicked asking Mob if he’s okay and Mob is more emotional responding than the anime

- Mob pats Ritsu’s head to calm him down

- Visual gag where Shou steps on Ishiguro’s shoe - Ishiguro freaks out trying to clean it and Muraki offers emotional support

- Guy walks into the room with Sakurai/Muraki/Ishiguro/Matsuo/Shou and informs them “The boss is coming”, which piques Shou’s interest and he comes along to meet “the boss”

- Play then gives us a “5 minutes earlier” scene. Baba’s performance in the Claw break-in is more on the eccentric/aggressive side than the calmer calculating tone Sakurai had - changes the atmosphere for the scene

- The whole scene with Reigen saving the lab kids is redone to be so eccentric with everyone chanting BOSS! BOSS! BOSS! at the end for Reigen

- When Reigen starts making a comment about Teru’s wig and cuts himself off to not offend him, he goes to Mob like “wtf” and Mob whispers in his ear what happened

- Shou included in the scene when Ishiguro etc. face off against Reigen

- ((ARGH my stream cut out again, when it came back Shou had moved over to Reigen’s side - probably some good dialogue there between them that I missed))

- Shou says to Reigen ‘Give me back my 10,000 yen’ - Shou decides to stand back to watch the show

- When Ishiguro attacks, Mob protects Shou as well as everyone else

- We have Shou/Teru/Mob/Ritsu/Reigen all on one side vs the Claw guys on the other (Ishiguro/Sakurai/Muraki/Matsuo)

- When Reigen does his Anti-Esper Drop Kick, they choose to translate this in English as “Dropkick to the espers”

- Shou: ‘You’re really taking [Muraki] on? lol’ Reigen: ‘Shut UP you brat’

- When Sakurai attacks Reigen (first time), Ritsu helps him up

- Lots of good banter between Shou and Reigen (”Stop calling me ‘old guy!’”)

- Shou sits to the side and enjoys the show while Sakurai/Muraki/Ishiguro/Matuso vs Reigen/Mob/Ritsu/Teru happens, makes some comments (ie. “Damn you’re in a pinch, whatcha gonna do now?”)

- When Reigen is getting sucked up by the anti gravity bubble, Shou helps Teru/Mob/Ritsu out with saving him

- Sakurai cutting off Teru’s wig is made into such a Dramatic moment

- Shou joins the fight against Ishiguro - Ishiguro manages to knock him out of the field and Reigen expresses concern (‘Oh crap! Kid are you okay!’)

- Lots of stage theatrics - now that Shou is no longer in play scene plays out as it does in the anime

- Lots of Reigen protecting Mob and leading him away from danger until the climactic moment where Mob decides to fight

- Mob’s scream of ‘Shishou!!!’ is filled with emotion - Reigen collapses quickly and without theatrics, facing the audience

- He doesn’t get a cut in his jacket, nor does he remove it

- When Reigen destroys Matsuo’s pet - ‘Oh Jesus I’m sorry I didn’t mean to destroy your toy’

- More protective Reigen - puts his arm out to protect Teru and Ritsu & get them behind him

- Reigen’s “Purifying Salt Punch” -> English given as Prime Salt Punch

- ‘It’s rude to wear a mask when talking to people!’ - here his mask doesn’t come off - unsure if intentional

- ((The bento story is REALLY well performed comedically but doesn’t land with attending audience))

- Sakurai shoots Reigen and Reigen catches the bullet

- Reigen uses the spray to spray his armpits

- Reigen at Muraki’s forehead “what is this? A doorbell? Ding dong ding dong”

- Lab kids start making fun of Muraki as well (Rei: What is that, cosplay?)

- Rei has a crush on Reigen in the same vein as her crush on Ritsu - Calls him cool and stuff and tries to reach for him

- Mob: ‘Having powers doesn’t make you popular’ Rei: ‘Lame.’ Reigen: ‘Well there you have it.’

- Shou comes back in centre stage and knocks Ishiguro out - goes to Reigen and says it’s time to repay the debt he owes Reigen - knocks Ishiguro out fully as per anime/manga

- As Shou leaves he pats Ritsu on the shoulder

- When Reigen says ‘is this an evil spirit?’ He hold his nose as if Dimple stinks, then grabs his head and shakes him around. Gets some salt from his pocket and throws it at Dimple

- Rei goes up to Sakurai and asks to date him

- Shou goes on the phone on stage top level and calls Touichirou as per manga/anime lines

FINAL SCENE

- Shou returns to S&S - as it turns out Reigen had the 10k stuck in his pocket the whole time and returns it to Shou

- Mob and Ritsu (with a bag) enter S&S while Shou is still there but leaving - Mob thanks Shou for helping them and asks Ritsu to do the same - Ritsu complies

- Shou looks back at Reigen, then toward Ritsu and Mob and tells them all they’ll meet again

- Mob and Ritsu share a heartfelt moment - “Ritsu, you’re amazing” - “No you’re the amazing one Nii-san”

- Ritsu gets out Takoyaki for Reigen/Mob/Ritsu to enjoy and Dimple joins them

ENDING SONG - ‘mob.’

https://katyatalks.tumblr.com/post/659597484715278336/mob-ed-for-mp100-stage-3-a-clash-with-claws

- Itou’s voice is STUNNING

CAST COMMENTS

- Kawaharada Takuya (Teru) addresses the fact that he’s the person who laughed the most out of everyone

- Nadagi says he wants to do a stage 4 and that’s the general vibe with everyone  and it’ll be nice if the anime gets a S3 too

- Lots of talk about stage 4 and it only being possible if everyone comes together

- Itou: ‘Us being able to do this again out of the blue so suddenly is thanks to all of you’

ENCORE

- Itou and Baba

- Lots of crying from Itou relating to covid and how it has cut the audience - he is grateful but he’s still upset about it - Baba gives him a huge hug

[asknarashikari]

Part 3 of the Ryoga and Zox drama: after the chase scene, an unconscious Ryoga is dropped off back in Touma’s world by Zox and Kaito (thankfully dressed this time). Explanations ensue, Kaito chastises Zox that his teasing landed him there in the first place, and Touma points out Kaito has a hickey

Damn, Ryouga doesn’t get a break huh... 

(I mean, he deserves not to get one, but still.)

“Special delivery for Kamiyama Touma~”

Touma reached for his pen, ready to sign for the package, only to shriek as the unconscious body of Shindai Ryouga was unceremoniously tossed onto his desk. The ink from the well on his desk splattered everywhere, including the swordsman’s uniform.

“What- Ryouga-san?!” he exclaimed. “And...” he looked up at the ‘delivery person’ who brought the ‘package’. “Zox?! What are you doing here again?!”

“You should be careful where you put your friends,” snarked the pirate at the author, gesturing to Ryouga. “He snuck on board my ship and tried to murder me.”

“I can hardly call him a friend, seeing as he’s also tried to kill me before,” Touma replied sardonically. “And I’m pretty sure I know why he wanted to kill you,” he added with a roll of his eyes. “I saw that card you gave Reika-san. And the photo. Of course he was gonna be pissed.”

“Not my fault he went along with that plan,” Zox stated coolly. 

“Ah, mou, Zox, just apologize properly already! If you hadn’t teased him about it he wouldn’t have done something like that!” Touma tilted his head at the newcomer, who smacked Zox pretty hard on the chest. “I’m sorry about him, he’s usually not like this...” he laughed awkwardly.

“I’m always like this. It’s only you I’m sweet on, baby~” Zox winked at the other man. 

“Don’t start!” the other guy said warningly. He turned to Touma. “I’m Goshikida Kaito, by the way. I’m Zox’s friend.”

“Is that what they call it on your world?” Touma asked with a raised brow. “Pretty sure friends don’t call each other ‘baby’. Or leave matching hickies on each other.”

“E-Eh?!” Kaito and Zox said together, slapping their hands to their necks- right where the hickies were, on opposites sides of each other’s necks. 

Touma shook his head, then at the unconscious swordsman on his tabletop. “Judging from the size and location of those, I’m guessing he got an eyeful.” 

“Yeah! He tried to kill me while I was naked! Not cool!” Zox complained. 

“Well, he tried to kill me for betraying the guild I was never officially part of, so get in the fucking line,” Touma snapped. 

Zox and Kaito stared at him, blinking in shock. He sighed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to snap at you guys. I’ll make sure his sister picks him up.”  He scratched his head. 

“What are with these two siblings, anyway?” Zox asked. “Are they always... such hardasses?”

“Believe me, if I knew, I’d tell you.” Touma replied.

[meimi-haneoka]

LOL....Chapter 42.

I mean, I might have become quite boring by now because ALL the chapters I use these shocked gifs, but.....I can’t help it, every time the chapters bring some shocking factor!! XD

Let me just start this reaction post with one happy announcement:

Remember my battles against illegal early spoilers on the internet? How it hurt the fandom (because people who wanted to wait for the official release were forced to avoid social media or block stuff) and the franchise as well?

Well, I’m glad to announce that chapter 42 has been the first chapter ever to not have any early spoilers leaked before the official releases, ever since Clear Card started in July 2016. It took almost 4 years and a revolution by the hands of CLAMP to obtain this result (with the early release of chapters FOR FREE on the official website in 6 languages).

Beware, I’m not celebrating just yet because next month we may get spoilers circulating again, but this chapter was really nice to be discovered all together, legally, without hurting anyone? It was a nice feeling and since it seems we might be approaching the finale, I think it’s important that we enjoy these chapters all together in a proper way.

Well, after this introduction, let’s delve into Chapter 42 of Clear Card!!

Kaito is a walking dead man

I loved the color splash page. It always makes me happy to see Akiho and Sakura together, but this time the theme is a lot more serious. This is getting intense and the color page reflects that. This is also the first black background in a while, I always loved illustrations with black background even in the old manga.

Sooo last chapter we were left with Sakura overthrowing Kaito’s time magic and still conscious and moving. And shocked to see Syaoran and Kaito fighting. Of course Kaito needs to put a patch on this, because he knows Sakura is that powerful, but he doesn’t want her to know any of this, so he starts to “attack” her with time magic, I believe? And prince charming cleverly thinks that he might better call forth the strongest Sakura Cards in the deck, just to be sure to protect Sakura adequately. Even Kaito recognizes that was a wise move. Sakura is more confused than ever, behind the spirit shield formed by Light & Dark.

Syaoran is so fucking fed up with this that he demands to know why Kaito is here in Tomoeda. He candidly admits that he wants Sakura to produce the new Cards. Syaoran is like “No shit, Sakura’s already been producing a shitton of cards” “But she hasn’t produced the one I want”. When Syaoran asks which card that would be, Mr. I-am-an-asshole-and-I-know-it replies “If I told you that, I fear you’d get terribly angry”

Guys, the glare Syaoran gives Kaito after this one is like.......death sentence. The amount of rage accumulated in this short kid is frightening. Syaoran might be cool and composed, but y’all remember his temper at the beginning of the old manga, right? That wasn’t “just because”, it’s still part of his personality XDD he was taming his rough sides of his personality for Sakura, but for Sakura he’s well ready to pull them out at any convenience.

Meanwhile, we aren’t sure if Sakura is listening to the heated conversation or not, but I think she isn’t because she keeps shouting “what’s going on?? What happened??” even after Kaito straight up said he’s after her Cards. Seeing her struggling and reaching from behind Light & Dark, who are restraining her, is kinda.....giving me TRC war flashbacks. Yes. You might have seen the tweet that is making me earn lots of “WHY CINZIA”, but I’m like this, I’m an ugly bitch who needs to suffer in company. I’ll make a separate TRC/CCS comparison post after ages, for this. XD

The highlight of the chapter

Kaito reveals that he knows that Syaoran came back to Japan after his mother had a divination of the future that he absolutely needs to stop. And, at that moment, ladies and gentlemen....

IT’S HER. THE STAR OF THE CHAPTER. THE ONE THE FANDOM DREAMED OF SEEING IN THE MANGA.

LI YELAN-SAMA.

This is a huge thing because a character that was exclusively in the anime canon-verse (even though that line has been more and more flimsy lately) appeared in the manga too. Syaoran’s mother, and the Li family in general, were often mentioned both in the old and new manga series, but CLAMP somehow were always careful to never show any graphical portray of it. Now, finally, after so long, we have Yelan appearing in the manga too, and she’s exactly like her anime counterpart. Regal, elegant, beautiful. I was literally trembling with excitement when I saw her!! It was.....gosh it was huge.

But one has to wonder: how the hell does Kaito knows about all this stuff? How much did he investigate on the Li family? It’s kinda easy to imagine when he could do that: for a period, Akiho and Kaito lived in Hong Kong. Right before coming to Japan.

We get, thanks to Kaito, the confirmation that nor he, nor Syaoran, were born with the gift of seeing the future. Kaito can, if he follows all the steps, see some glimpses till a certain degree, but nothing comparable to someone specialized in divination art, let alone a yumemi. Here it is, the cursed term so dear to CLAMP, indicating the ones who can see the future in dreams. Kaito says that Sakura can indeed see the future playing out in her dreams, but it’s a future far from being set in stone. She’s basically a beginner yumemi, with confusing and fragmented visions, I’d say. But when she will grow up, she will be a fully fledged yumemi. Kaito says that it’s for the strong people to decide how the future will go. And here we find again the thematic so dear to CLAMP, the future and the choices made to let it go in a direction, or another one. Kaito starts to call forth the Tina Rie Triax spell. Syaoran is like “the hell I’m letting you get away like this” and is preparing to counter-attack with Raitei Shorai, when The Queen™ decides she had enough and screams “NOOO!”, calling her staff on the spot and activating her power towards Syaoran, switching places with him! She literally forced him out of the picture and took his place!! 

The Queen takes agency

LOOK AT THAT FACE! LOOK AT IT WELL. It’s the same determination she had in this scene:

I knew we would see the results of that determination. When she saw the boy she loves risking his life with someone who was attacking him, she took agency and went to the front row.

You can’t keep Sakura in the sidelines like that.

Kaito is quite suprised by the move. Maybe because he doesn’t understand love or because he didn’t think she would take agency. Either way, Sakura is pointing her staff at him, the same way Syaoran was pointing his sword at him moments ago. You don’t mess with this child, Kaito.

And he must certainly know, because he mutters “That’s too bad” and rewinds time, basically chickening out of the picture. XD

Sakura is back with Tomoyo, Akiho, Sonomi and her father, but she knows something is wrong, and she walks away from them for a while to give birth to a new card!! TRANSFER is the name, and it’s the power she used to switch places with Syaoran. The fact is, she doesn’t remember nor she understands why the hell this card is here. 

While at home Kaito thinks to himself (smile always present but blatantly a mere mask) that he needs to hurry up or he’ll be in a fucking big mess because Sakura resisted his time-stopping magic and the Clear Card survived the time rewinding, Sakura at her own home is a nervous wreck. She calls Syaoran because she has the feeling she saw Light & Dark, they don’t remember, but Syaoran confirms that he feels something is off and has the feeling someone made them forget something. Sakura closes the call promising that she would inform him of anything that would come to her mind, but as she inadvertently knocks her Clear Cards off, they all fall facing backwards, save for one: BREAK.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Chapter 42 ends. Leaving us wondering why Sakura is making this dismayed face. She’s either taking it as a bad omen, or she’s remembering what she saw when she captured BREAK, and what caused the birth of the card in the first place. Not only a soulless Akiho talking nonsense in a pretty dress, but also her boyfriend under the robe of the Mysterious Cloaked Figure. Seemingly about to hurt an unconscious Akiho. That is still an open wound in Sakura’s heart, and it’s pretty clear here.

Guys, what can I tell you, this chapter has been a mixture of wonderful surprises, painful TRC recalls, frustrating time rewindings that show us how Sakura and Syaoran are slowly realizing and fighting Kaito’s fuckery with time....I know a good chunk of the fandom doesn’t like this give-and-take-away, it always seems like the final battle is here, but we are tricked everytime. And yet, I do believe that once the story will be over, and after some time we’ll go back to read Clear Card, the time rewindings will show clearly how gradually Sakura was able to overcome and overthrow Kaito’s magic: first it was a finger, then it was an unexplicable sadness, now a new card and the impression to have seen things, and a general uneasiness because something feels off. The kids were even capable of realizing that they were made to forget something. I bet this graduality will feel more interesting and exciting when we’re not forced to wait 1 month between chapters.

Let me know what you think, too!

[ryouverua]

Trial 4 - Post-Trial (Pre-Execution)

Investigation 1 / 2

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW FEW SHITS I GIVE ABOUT YOUR PREGNANCY DRAMA RIGHT NOW

Glad you care as much as I do, Monokuma.

... Nothing? He’s completely stone faced. What does that mean? Is he shaken at how Shuichi wrest control from him at the very end? Is it regret? Taking the time to mull things over, or brace himself? Something else? I’m pretty convinced he showed a lot more of his true self in this trial than he usually does, so he may be trying to calm himself down. Hmm....

Nice reflex, Kokichi!

H-He’s just going to roll with that? Well, I guess he did get the murder he was hoping for...

MY CUTE LIPS

how dare you make me laugh during such a trying time

Wait, are you saying the memories are being held separately now? You’d think the avatar error would corrupt that kind of data. I guess I might be overthinking things though - I suppose the memory data could be being held separately until Gonta goes back in and is able to retrieve them properly? ... Yeah I’m definitely overthinking this.

OH WELL OKAY NEVER MIND THAT’S APPARENTLY SPOT ON

no way

NO WAY WE HAVE AN ALTER EGO GONTA

ahem, my apologies, ~Gonta Alter Ego~

Well shit, there’s that second self Gonta had been lacking!

FML THEY’RE SO CUTE

WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN PRE-EXECUTION UGH

So we’re establishing that they have the power to do this kind of work, huh? I guess... having a mini-killing game simulator inside another killing game simulator would be too much? I do remember that one image of Kaede with that helmet on her head, but...

Wait so - wait wait wait, doesn’t that mean Gonta Alter Ego knew that real boy Gonta wouldn’t be able to remember what happened in the world?

No seriously, give me a second to think about this -

- I’m 99% sure Gonta wasn’t lying to us when he said he didn’t realize he switched the cables. He did make it sound like it sound like he was following what Himiko was saying.

- Could Kokichi have tricked him into switching them? But then that would a) mean that Kokichi knew what the error would be and how it would affect Gonta and b) fly in the face of everything we saw in the last half of the trial, including absolutely losing it on Gonta when he was incapable of defending himself. He was also sitting on the opposite side of the room, and I’m pretty sure everyone would have kept Kokichi from physically putting together his helmet because, well, come on.

- Is Gonta Alter Ego’s existence dependent on the error, as I mentioned earlier? Monokuma said that he was created using the simulated thought patterns of Gonta via his previous login and combine them with the leftover memories. I wonder if they could do that with anyone else? Or or or -

- Monokuma has very, very easy access to this stuff! What does it say about Monokuma and the whole situation that he has the memory and personalty files on hand like this? Could the computer really be powerful enough for them to have completely - well - scanned their brains in a way that allows him to just pull up Gonta again, after the fact, without Gonta being directly plugged in?

- I... just... keep returning to seeing Kaede and Shuichi in that helmet from way back when, you know? That was supposed to be them losing their talents, but if that’s true (and it isn’t my semi-crack theory about them having downloaded the personalities/memories/etc of previous dead? Ultimates or something - “I want to die”), then that would mean their talents, their beings - because I think it’s fair to say their talent informs their personalities, and vice versa - are literal digital files floating around somewhere that had to be accessible in order for them to be ‘returned’ to them - and man, if Monokuma had access to those, that would help solve how he planned to act on that Necronomicon motive if Angie was able to go through with it!

Interesting how this has been the motive in the first, second and now this chapter, huh? Kirumi might not have included the class in her ‘everyone’, but that was definitely what moved her hand.

meanwhile Korekiyo Shinguuji, you special, awful, special boy...

His weakest points, of course, are always painfully exposed during the trials, and there have been plenty of people willing to comment on them, even when they’re thinking they are being kind about it (and of course, not all of them are). His strengths - rendered useless, nearly immediately.

And his talent - well, other than pointing out the distinct lack of insects in the area, the only time it was ‘used’ was in the disastrous Insect Meet-n-Greet. When it rains, it pours.

Maybe that’s what Gonta needed - not just someone to listen, but someone who could relate to him so strongly. But of course, at this late hour...

Damn, and it changed from ‘able to’ to ‘willing to’.

And there it is - straight from the horse’s mouth. No wait, that’s not right - we got it from the horse’s mouth earlier, but our resident horse is an admitted liar -

I don’t know if he’s so much ‘bad’ as he is being cagey about his reasons.

Wait you what??? So the card key is for a place we haven’t been able to access yet? Where, then? An area of the school we haven’t unlocked yet? A viewing tower - or hell, Kaito’s lab? That would be the prime place to have a (powerful) telescope and we haven’t gotten it yet -  

“Save everyone” - it sounds... less believable from you, but at the same time... I’m just, are you saying it for Gonta’s sake? To trick us? Or are these your real thoughts? You’re a smart guy, Kokichi - you have to know that getting past the obstacle that is Miu here is only a short-term win. From this point on, you’re going to have to live with everyone left, and Gonta isn’t going to be here to protect you...

And hell, if these are - were - your real thoughts, at the time, does that mean you really were thrown off enough in the trial that you threw everything you and Gonta planned to the wind?

So, the meeting we got to peek in on... Man, I really, really want to know how Kokichi was able to figure out Miu was gunning for him. Maybe they’ll explain that next chapter? He’s perceptive, but there’s gotta be a limit - right?

Oh, so that’s - completely - hm. At first it seemed like the motive was ‘the right to see it’ - something for the classmates to fight, or kill over. But now, the way Monokuma is talking - he’s making it sound like seeing the outside itself is enough to drive someone to murder. I am... totally... biased by my VLR-loving ass and still thinking it has to do with them being in space/on a ship, and them either being far, far away from Earth or them being able to see the devastated ruins of Earth after being pelted by meteors.

So, uh, I feel like that motive would work with everyone except... maybe Kaito lmao. N-Not that I think he wouldn't be upset, but I imagine he’d be like, oh fUCK YES WE’RE IN SPACE! And oh, that’s definitely not Earth. There’s no way the Earth was destroyed. It’s totally fine, we just can’t see if from where we are! insert monokuma hitting his head against the wall in the background

So there actually was something in the simulation after all of that? I was 99% at this point that it was all a lie too!

Why do you insist that the motive and the case itself are separate???? Sure, knowing the exact mechanics are important, but knowing what moves the hand and heart in the end are pretty damn important!

This... this had to be when they left near the beginning. Does that mean they were carrying the Flashback Light with them the whole time after that???

OH you little stinker

By the way:

vs

Interesting choice in wording by both of them. Earlier Kokichi said he ‘showed’ Gonta, and here he says he ‘entrusted him with it” - both very much a way of talking about Gonta as if he was at least near him, if not equal to him. However, Kaito is using the term ‘exposed to’ which is very... well, passive, and really makes Gonta out to be the victim. So who do we believe? Kaito’s side, where Gonta is just a hapless victim in all of this? Or Kokichi’s side, where Gonta was a willing perpetrator? We’re going to get more on that, but I think the way they talk about Gonta is so interesting - it’s clear a lot of the classmates ended up putting Gonta on a pedestal via infantilization, something we’ve brought up before, and I (RELUCTANTLY) love how that was used against them all as a weapon.

Also damn it I definitely checked all over the map and found nothing but that was only because Kokichi got to it first >:( 

It’s always interesting to watch how Kokichi uses his status as a liar to get what he wants.

All of the sayings I want to use right now involve horses for some reason, and I swear that isn’t intentional, but what comes to mind immediately is, “you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink.” And of course the inverse is right here - Kokichi led Gonta to the light and chose the exact words that he knew would make him pick it up himself, but unlike what Kaito said ‘Gonta was exposed to it’, which paints the picture of Kokichi unexpectedly blasting him with the light - Gonta practically runs over before shining it on himself. With that said, I’m absolutely not absolving Kokichi of wrongdoing - he is fully aware of how desperately Gonta wants to feel useful. Feelsbadman.jpg

METEORS? RADICAL 6? HINAMIZAWA SYNDROME EPIDEMIC???

FUCKING BRUTAL

But... damn it. No, this makes sense. This was the motive I was struggling with outside of ‘killing in defence of someone else’. Ah, damn it, damn it, Gonta...

ISN’T

WAIT

ISN’T THAT WHAT SHUICHI REMEMBERED HIMSELF SAYING

Man, I can’t imagine how shocking it would be to see someone who is you, with just a few hours of extra memories and a bit more insight separating you, saying something like that.

And he was able to find some reprieve last chapter via Angie, but then she died... Oh, Angie, you were divisive and manipulative as hell and I even found times when you rubbed me the wrong way, but I’m still mad about you going out the way you did. You earned that halo and those wings on your portrait, damn it!

Seeing Gonta like this is breaking my heart. oTL But damn it, ‘outside is hell’. That’s... leading exactly where I think it is, huh...

I’m just struggling with how convenient it was for him to target Miu, who was coming after him! I guess he knew that Miu was creating circumstances for her to murder him away from prying eyes which, of course, worked out in the opposite direction, but still - !

This is a terrible time to push the ‘Gonta is martyring himself for us’ line strategically speaking, which... could mean that either this is from the heart (evidence for - his current sprite, which seems to only accompany the most weighty lines and is far different than his usual crying sprite / evidence against - the way he attacked Gonta in the trial... unless now that the trial is over and the execution is looming, he’s realized their time together is limited?) or this is his way of thanking Gonta for his service, by trying to get him the recognition he craved before he dies? Or something else entirely?

Is this... real, Kokichi??? Is this real??? And possibly a much better use of the ‘despair’ mechanic than DR3 could ever hope to use???

still a stupid name

The shocking thing is how simple this all is when you look at it. The complications came from Miu’s murder plan, and the only thing that implicated Gonta is the avatar setting on Kokichi’s avatar. Without that one clue, they would have absolutely would have implicated Kokichi.

I do enjoy that in the face of ‘death’, he’s still able to make jokes like this. Then again, maybe it’s only because of having Gonta as back-up that he can... 

Yeah, she is not happy about being called out. She’s pretty resolute despite that, which speaks to how confident she is in her work.

Of course, Miu being Miu, she has to say it out loud because her general insecurity is next level.

Aaha never mind about what I said before - this is absolutely because he has Gonta on back up. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was his signal to Gonta to come and ‘save’ him.

Isn’t it amazing that we have now had two killers who both want to get out to ‘help everyone’ and believe they alone can do that in a way no one else can?

He actually made a remark about how Miu’s reason was just an excuse, which - man, ‘your murder isn’t valid but ours is?’ That sure as hell wouldn’t fly in court.

Ugh, and this is why I’m super curious about if the faces they make in the simulation can be manipulated by the user of the avatar or if they are directly informed by how they’re feeling and can’t be controlled. This is a very angry face or someone who has previously described this as a ‘fun killing game’! Is it authentic or not?

I’m not sure if it’s nice of Kokichi to tell Gonta and everyone else that Gonta was able to come up with that plan or not. On the one hand, it really rubs in the fact that everyone was underestimating him. On the other hand, it further dirties his hands to have participated in the cover-up afterwards.

Again... is this more kindness on his part or not? This isn’t a team that real Gonta would ever want to be on, but on the other hand he is validating Gonta as an equal in a way that he was never able to in the regular school life..

Yeah, actually though... fair.

I-I don’t know if I would go so far as saying tricked, Kaito! God, I do love you, but you are making incredibly rash and biased decisions right now!

Real!Gonta is miserable because he killed Miu and Gonta Alter Ego is miserable because he made everyone suffer needlessly and he’s assuming they will continue to suffer as they outlive him and everything is such a damn mess right now fml

Meanwhile Shuichi’s heart is being torn in half which, you know, #relatable

Notably absent: ‘us’. Not please forgive us, please forgive him.

Interestingly enough, it’s changed from ‘their plan’ to ‘Gonta’s plan’ now that he’s casting it in a sympathetic way.

And here we are, on the opposite side of the ‘truth and lies’ theme - being presented with a case where maybe it is better to not know. I can see why Umineko fans really enjoy DRV3 - replace ‘lies’ with ‘fantasy’ or ‘magic’ and we’ve got that same battle being fought out here. Actually, now that I think about it, both had a ‘lower level’ game master obscuring the truth with fantasy/lies with a ‘higher level’ game master pushing the protagonist(s) to find the terrible, bloody truth...

This sprite is a bit closer to his ‘crocodile tears’ sprite so I’m a bit wary, but - hm...

I wonder if their deaths would have been instantaneous, similarly to VLR and their poisoned bracelets, or if it would be a spectacle. Oooh, a terrible thought - if everyone aside from the culprit was dragged off to their own personalized execution...

The fact that Gonta Alter Ego is willing to jump to Kokichi’s aid would mean more if he hadn’t also been so fast to help Kokichi out in Chapter 2. :(

“Role of the villain”, huh? This... if all of this and everything coming after are his true feelings, then...

Shuichi has his role as the detective, and he has his role as the Supreme Leader - but who but you yourself imposed that burden on you???

He’s really trying to create a clear line between Gonta and himself - Gonta is a martyr, who took it upon himself to do a terrible deed on behalf of Kokichi, while Kokichi, the villain extraordinaire, was the bastard who pushed the burden all onto Gonta. How the hell is he going to survive the next chapter??? I swear I keep saying, Kokichi, are you trying to make yourself a bigger target - but seriously, Kokichi, are you trying to make yourself a bigger target here???

He is really not used to anyone coming to bat for him! Especially after that bit about ‘everyone hating him’ this must be like a punch to the gut. 

You will always be a gentleman to me!!!

AH NO FUCK I MEAN WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING BUT -

Shuichi is me right now because - is this, real? Are you legitimately saying that? I... I’m pretty sure you were the one who brought up how Monokuma would never let one of us switch out for the blackened in Kirumi’s trial, or am I just misremembering??? Is it okay for me to be questioning your sincerity right now? I feel awful, but -

He... Maybe he was prepared to get executed, if they landed on him as the criminal. Would Monokuma have let them choose Kokichi as the killer if they got it wrong, or would he really have killed everyone else and left Gonta alive? What if they had tied in the votes? Would Monokuma have executed both of them?

T... This just brings me back to Kaede, but this time it’s directed at Kokichi specifically as well as everyone else...

K... Kokichi turnaround? Maybe? M... Maybe he’ll... actually pull a Kuzuryuu and work with....... us......... why does that not seem likely at all......

I REALLY DON’T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT YOU TWO CAN YOU NOT

H-He has a specific “Gonta!!!” audio clip?! A-And his face here, omg - 

Even now he’s just thinking about what he wasn’t able to do as;lkdfj

NO KOKICHI ACTUALLY CRYING FOR GONTA IS MAKING THIS 100 TIMES WORSE

NO THIS ISN’T - DON’T LET THOSE BE HIS LAST WORDS - NO FUCK NO NO ASL;DFKJ -

WHELP - 

You may be wondering why the screenshots cut off here. The answer is - oh dear god Monophanie just went full ALIEN on us and mY GOD YOU’RE GOING TO KILL OFF GONTA, BUT ALSO HAVE A FUCKING SCYTHER RIP OUT OF HER STOMACH AND GO ON A MURDER RAMPAGE

yeah I was, uh, physically unable to keep screenshotting though the execution

but I can still give you my general thoughts ranging from the eloquent to the general brain babbling:

whY is she getting so big the pregnancy thing is gross enough but -

Oh god she’s swelling up, Gonta’s face is swelling up, everything is terrible -

WHY. WHY OH GOD WHY WHO CAME UP WITH THIS EXECUTION IDEA

Rest in fucking pieces Monophanie/Monotaro, I didn’t expect you both to die but I’m not mad about it

Evil Scyther fUCK NO i-it... ran Gonta through....

And now they’ve been set on fire for NO FUCKING REASON DAMN IT YOU’RE ALREADY STINGING HIM AND HE’S BEEN STABBED - I-I suppose it could be seen as a reverse Celes, considering she was going to go out via fire then was unexpectedly hit by that truck

For that matter this was also very - well, they killed Alter Ego in the first chapter 4, so that’s the obvious reference, but all those insect shots was a bit ‘A Million Fungoes’ too, yeah?

[nobume-date]

Top 10 Husbando

Thanks for tagging me! @lordbunshin @lemonicebar wanted to know my husbando  😉

I believe everyone here definitely have a crushed on 2D characters but it takes more than pretty face, great body, intelligent and super power to be the best husbando IRL or so called IkeDan*. Like, will they be there when we need their help? Will they make us a porridge when we sick? and stuffs...

*IkeDan = Ikemen Danna (イケメン旦那) = The hotties who possess husband material, recently popular word among Japanese women.

Personally I think it’s not fair for anime’s characters because otoge’s characters originally were created to be an ideal husbando. Plus all anime already finished, no more season 4-5-6 with a wedding or happy family story like otoge did. So i’ll go with 5 husbundo from anime fandom and 5 from otoge fandom.

P.S. Srsly, I had a hard time for choosing just 10 husbando from hundreds husbandos in my list.

Anime Husbando

5. Kuroba Kaito @ Magic Kaito KID

This IQ 400, playful and kind gentleman, full-time high school boy, part-time phantom thief is definitely a hero for both boys and girls in fandom. Well, he was born from Gosho Aoyama who wrote Detecive Conan after all, this character surely has a charmingly deep and various dimensions. 

Kaito might be too young to be considered as husbando but with all of his good traits, he’d definitely grow up to be the best one. Besides, I love a sweet & thrill in love life 😉

4. Kinomoto Tōya @ Cardcaptor Sakura 

Touya-niichan is my first love in anime fandom since I was a kid and still have been in my heart until now. Thanks to Clear Card Arc, I have a chance to see him in college version and more striking handsome due to advanced CG technology in anime industry. 

He is cool, kind, athletic and very popular with the girls even he is a bit loner who has only Yukito as a BFF. He did many jobs so that he can pay for college on his own, despite his father is a college professor who could easily pay for his tuition, very impressive responsibility as a mere high school boy. 

He is also good at cooking and helps with house work, yeah husband material. Even he’s always tease his little sister Sakura but that nothing to do with me ;p Well, his caring for family is the best clue for being a potential future husband and father.

3. Karasuma Tadaomi @ Assassination Classroom (VA Sugita Tomokazu 😍)

Who wouldn’t fall for this super cool badass fighter? He’s an elite agent sent from Japan's Ministry of Defense to supervise Koro-sensei. 

Karasuma is a strict but kind man, though he keeps a distance between himself and the students due to his status as an agent and his own professionalism. He is also extremely dense when it comes to love, but isn't so oblivious that he doesn't figure it out eventually. Even though he comes off as distant, he's not completely devoid of emotion and seems to be able to express happiness very rarely; most notably, during violent situations.

Judging from how he taught his students as the physical education teacher in Class 3-E, he must be a strict dad who raise his kids to be a strong fighter both physically and mentally. He is a perfect husbando for waifu who need someone to keep her on her toes. His love life is hilarious and interesting bc his waifu is a b*tch. Well, if you watch this anime you’d know what i mean 😉 Hush hush... I bet he is definitely a wild beast on bed, fu fu 😉

P.S. Let me clear this, I’m not that b*tch but I still need him bc it’s thrill for having such a cool & elite agent as a husbando.

2. Yanagi Kazuma @ Kaze no Stigma (VA Ono Daisuke 😍)

Due to his family circumstance and ex-lover’s tragedy, he has become too powerful and overprotective in an effort to be able to protect those important to him and not to lose them again. Even Kazuma shows his arrogance and egotistic side most of the time, he'll protect people who are naturally weak and have no chance of becoming stronger.

He is a snarky sarcastic and anti-social, rarely interacts with others unless business is involved. But he’s very caring and protect his beloved Ayano and his little brother Ren. He can do house chores and cooking. When he fell in love he’ll be unbelievably sweet and gentle yet still be a big tease making Ayano (and me) doki doki occasionally; e.g. licking a splashed wine on her cheek saying it’s a waste if he don’t drink it, kissing her hair when he confess to her. When he kissed her neck and said “You better get ready because I’m selfish and have a strong desire” I was melted ☺️☺️☺️

P.S. When I finished watching this anime and found out season 2 never come bc the writer had died since 2009 I cried like my own relative died 😭😭

1. Usui Takumi @ Kaichou wa Maid-sama (VA Okamoto Nobuhiko 😍)

You couldn’t count yourself an 2D otaku in Shoujou-Otome line if you don’t know him, he is a LEGENDARY HUSBANDO for Shoujou manga and anime.

He is everything as an ideal husbando for me, looks, brain and talent at everything. Playful but not wishy-washy. Flirt but not creepy. Devoted but not possessed. Helped but not spoiled. These traits also very like Masamune Ikesen too. Despite having dark past about their own families, Usui didn’t strong and friendly as Masamune, well, he’s just a normal high school boy after all 😉

But in manga, he eventually grown up to be a great doctor and also an amazing husbando who let his waifu living apart for a sake of her dream job.... such a board-mind and patient husbando 😊

Otoge Husbando

5. Kirishima Kaoru @ Our 2 Bedrooms Story by Voltage

This aloof, cool, talent editor is MC coworker who emit an aura of “leave me alone” but actually kind & gentle and very cuddle when you’re in relationship like Ieyasu but he’s a straightforward type and isn’t sarcastic or snarky at all.

His stories weren’t exciting or twist like the others but very real and relax.. his coolly cuteness and kindness somehow made me calm, like laying in a corridor under warm sunshine after the battles with all tough guys 😆

Now it’s Wedding Season already and I’m the most lucky bride in the world😊

4. Soryu Oh @ Kissed by the Baddest Bidders by Voltage

Head of Hong Kong’s Mafia who scared everyone away with his scary & cold  vibe but love omrice 😆 Hate women bc they’re reek of perfume and only chase after the rich. Anyway he is a gentleman and the only bidder who treat MC as a human being and protected her from any harms.

When you captivated his heart, he’d turned to be a doting BF who protect you with his life. Even he’s a man with a few word but his expression for love is so deep and intense. On bed? also a sexy beast 😆😆 A special story “Happy Family with Him” also show how wonderful he was as a father.

Now we’ve married and live a happily in NY season 5th already 😊

3. Okochi Minato @ Our 2 Bedrooms Story by Voltage

An ace senior editor of a big shot publisher who is arrogant, big tease and tsundere but his sexy & sweet side made me melt. He is such an sharp-tongue alfa-dog who always mocked MC as a Pomeranian but bickering with him is so much fun. Even he is a super self-confident but he secretly worked out bc he wanted to impress MC with his well toned body when they xxx ☺️ yeah... he’s a bit... horny sexy beast ☺️😆

Even he’s hopeless around the house to the point he could literally explode the kitchen but he tried hard to cook for his beloved fiancée by joining cooking lessons. He always be there to help MC for both work and personal life and also let MC helped him occasionally.

Now it’s Wedding Season 💒 already and I’m so happy with him 😊

2. Oda Nobunaga @ Ikemen Sengoku by Cybrid (VA Sugita Tomokazu 😍)

The tyrant Demon King and a dutiful BF who has an unbearable cute side I couldn’t resist. He called emergency war room to consult how to improve his GF’s mood after 3 days Silence Treat 😆 He was jealous of his own bear avatar 😊 He love Kompeito and secretly(?) steal it from his own kitchen every night😆, etc. So damn sexy and alluring, got me every event, couldn’t keep calm around him. I’ve a bunch of arrogant, intelligent, rich and powerful husbando but no one is as charming as him... srsly.

He’s sweet and kind...when he want to be 😆 An open-mind husbando who is enthusiasm  to learn new things. Also such a dutiful dad who’d read a bedtime stories for his kids every night 😊

1. Date Masamune @ Ikemen Sengoku by Cybrid (VA Katou Kazuki 😍)

Since I played his routes both Dramatic and Romantic in row on last X’mas, I fell hard for this playful dragon and he has been my no.1 since then. Who could refuse he possess a super husband material? Here, here here and here.

[wintersilhouette-blog1]

Day 26 - Event: Aoyama Omotesando X Christmas Event (Evening Show)

Two days in a row to meet my oshis…

I can’t believe that this day came. I mean, last year I celebrated Christmas by doing nothing in particular. I’m glad this year I did something at least that is memorable.

Anyway, I got the ticket to go to this newly established unit, Aoyama Omotesando X. This unit has 30 men from Oscar Promotion, an entertainment unit, and they will challenge themselves in broad range of work, from singing, dancing, modeling, even variety show! I’ve watched two of their Line Live, and I can see how interesting each and every members are. Some of them are well known actors from tokusatsu series, TV series, movie actors, or in 2.5D musicals, but some of them are still new, or recently debuted, or they worked at different fields that are relatively unknown by fans.

The event started from members coming from the back of the room singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” in Japanese, wearing white shirts, or hoodies, or jumpers. Anyway, they introduced themselves, starting from Team A, O, and X. The leader is Kuriyama Wataru, and the vice-leader is Shiono Akihisa, both of them served as the MC.

Highlights from the introduction: 1. Nishime Shun is the mood-maker of the group. 2. Uno Yuuya is the gorilla of the group. 3. Sadamoto Fuuma is the bishoujo of the group. 4. Iwata Tomoki is the one who has an annoying face. 5. Sadamoto Fuuma did a dajare (pun). 6. Nakamura Kaito is the fresh-guy from the group, but there was one member who was pretty young and claimed that he’s fresh (I think it was a member from Team X but I can’t remember who he is), then it (almost) became a war between those two. 7. Tanaka Joshua can’t speak English (which is a surprise for me even though he’s half-American…?) 8. Osada Sean introduced himself as the foreigner (gaijin) of the group.

Then it came to the game corner. If they lose they need to do a batsu game (punishment game). First game was between Team A and Team X. The task is that they were given two minutes to borrow an item from the audience, but there are special conditions. The fastest team to finish (and get it right) gets the point. So the specification of the items were lottery (everyone got different specifications), and the special conditions was: First round: Only from people who has the same birth month. Second round: Only from people who has the same blood type. Third round: Only from the people who likes the same animal as the AOX member.

Highlights of this corner: 1. It should be Team X who won, but because of Fuuma re-checking the item he borrowed from the audience, which is blue item (I think it was an IC card case from Seigaku vs Rikkai) and from someone who’s blood type is A, the MCs said Fuuma is an honest person (yasashii hito), so Team A got the point. 2. Onuma Shota (Team A) had to find someone who has orange coloured item from AB blood type audience (AB blood type is rare, right?!) so he was the last to finish his item hunt. Then because of the incident I mentioned on last point, Team A won this round. 3. Uno Yuuya screamed “Is there anyone who’s favorite animal is gorilla?” He’s a lovely dork, isn’t he? 4. Team X has to do the batsu game (1-2, Team A wins), and there was an electric pen, so it will give an electric shock. When one of Team X’s members got shocked, the pen fell to Fuuma’s direction, making Fuuma so terrified, and Team A members were like, “How dare you to hurt Fuuma?!” Then during the shocking self time (Yuuya tried that pen and got shocked by it also LOL), basically Team A members were protecting Fuuma. Conclusion: Fuuma protection squad is born. Second game was the gesture game. So each team, consisting of five people each, was given a situation, and they have to act it out and freeze. More similar and/or same poses, higher points the team got. The battle was between Team A and Team O. This game was made in two rounds for each respective teams.

Highlights of the game: 1. Uno Yuuya and one of the Team A members (Can’t recall the member) went for the same pose, and they kind of declared that they are the new combi. After that, Yuuya hugged that guy, continued by sexily seducing him which made the crowd screamed. Then he imitated the scream with fangirling body movements (I love Yuuya. He’s an ultimate dork). 2. Team O also has a combi, but they didn’t do anything special in particular. 3. This game is won by Team O, which they were really happy because they said that in the afternoon show, Team A hasn’t lost a single game. So, all Team A members must drink nigai ocha (I might translate this as bitter tea, although it sounds awkward). 4. One of Team A members said that Fuuma shouldn’t drink the tea (take it as “poor Fuuma, I don’t want him to get hurt…”) so one of the other Team A members should drink two cups, which of course, that targeted member refused (I can’t remember who’s the target member sorry…). 5. Due to solidarity, Nakada Hiroki, who served as the MC for this corner, drank the tea as well. 6. Uno Yuuya said that he loves drinking nigai ocha, because it’s good for health purposes. 7. Basically everyone in Team A drank the tea and the reaction was priceless. Some fell down, some screamed, Fuuma’s reaction was really calm compared to his teammates and I saw how he suffered from drinking that tea (poor Fuuma…). The only member who has no reaction, obviously, Uno Yuuya. Next time, please give him one bottle of nigai ocha to drink. After this segment ends, it changed to Team X’s talk show, and they were wearing suits which are the same as the pamphlets. The highlight from this segment is Iwata Tomoki who can’t shut up talking about his annoying face (urusai kao) and he was into it (and proud of his annoying face as well LOL). I think he mentioned about him being surprised when he woke up and looked at the mirror, he got rid of it because his face was surprisingly annoying. 

Yes, I get it, Tomoki. Your face is annoying, just like you said. After the talk show, Team A members came out wearing suits, and they have to to love confession. The audience who got their number called are free to choose the 30 members of AOX to do one of the five scenes given. The ones who did it was Nishime Shun, Iijima Hiroki, and Nakada Hiroki. I kind of zonked out for this segment, because I’m not a big fan of love confessions that make girls go crazy. Still, it was really funny to see this segment.

Then, present time! Three audiences are eligible to choose one member, and they can choose to have a cheki with them (polaroid photo), kabedon (basically getting cornered on the wall), or the member said “daisuki dayo” to them. Two of the girls let the members choose it for them (Iijima Hiroki and Nakada Hiroki), and one other girl chose for cheki with Kuriyama Wataru. The funny thing about the kabedon is one of the members brought a board, written “kabe” (壁) which means wall, and hold it behind the girl who will get kabedon from the member she chose. Another hilarious thing was the member who hold the board got asked, “How does it feel to hold (or to be…?) the wall?” Man, it was funny to see this segment. After the present segment was over, the members asked us to sing Jingle Bells, and they went around the audience. I called my oshis’ names but they didn’t recognize me. But when I called Sean and said hi to him, he was surprised. Maybe he didn’t expect that one of the audience will speak to him in English…? But, I’m happy that he responded to me.

Lastly, the members gave us one more present, which is plastic balls that has their sign on it. I didn’t get one, but I’m pretty fine with it. I’m happy that I can see them at least on stage. For this event, we have miokuri, so we can do a high touch with all members of the unit. I repeat, all members. I felt sorry for most of the members, which I can’t seem to remember their names (and how they arrange their hair, some of them looked really similar so I can’t differentiate from one another).

My miokuri highlights: 1. Iwata Tomoki was really happy that I knew his name. I said, “Tomoki-kun, kyou wa arigatou gozaimasu!” (Translation: Tomoki-kun, thanks for today!) Then he replied, “Arigatou gozaimasu! Iwata Tomoki desu! (Translation: Thank you! I’m Iwata Tomoki!) I think he’s trying to emphasize himself so the audience who came can remember his name. 2. For most of the members, due to super fast miokuri (and the staffs were pressuring the audiences intensely) I just said arigatou gozimasu or Merry Christmas in broken katakana, which made most of the members surprised that I’m actually a foreigner (which my face looks like a Japanese and I tend to get mistaken to be Japanese as well). I am so sorry, guys… Please forgive my broken katakana Japanese… 3. I spoke English to Sean and he was really happy. I said, “Sean, Merry Christmas!” and he responded “Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too!” I am more than happy that I can interact in English actually. 4. Few days before the Christmas event, me and my two friends were talking about Fuuma, and said that we want to see Fuuma’s shocked or stuttered reaction. So, after talking to my other friends, I decided to say Merry Christmas in English to him. His reaction? He was surprised, I noticed that. His face reaction wasn’t that utterly suprised though, but he can respond thank you in English in split seconds, and his pronunciation was good as well! I really appreciate him for responding in English to me! To be honest, I would like to say do your best in learning English, but again because of the miokuri was too fast, I can’t. Fuuma, I look forward to talk with you again. If possible, in English! 5. I was really sad during Seigaku Team Party because Yuuya couldn’t participate in the miokuri, and I’ve prepared a line for him already! But I was really excited to meet him, and I said, “Yuuya-niichan~!” And his response was really really cute, oh my goodness I love Uno Yuuya so much. He was really happy, then he started jumping and high touching me again and again, which made me responded the same as well. Then he waved at me and said bye-bye. Remembering this made me soooooooooooo embarrassed, because I really want to meet Yuuya and talk to him. He looks really really friendly and nice, also lovable. Uno Yuuya, I’m so grateful to meet and interact with you, even though it was short, but thank you! I hope we can meet again and talk more >< 6. The miokuri ended with Nakada Hiroki. Meeting him gave me a shock, because I saw him on Tsukisute Rabbits Kingdom, and I admired his dancing and stage presence. Seeing him face to face made me melt, and I love his smile. His dimples are so cute oh my goodness. 7. Yuuya’s dimples are also cute. I love guys with dimples. 8. I found it funny that the miokuri started with someone with an annoying face (Iwata Tomoki) and ended with someone with a really charming face (Nakada Hiroki). This is my report for the Christmas event. To be honest, I enjoyed it a lot, but I kind of felt hard to know at least the names of the members. I did expect that they will have a name tag attached to make it easier for the audience to recognize who is who (when they were wearing white shirt, not suits), but at least I still can enjoy the event! Some last highlights from this event: 1. Moriya Shun (Team O) has a really funny face. You just can’t help it but to laugh at his face. 2. One of the members showed his six-packed abs in front of the audience during introduction. 3. Iijima Hiroki’s goods (I don’t know which one) was sold out. After thoughts: I do enjoy this event, and I laughed a lot, especially Yuuya. Man, he’s awesome on stage, and I love his interaction with fans. Fuuma was really cute, his teammates kept protecting him throughout the event, which I can relate that he’s a lovable member (Fuuma is lovely). Most Team A members were really talkative and noisy, and I do wish to see more members being talkative. I enjoyed how non-Team A members, such as Moriya Shun and Nakamura Kaito being talkative on stage. I do expect for more exciting events coming from this unit!

[acetokens]

My (post game) opinions on the ndrv3 cast

Alright, before the game came out I made this post where I basically vomited out my opinions on how I felt about the newly revealed ndrv3 cast onto a post and it was 50% jokes, 50% venting at fangirls. But now I've actually played the game, delved into the fandom and looked at the changes between the Japanese and English versions, I feel I can make a more genuine list of how I feel about all these good kids that deserved better. I realize my opinions are just that, and I’m probably yelling into the void here. But I felt I had to do a followup to the last post because MY GOD WAS I WRONG ABOUT (MOST) THINGS. I've listed every character in ‘favorite to least favorite’ order for convenience sake. Also this post will contain Spoilers. You have been warned.

Placed under a break for your skipping convenience. Ya’ll are welcome.

1. Himiko Yumeno - I absolutely adore everything about Himiko. Her design, her lazy attitude, her voice (NYEH), her development across the game to become a more driven and energetic person...I found her really funny, really cute and oddly relatable. Himiko is probably in my top 5 DR characters of all time. Which is even crazier when I remember she’s one of the few survivors. I've never had a favorite character who survives a killing game before. So unlike past Dangan Ronpa games where my interest sorta dies off by Chapter 6, Himiko kept me fully invested in everything until the end. She’s a special bean and I love her.

2. Gonta Gokuhara - Continuing the DR trend of a Big Guy who’s a Big Friend, Gonta was so good and so pure and so friendly and deserved so much better. He was always trying to do his best and protect everyone until the very end. R.I.P Gonta. You were a true gentleman. Chapter 4 can suck my ass.

3. Tenko Chabashira - I literally D E S P I S E D Tenko when she was first revealed. I hated her stupid, sexist guts. But come Ndrv3′s release and Tenko turned out to be a dorky, kind, protective and strong willed girl who was skilled enough to be admirable but pathetic enough to be pitiable at the same time. I loved her undying adoration of Himiko (even if it was a bit creepy at times) and the two make a really cute ship. I was expecting some kind of tragic backstory in her FTE’s to explain why she hates men (I believe she mentions a drunken father at one point, and I really wish they went more into that), and the lack of a reasonable explanation for such a strong hatred is what prevents her from sharing (or even taking) the top spot in my book. But misandry aside, Tenko is a Great Gal and I wanna hug her. Although she’d probably bodyslam me.

4. Kirumi Tojou - Kirumi was my favorite when all the characters were revealed at first. I made multiple posts about how I’d die for her and how she was beautiful and whatnot and I was confident about two things when the game came out: 1) She’d be my favorite. And 2) She’d die - following in the footsteps of all previous ‘best girls’ before her. And well, I did really like her. Just...not as much as I thought I would. Kirumi is efficient, brave, elegant, caring and has a really cool design. But her talent occupies most of who she is as a person, and she isn't too dissimilar to most maid characters in anime or manga. So it made her quite predictable at times and I feel they could’ve done so much more with her..ah well. Kirumi is still a super awesome maid and a great Mom. Even if she hates being called that.

5. Kaede Akamatsu - Ahh...I remember when I was wishing someone else would be our protagonist when she was first announced...I think I cursed it. Because Kaede was just *incredible*. She was headstrong, perceptive, kind and left such a big impact on me after Chapter 1. You know that ‘Do It For Her’ meme? Yeah, that about summarizes the rest of Ndrv3 for me. Also Kaede is a huge gay and all the Ndrv3 girls are her girlfriends, pass it on.

6. Ryouma Hoshi - Congratulations to Ryouma for being the only non-standard design character not to be terrible. Far from it, in fact. Ryouma is a badass! A lil’ badass with such a depressing backstory and death that when they showed his motive video, I let out a single manly tear. Or several. Or many. I just...I just want this man to be happy...

7. Miu Iruma - Miu has zipped up and down my lists more than any other character. I had her ranked highly pre-game, lowly during the game, and mid/high post-game. Her design and talent are really cool and she makes several neat inventions over the course of the game, but her personality was so damn prickly and vulgar that I found her really offputting while she was alive. It was only after finishing her FTE’s and seeing her Love Hotel scene that I realized holy shit this girl has some serious trust and abandonment issues. It put all of her behavior in perspective and I began to feel really sorry for her all of a sudden. The hurt/comfort potential here is just WAITING to be uncovered but, alas, most Miu fanfics I've come across are just smut or crackfics. Out of all the Ndrv3 girls, Miu deserves the most headpats. Lots and lots of headpats.

8. Kaito Momota - A good, supportive friend and an effective comic relief. His optimism was a bit grating for me now and again (I never like it when DR plays the ‘’Oh we should just believe in him/her because s/he’s our friend :)’’ card because of how biased it always is. Like, DR will sometimes bend over backwards and completely 180 its own rules to make sure certain characters survive. In a game where finding the truth by objective evidence and fact is key, the times where it just says ‘’nah fuck the truth who needs proof just b e l i e v e’’ just feel so...stupid). But criticisms of the series aside, Kaito is a bro and he’s great. Who doesn’t love the luminary of the stars?

9. Kokichi Ouma - I realise putting the most popular character at 9th is going to make hoards of fangirls despise me but!!!! I don’t dislike Kokichi. In fact I like him a lot. His character is probably the most enjoyable to analyze out of everyone, his interactions are hilarious but also disturbing, the Kokichi memes are funny, and I too think the changes they made to his dialogue in the English translation was utter bullshit (almost as greater character assassination as Mukuro in the DR3 anime). But, I really love most of the characters in the game which leaves characters I’m torn on (like Kokichi or Kiyo) hovering at a position which makes it seem like I dislike them when actually I enjoy them immensely. Just...not as consistently as some of the others. Also Chapter 4 was an kick to the nads that I can’t get over. Sorry Kokichi.

10. Korekiyo Shinguuji - I was prepared to LOVE this guy so much. Seriously. I was ready for the moment where it would turn out creepy noodle man would be turn out to be a Wholesome noodle man. But uh, I think I’m with the rest of the fandom when I say that Korekiyo’s reveal as the SHSL incestuous serial killer made me drop him faster than Kirumi dropped in her execution (sorry). So, now I've establish Kork is the *real* Worst Boy...why did I put him at 10th? Why not 15th? Especially considering he killed Tenko? Truthfully, it’s the memes. Just...the Kork memes. And the fact he’s such an awful person and so obviously a murderer that it becomes genuinely hilarious to me. And his design is my favorite out of all of them. I’m so split on him. So, so split...

11. K1-B0 - Keebo made me laugh a bunch of times, and I enjoyed him more than I thought I would initially. Also his upgrades in Chapter 6 were badass as fuck. But I just don’t really feel the same affection for him like I do other characters. I’m afraid cute robot girls will always be my weakspot. Cute robot boys...not so much. (Although I’m all for Agender! Keebo that’s my jam).

12. Shuichi Saihara - This is the point in my list where I finally reach true neutral. I have no feelings on Shuichi either way. He’s deeper and has a more interesting plot arc than Makoto, which makes him a more effective protagonist in my opinion. But Hinata will always be the best protagonist in my book. And I just keep picturing what it would’ve been like if Kaede survived instead...

13. Rantaro Amami - I never understood why he was uber popular before the game came out and I don’t think I understand why he’s so popular now either. I have no negative feelings on the guy; he’s mysterious and has a ‘big brother’ attitude that I like. But the poor dude just died too quickly for me to feel anything for him. 

14. Maki Harukawa - I only dislike three characters in this game. Maki is one of them. I knew *exactly* what kind of character she was going to be and I knew I wouldn’t like her much and I knew she was going to survive. I didn’t guess she was going to be an assassin! But outside of that, There isn’t much going for me for me. The tsundere is never an archetype I like and the fact the deaths in Chapters 2 and 5 are partly her fault and no one calls her out on it is kinda frustrating also. 

15. Angie Yonaga - Angie’s creepiness is her most appealing trait to me. That should explain how low the bar is set here. Its difficult to write what I feel about her without coming across as a salty atheist (because most of her problems revolve around her use of her god to manipulate people) so I’m just going to leave it there.

16. Tsumugi Shirogane - Y’know I distinctly remember labelling Tsumugi as ‘’Hifumi but likable’’ on my previous Ndrv3 opinion post. I was wrong. She was hovering around mid/low level for me while I played the game, and I often forgot she existed (kinda funny considering her self admitted plainness) and her references were quite obscure a lot of the time so I didn’t find her funny either. I didn’t dislike her, I just forgot her. Then Chapter 6 happened and everyone knows the rest. It’d be difficult to truly ‘like’ Tsumugi after her reveal as the mastermind, after all. Although she was certainly entertaining when she started cosplaying as all the previous characters and I did like how her eyes glowed when she went all DanganRonpa crazy. I did actually consider putting her above Angie for those reasons, but if I dropped Kokichi’s placement because he killed Gonta then I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t slamdunk Tsumugi into last place for technically being responsible for everyones’ deaths as well (well, responsible as part of Team DanganRonpa. I understand it wasn’t *entirely* her behind it all). You know there’s a problem when *Hifumi* looks pure in comparison...

If you read through all of this, then congratulations? I don’t know how to end long ass posts like this...just pretend I said something witty. 

I need sleep.

[sanctferum]

OK, Free Time Chapter 2!

OK before we begin, I was thinking about the prologue, and I remembered Shuichi told Kaede that Maki didn’t seem like the Ultimate Child Caregiver, and that we very conspicuously have not been allowed in her Ultimate lab. Not saying her real talent is something else, but this is something to keep in mind.

I wanna get Kokichi’s unique trial skill, because I suspect it will let me shoot a lie bullet without taking damage if it misses. But what would he like?

Kokichi’s still hiding from Kaito’s fist.

What would he like...a mummy’s hand?

Seems to work.

Kokichi claims his organization controls the entire world, and is in control of every mafia out there. But’s he’s keeping them from fighting in turf wars, since he wants peace in the world. I wonder if a single word of that including “is” and “the” was true.

Oh, even more! He blackmails politicians and manipulates the stock market whenever he feels like it. Uh-huh.

Also, his subordinates aren’t rescuing him because they don’t like him. And now that Shuichi knows too much...Kokichi will eventually kill him. Unless he’s lying. God this guy is a little shit.

Next free time event! I’ll hang out with Kokichi again. He thinks we’re here to beg for our life. And he claims to be serious about eventually killing us.

Beg on our knees and slit our stomach? What do we look like, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu?

Kokichi challenges us to a game. If we win, we get to live. Sure, let’s go for it!

...The game is Yugioh?

The Shadow Realm? Sounds like a place with lots of jelly-filled donuts if you ask me.

We each pull a card from a deck and whoever has a bigger number wins.

The Heart of the Cards...

Kokichi draws a seven, and we draw...also a seven.

“Monster Reborn card” Do I get to take a card from the graveyard and add it to my hand?

Oh, a tie doesn’t count. He’s gonna kill us anyways. After three more events in our life, at least. Hey, look at that, there’s exactly 3 more free time events left to max him out.

Evening announcement. Just Monodam this time...The other Monokubs are on “work duty”?

Shuichi reflects on the will to live...Ryoma has thrown that will away...Kaede had that will, but was unable to survive...what of himself? What reason does he have to live, exactly?

As he slumbers...Monotaro, Monosuke, and Monophanie sneak in...and leave behind something as they sneak back out...

Monokuma theater, featuring The Bird by Alfred Hitchcock. In order to properly prepare for college exasm, he says, you must get rid of distractions such as comic books and video games...but Spike Chunsoft games are specially made to improve your focus, so they’re fine. Wow. Get some lying tips from Kokichi, you awful fuck.

Shuichi wakes up to Monokuma talking to him next to his bed. It’s still nighttime.

Love Key? The thing we got from the Casino?

It unlocks the Kumasutra Hotel? I knew that place had to be there for a reason!

It lets you be in someone’s fantasy. What?

Uh...OK...this is weird, what do I do?

Kaito...?

What’s he dreaming about? Facing us in some sort of game?

Kaito wanted to conquer the sky, and...oh, an airplace race?

We’ve each won 99 races...and the next will be our last...but Kaito doesn’t want it to end...

In his dreams, Kaito dreams of going into space...exploring the universe...but...he has something he wants to say to Shuichi first...

As we go to enter the final race, the bell rings and Shuichi wakes up. The Monokubs mention having left a present in everyone’s room, then sign off.

No more love key...

There’s a monopad-like item on the table.

A “Kubs Pad”...

A motive video...but the Monokubs gave Shuichi the wrong one...it’s Kaito’s...

Kaito’s parents or grandparents...his grandparents, it looks like...

They want him to live...for his sake, and their sakes too...and I bet they got killed by Monokuma afterwards...

“unfortunate accident”...yeah, thought so...

He’s not in his dorm room...to the dining hall! But first, talk to Keebo.

Everyone’s gathered in the dining hall...they must have all gotten their own motive videos.

The motive videos were all mixed up, according to Kiyo...hmmm.

Maki’s got the right of it...she ignored the tablet entirely, since she figured it would be something stupid.

So Shuichi got Kaito’s video...Gonta got Tsumugi’s video...and so on and so forth...

Keebo won’t let people exchange the pads...lest they get a motive personal to them, a motive to kill.

Ryoma wants to see his motive...perhaps seeing whatever is on it might give him the will to survive?

Kokichi thinks Monokuma’s making the Ultimates suffer because they’re trying to co-operate...and therefore, everyone should work alone instead of together. Idiot...Monokuma’s gonna make you suffer either way.

Shuichi is not down with that idea...Kaede’s death would have been for nothing if that was the case...

Kokichi tricks Gonta into following him...here’s hoping Kokichi didn’t get Gonta’s video...

Everyone starts asking Kirumi do take care of their shit, and then fucking off.

Himiko seems to be in some sort of funk. What was on her video? Who’s video was it? She isn’t saying anything, and that makes me worried.

Some people plan to show the motives to others. Others don’t want to see them. Tension rising...

Shuichi can’t afford to get depressed...for Kaede’s sake.

Free time! Time to talk up Kokichi before he kills someone (possibly)!

Kokichi and Gonta are in the Shrine of Judgement, but Gonta will talk to Kokichi later, so we can hang out with him.

Kokichi wants to have a tea party, so he drags Shuichi to the dining hall.

Kokichi is a pacifist? I dunno, liar-boy. I have my doubts.

Ah, instead of killing the people he beats in these games, he sends ‘em to Siberia to work to death. Assuming they’re alive enough, that is. But Shuichi won’t have to go to Siberia, just the afterlife, so he gets a big break there.

When Shuichi calls out Kokichi on his secret organization bullshit, Kokichi claims that if everyone believes a lie, it becomes the truth. The real truth is nowhere near as exciting...but he doesn’t say what that truth might be...

Also, by not playing a game during Kokichi’s free time event, Shuichi threw away another chance to beat Kokichi in a game and not get killed later.

Next time, more free time with Kokichi, and then probably the next murder!

[pxiao]

5 reasons I love Arc-V

Today as I was bored, I kept reading metas of why some people loved Arc-V or their favorite moments of the show and I decided to analyze why Arc-V is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! show and honestly one of my favorite shows period(this honestly shocks me today still) Also in this piece I’ll generally talk about the previous series and I don’t mean to insult them(well most of them) but I’ll have to talk about what I found about them lacking and how Arc-V fixed that for me, sorry if anything I say is offensive.

Lessons

I’ll be blunt, most of the franchise’s “lessons” are generic lessons like believe in yourself and your friends will help you do anything stuff, especially when Yoshida is writing, that you can find in any show for kids. While yes it’s important for kids to learn this but when that’s the lesson for nearly everything it gets old fast, especially for a franchise that’s 2 decades old. That’s not to say there aren’t some good lessons in there as well like the past makes who you are and by trying to ignore it, you’re not doing yourself a favor but it’s soooo overwhelmed by the generic lessons. 

In comparison Arc-V gives some really unique and interesting lessons. Like when Yuya was scared of not being special because Reiji was cracking Pendulum monsters, instead of the generic “everyone is special” stuff, Shuzou gave Yuya a great goal, become the pioneer of Pendulum Summoning thus everyone will remember and look up to you. That’s not something you hear regularly if ever. 

The best example of this is how Jack continually called Yuya out on using his father’s dueling and we all expected this would be Yuya breaking free of his father’s influence and “be himself” whatever that means. But Jack gave a rather interesting spin on it, that people are influenced by others and you know what that’s FINE. To be yourself doesn’t mean everything has to be original but that you’re able to understand the influence that others had on you and use to it explain your will. And that craziest thing is, Jack’s right. People are ALWAYS influenced by others, no matter what you say, we always look up to others and use them as examples whether it be our parents, friends, celebrities or fictional characters. A strong example is writers, every writer will tell you that there are no more original stories, every possible story that can be told has been told, but if so why are some stories seems original while others feel bored and generic. Easy the writers of original stories take the story elements of well known stories/genres and put their own spin on it, they make it their own. While generic stories are the result of writers lazily copying what was done before and hoping it works. For example Game of Thrones takes the basic fantasy tropes and then takes out the part where the heroes somehow survive and actually face the consequences of their honorable but stupid actions  

Standing

I’ll admit watching people duel is fun and if I didn’t like that I wouldn’t like this franchise. But at the same time, you have to admit it gets OLD having two or more episodes, DM sometimes took FOUR episodes on 1 lousy duel, of two people yelling at each other, pointing and smirking. 

5D’s riding duels were an attempt to fix this by having the duelists and the monsters in motion and giving the characters something to do beside react. But if I have to be honest, Action Duels are the perfect way to fix this. By having Action Duels, we get to see the characters in motions and show off their agility or showing their monsters helping them. Who didn’t enjoy seeing how agile Sora and Shun was when they dueled in episode 34. It gives a sense of suspense and the previous series generally lacked cause if they were in trouble, we thought, oh they have an face-down, that’ll save them. 

Predictability

Yu-Gi-Oh! is many things but unpredictable it is not. We generally knew the result of every duel and every twist before it ever started. Sure there are some twists like Atem playing the seal, Kaito dying despite winning, Carly dying and the whole Supreme King thing in GX. But this was more of the a treat in a LONG, LONG WHILE. 

And lets face it, whatever you felt about Arc-V it was always unpredictable don’t try to deny it. In plot development, characters and even duel results. A great example is Yuya vs Yuri. We knew they were going to duel because of course they were, they were the counterparts that represented the greatest extremes. But when the episodes finally came out, NOBODY was sure if Yuya or Yuri was going to win, it was a literal toss up. We questioned, argued and were shocked that Yuya did win. The day when we have a duel with the protagonist and the fandom is literally split 50/50 on the result shows the writers were great at surprises.  

Main Characters 

Ok this is going to get me in the dog house but Yuya is a fucking breath of fresh air in modern anime. It’s so nice to have a sympathetic main character that gets continuous character development and has flaws, like HONEST to god flaws that aren’t there to make him look good. That’s not to say there aren’t good protagonists in recent anime like Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul or Yato from Noragami just they’re more and more rare due to the many, many harems or how many shows are more or less power fantasies. And Yuya as a character is even more amazing especially this compared to Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists, not to say I hate them, except one, but that Yuya just blows them out the water. 

For Atem got the short end of the stick as he did get character development but the anime started at the start of said development so we didn’t get to see how he changed. DM started at the end of the Death-T arc where Atem was starting to get more kind. His mind crush is literally the nicest punishment he’s given, he literally drove people crazy and set a man on fire before. And for Yugi, look the anime also shafted him, he rarely got focus and most of the time that was for exposition. By the time we saw his development, it had occurred off-screen and well that’s one of my pet peeves in terms of writing.

Judai, Ok I admit out of the protagonists before Yuya, he got the most development. But he got it in his third year and that’s it. He spent his first and second year more or less unbothered by the events around him and then said third year broken him into a million of pieces and tried to put him together in time. But at the same time, his development bothered me too, it most or less came down to this phrase, “Children card games aren’t all fun and games, it’s serious”. Yeah that’s ridiculous. 

Yusei, oh this is hard to admit as he’s either my second or third favorite protagonist(it’s tight race with Atem) but he has the least development of the protagonists or more than Atem in the anime. I admit, he rarely changes and that’s sad, especially when Yoshida got his hands on him. But luckily Yusei was interesting enough to work as a character but the issue remains he’s pretty static and a bit too perfect.  

Yuma ....... You know how I said Yusei’s issue is he’s a bit too perfect, yeah Yuma’s the exact opposite. And Yuma fans look away, I’m going on a fucking rant here. Yuma’s issue is that he does have flaws but his series continually pushes it’s head up it’s ass to convince us that said flaw is actually a strength despite showing yes it is flaw. And then there’s how he gets everyone to fall in love with him, the show bending it’s logic so he’s always right and the biggest annoyance is that he remains the fucking same. Just as stupid, just as naive and just as flawed and we’re supposed to support that. HELL NO.

While Yuya is this guy that wants everyone to be happy and well he has flaws that stop him from doing this. He can be selfish, stubborn, lacks self confidence and hesitates. And this just makes him all the better, Yuya has flaws like real people, he suffers like real people, he questions his ideals like more people should but he changes and we get to see it in front of us for three years. No matter what people say Yuya will always be one of the best characters Yu-Gi-Oh! has ever produced.   

Suspension of Disbelief   

Look I’m not going to mince words here to watch this franchise, you need to turn off your brain. This happens for every show where all conflicts can be solved by using consumer goods that are for some reason connected to magic. 

And the BIGGEST reason I love Arc-V is well they do a great job justifying everything. Why are card games dangerous, holograms with mass are awesome to kill people with. Why use holograms with mass, cause it’s awesome and people will pay to see it. Reiji’s being a dick, Yuya tries to punch him. Police lose a duel, they still try to catch the “criminal”. With Arc-V, you get the sense of what happens if you take Yu-Gi-Oh! and put in in the real world and watch the chaos as the rules we know and love are twisted by reality. 

And some of you reading this might wonder if I even like Yu-Gi-Oh! beside Arc-V and I do besides Zexal but I can admit that Yu-Gi-Oh! as a franchise has many problems, how it handles the female characters for example ..... and I can admit Arc-V has issues too, pacing and sadly how they treated female characters in the end too. But again just because you like something doesn’t mean you should believe it’s perfect.   

[kaibutsushidousha]

Free Time Event Review

I should have done this on Sunday, but clearly foodposting is a huge priority.

Arguably spoiler-free:

Rantarou Amami: 4.5/10. The events did an excellent job making me learn a lot about Amami. What it didn’t do was make me like Amami though. In fact it made me like him less and the last event felt like a scam. Highlights were the second event (amazing demonstration of Amami’s emotional state regarding the killing game) and him taking a jab at my country’s politics in the 4th event.

Miu Iruma: 1.5/10. Believe it or not, I was really looking forward for this one. Iruma was a character with a lot of questions I was curious about. Why does she swings so easily from ridiculous arrogant to ridiculous unassertive? Where do her abondonment issues stem from? And the most interesting for me is her obsession with time. Almost every time someone starts conversation with her she complains about wasting her time, her main series of inventions are things that allow people to act while their sleep so they can have more time in a day and even her dislike in the report card is idle time. That’s what I really wanted to know about. Iruma’s humor is unreadably unfunny, but I was very willing to tolerate that to get the answers I was curious about. What I got instead were 3 purely comedical events, 2 pseudo-romantic waifubaiting events, 1 event that half-answers the least interesting question and 1 stupid and pointless backstory that doesn’t tie to any of her main personality traits. I dug through all this garbage and the interesting parts of Iruma’s personality were barely acknowledged. I would give it 1 but I’m giving it an extra half point because Kaede can punch Iruma in one optional dialogue. It would be 2 if said scene wasn’t optional.

Kokichi Ouma: 8/10. Ouma’s events also don’t answer any questions about him, but in this case it’s not a problem because the main story clarifies a lot about him. The events do have great hints for it though, specially 2 and 5. The rest of his are mostly comedy (except the last one, which is more shipbait), which is great because Ouma comedy is top tier. The event where he challenges you to a card game and starts roleplaying Kaiba is the single most funny event in the entire franchise.

Ki-bo: 8/10. An unexpected favorite. Half of his events are wasted in 2 events of him showing off his functions and of 2 comedy events as boring as Ki-bo comedy is, but the remaining 3 are pretty great. Event 2 is surprisingly actually funny Ki-bo comedy, event 4 is a backstory adds quite a bit of emotional weight to Ki-bo’s main story role and the last one gives great focus to the thing I like the most about Ki-bo.

Gonta Gokuhara: 6/10. Gonta’s events were good and nice to read. That’s it, I guess. I have absolutely nothing to complain about, but nothing spectacular to praise either. It’s just Gonta being Gonta and that’s very nice. It has some good comedy and I like how the events tie in with each other.  I absolutely loved the direction his wolf backstory took and it contains some bits of foreshadowing hidden in it. 

Shuuichi Saihara: 4/10. I already talked in more detail about this one in a spoiler tagged ask, but so you can look that up in my Saihara tag. I was really conflicted on how to grade this one. In one hand, it has two of my favorite events in the game (2 and 5). On the other hand, it has the sixth event spitting on the reasons I like Saihara at least three times. To make things worse, it has a good ammount of romance events that barely adds anything to either character. I know SaiAka is the main pairing of the game and I even ship it, but I don’t want 3 entire events wasted on that. Well, as you can tell from the 2 events I love, at least it’s not as terrible as Nanami, who wastes all her 5 events with minimal information about her. 

Tsumugi Shirogane: 7.5/10. Biased opinion time. Nothing special happens in her events, but they are actually better this way. The main charm in Shirogane is how her dialogue feels like a normal conversation with a real friend, more so than any of the other characters. Quoting myself “Talking to Shirogane feels exactly like reading my Twitter timeline”. The event where she brags about her blandness is also pretty funny. The foreshadowing here is also pretty clever and subtle.

Korekiyo Shinguuji: 9/10. Don’t ge me wrong, I still hate Shinguuji as much as the next guy, but also don’t forget he used to be one of my favorites before I got to know him better. Unlike the main story, the Free Time focus almost completely in the good parts of him. I love his talent and hearing him talking about culture is always enjoyable. That aside, we also have the event about his mask, which is absolutely hilarious and would probably be my favorite comedy event if wasn’t biased by my love for Yugioh. Speaking of comedy, as his bonus mode dates prove a lot, Shinguuji is kind of a goldmine for dramatic irony-based fucked up comedy, so if you’re into that, I STRONGLY recommend doing his second event before chapter 2.

Tenko Chabashira: 5/10. I love Chabashira and it was a very fun ride from event 2 to the end (event 1 is just Chabashira trashtalking men for an entire event), but it has a few issues. Mainly her backstory and the discussion about it relying on her being unbelievably dumb. But overall, it had some great highlights that made me like her even more, like the talk about idols and superheroes on events 2 and 5 respectively.

Kirumi Toujou: 2/10. Same idea as my comments about Iruma, but with only one question: why is she so dedicated to her maid job if it’s described only as part-time job her? She clearly denies her own individuality for the sake of serving and we get no explanation for it. All we get is 7 events of Toujou just being her completely unnapealling self. No traces of humanity detected. There’s one time it feels like Kodaka thinks he is giving her a character flaw but he really isn’t. She’s somehow even worse than Kamukura. This events were a great reminder why I despise maid characters and made me appreciate a lot more the characters I used to compared Toujou to (Hisui from Tsukihime and Medaka from Medaka Box) because those two managed to be good characters despite belonging to this terrible archetype.

Maki Harukawa: 7/10. They are kinda bleak and completely lacking in comedy, but they expand on Harukawa’s already great backstory in interesting ways and really shows her worldview much more comprehensively. I just find it bad that the final 3 events talk about her backstory but you can access them before Harukawa reveals her backstory in the main story, so the characters allude to a conversation they haven’t had yet (happened to Jess).

Ryouma Hoshi: 8.5/10. Overall pretty nice set of events. The first event is cute cat event very similar to Peko’s first, second is not great one of just him being edgy, third and fourth is tennis backstory and fifth and sixth is the part of the backstory we all wanted to know about. Overall nice and very solid events with a great balance between good characterization, comedy and foreshadowing. I would give a 6/10 if they ended there. Yup, you read that right, I’m entire 2.5 extra points just because of Hoshi’s last event. So good. Easily the most heartwarming event in the entire game. Hoshi being happy is something extremely satisfying to watch.

Kaito Momota: 7/10. Pretty solid and expansive on Momota’s good qualities. I like how they tie-in a lot of his traits to his astronaut talent. His backstory is also a fun read, but the highlights there go to the inner reactions to the story, like not believing the story is real and constantly going “This story is way too long, when are we getting to the part about space?”.

Himiko Yumeno: 7.5/10. Like with Sakura, the events are a single story told in multiple parts (except for the first two). It’s good characterization, fun and resonates well with game’s central themes just like Chabashira’s, but with much more respect to Yumeno’s intelligence. Also, the second event is all about my favorite thing about Yumeno and the first has optional dialogue saying Yumeno eats books and that never stops being funny.

Angie Yonaga: 0.5/10. Free Times that do the thing that needs to be done: makes understand a lot about Angie. The problem is that the more you know about Angie, the worst she gets. Her 5th event in particular was infuriating and repulsive enough to drop this grade from 5 to 0.5.

[magicianjay]

Magic Kaito, chapter 4 commentary.

I love both the anime and the MK special adaptations of this chapter, and overall this chapter is definitely in my top 4 favourite chapters of MK. I would have said top 3, but I really fell in love with the Robo-Kaito chapter last time. (RIP, murderous robot. You're missed.)

Kaito cutting the glass out of the window there reminds me of the scene with him cutting glass out in Nonchalant Lupin (the MK prototype), except that here Kaito is looking so smug. I love it. The art quality is already so much better.

THAT GRIN. Kaito seems to be turning into his own caricatures of Kid. Serious manga illness, very tragic story.

I do like that his watch can double as a bright light to stun people.

I've read various things in fanfics where they mention that Kaito wears a subtle face mask or make-up as Kid to slightly alter the shape of his face so he can't be recognised, but although it would make sense, it's obviously not the reality going by this chapter. MK is a silly manga, and it's operating in the space in-between poking fun at paper thin costumes and then promptly forgetting all about it later on at the author's convenience. In a different series I'm not sure that Nakamori would have recognised Kaito in the first place.

Anyway, Nakamori's skills as a detective would have to be dire indeed if he hadn't recognised Kaito, so thank goodness he could.

The scene added into the 1412 anime featuring Kaito eating dinner with Nakamori family after that heist was a great addition, in my opinion. I loved Nakamori's suspicious staring at him, and the spluttering when Aoko covered the right side of Kaito's face.

Aoko is such a sweetheart. She's so protective of Kaito that she was willing to take the inevitable massive embarrassment of asking him on a date. And she gets straight to the point, making it sound like a demand. Her body language and her tone convey her determination very well.

So Kaito reacts by needing Aoko to repeat what she said at least once, then asking if it's a joke, then by insulting her but blushing intensely...And, although it's clear that he was just spitting that insult out because the situation was awkward, it's just as clear that Aoko believed it.

It's really too bad. The way that Aoko and Kaito interact with each other sometimes involves banter and insults and maximum tsundere, and that is the kind of insult they would fling at each other, but some of it hits Aoko right in the self-esteem issues.

Aoko and Kaito's dynamic varies a lot. They don't always bicker, but when they do, sometimes that's just their own way of playing and having fun together, and I like that they feel comfortable enough with each other to play rough and be a bratty duo with a lot of back and forth.

But some of the time they're quarrelling more seriously, or genuinely being jerks, or they're falling into a pattern of squabbling from force of habit, and although they seem to forget about it or forgive each other pretty quickly (or to get even quickly, as with Aoko and the fish in chapter one)  their insults do seem to sting each other, and they also sometimes seem to sting in ways that weren't even intended. For example, Kaito in chapter one was bothered by Aoko's slight to his magic, and by extension to his dad's magic, even though Aoko probably never intended the latter.  And in the current scene I don't think for a moment that Kaito would really want Aoko to think she's ugly. Same as Aoko in a later chapter wouldn't want Kaito to really feel like a cockroach of a human being, even though she did compare him to a cockroach.

So Aoko thinks that she's unattractive and that nobody would want to date her. That bites. An alternative interpretation would be that she just thinks that's solely Kaito's view, and she's resigned to that, and this upsets her because of course, who wants their BFF/love interest to think that about them? That makes sense, but I'm not sure if that could explain everything. She's too quick so accept what he said there as the truth, and then there's also some stuff later on in the series, specifically in the skiing chapter, where she definitely has other self-esteem issues too. I'm interested in this, so I'll try to keep an eye out for anything further that points either way.

Kaito starts taking Aoko's request seriously once she gets teary, so there are good odds that he thought she was just messing with him before and her reaction just then finally convinced him of her sincerity. Or could be that she was so cute there he couldn't say no. Though I can't say that tears suit Aoko at all...

Kaito: so flustered about this that he can't even look Aoko in the face as he says yes, and has to look away shyly. At this point that he doesn't know what Aoko's ulterior motive is, so yeah, he's saying yes to being asked on what he thinks is a real date.

Aoko is so pleased that she's achieved victory in her quest, and her reaction is incredibly cute. Also: way to go, Aoko, in getting Kaito to agree BEFORE she set the day so that he couldn't back out. I don't know if she planned that in advance or on the spot, but either way it was crafty.

I'm really impressed by Aoko in this scene, for how hard she went for her target and how she didn't let her embarrassment get in her way. And this is no minor hurdle, because if Aoko and Kaito already had enough nerve and maturity to risk this kind of embarrassment and potential mockery and rejection from each other for just their own sake, they might already have been a couple by now. But Aoko was able to get over it straight away because she was so desperate to prove Kaito's innocence and protect him from the danger of being suspected. Now that's a great and loyal friend.

This whole scene is all pretty weird given that last chapter Robo-Kaito confessed to Aoko, so she shouldn't even be thinking that Kaito would refuse her in the first place, let alone think that he believes nobody would want to date her, but oh well, this manga is not a marvel of coherent continuity.

It's also strange that Keiko is surprised and baffled at the idea of Aoko and Kaito maybe dating, when last chapter she was throwing a party for them with a “congratulations on your wedding!” sign...

Well, either it's a classroom of trolls, or we just need to keep mourning the series' continuity. Maybe both.

Threat to BFF: detected. Aoko looks so apprehensive there, when just a moment or two before she was laughing and playfully elbowing her dad.

Nakamori's reaction to seeing Kaito's face isn't entirely consistent with his behaviour later in the series. Chapter 1, he's overjoyed that the Kaitou Kid he spent so long chasing isn't dead after all. Here, he sees Kaito's face and instantly believes that he must be Kid. But later on when Hakuba's analysis says that the Kid is a high school boy, Nakamori won't believe a word of it because it's impossible for Kid to be that young.

Maybe we could rationalise it and say that the evidence from Nakamori's own eyes was too strong for him to be able to ignore it, and that after Kaito tricking him later on in this chapter, Nakamori was able to resume happily latching on to the idea of Kid being the same person all along. But for someone who's deeply invested in Kid being someone older, Nakamori certainly took the idea of it being Kaito calmly.

One thing I like is that Nakamori never doubts that Kaito's bright enough to pull off being Kid. Seeing his face and knowing Kaito's a magician is enough for him here. I doubt Gosho actually intended to make this kind of point, but I can't help comparing this to Hakuba's initial dismissal of Kaito as just an idiot. Nakamori never thinks Kaito's stupid!  Of course, he's had the advantage of knowing Kaito for a long time.

I like the way that Aoko's face was shadowed there, leading into the next panel where...

Aoko actually flips out once she realises Nakamori is serious. She thought quickly, too, with that lie.

If Nakamori were to ever catch Kid and send him to prison, I have no doubts his home life would become an instant living hell. Not that Aoko wouldn't be angry at Kaito too, but Nakamori should  not ever be wanting to be the guy responsible for jailing him. It'd wreck their family. I would like to pretend that his stunned expression there is a feeling of impending doom, but he's just shocked by Aoko's vehemence.

The 1412 anime adaptation of this scene is a real disappointment because it doesn't show Aoko dramatically stomping her foot on the table. Aoko got shortchanged there. If you've got a dynamic character who does things like that, why on earth would you swap it out for a scene where she just stands there?

That feeling when a panel or two ago you were passionately defending your friend's innocence and moral fibre, and then they get caught being shifty as hell. And Kaito even admits to those girls that he's the culprit, and has the nerve to blame them...like he did in chapter 1 when he blamed Aoko for falling for his magic trick.

Kaito goes around at school unrepentently picking locks, playing magic tricks and pranks, using a card gun, and occasionally laying on charm very thickly and manipulatively, plus he's also placed disguises on people at least once. He might as well go around holding a Hi! I'm the Kaitou Kid! sign.

The prototype Kaito in Nonchalant Lupin actually was well-known at his school for being a master of disguise, but I have to wonder whether MK Kaito ever made a habit of it. On the one hand, it would be ridiculously suspicious. On the other hand, Kaito already is ridiculously suspicious, and early-series MK is nuts. If Gosho ever did intend for Kaito to have a history of going wild with disguises before he was Kid, he's unlikely to ever show it now.

Aoko looks so down while she's waiting for Kaito to arrive and he's late. I wonder if she was running over suspicions in her head? At the least, she had to be wondering if he wasn't going to show up and her plan to clear him would fail.

I'd like to know why Kaito was late. Was he staring at his wardrobe and trying to pick out the best and coolest outfit he could? Because, uh...if he was, it didn't work. Or maybe he was preparing for the heist. Or maybe he was freaking out about the possibility of Aoko working out that he's Kid.

Nakamori would be happy to know that he's being taken this seriously!

Damn, Kaito, those tsundere levels are off the charts. When I got into MK I scoured the internet for everything I could find about the series, and it was so weird how often Aoko got called a tsundere and yet many people didn't say the same about Kaito. And yet just look at this guy.

I wonder how many shipfics with Kaito in just take their ideas from Kaito's characterisation in Detective Conan and play up the whole suave thief angle while forgetting how much of that is an act and what a dorky tsundere he really is?

I'm not saying Aoko isn't tsundere too. She is! Their tsundere levels are feeding off each other in some kind of ouroboros.

Aoko smiling and dragging Kaito off suddenly by the arm is the cutest thing. She looks so happy in those panels.

But the date does not go well. It's interesting because if you look at Aoko and Kaito's respective behaviour on the date so far in isolation, without knowing what the characters are like, you'd think that Aoko was behaving perfectly normally and Kaito was being a jerk. To be fair, Kaito IS being a jerk. But what wouldn't be immediately apparent is that Aoko is being wildly out of character.

Up until this point in the date, she's just been putting up with Kaito being a jerk to her, and responding to that in a subdued way, going "Oh..." looking uncomfortable and embarrassed. That's not the usual Aoko! So why was she acting this way? The most likely interpretation is that she's trying to act the way that she thinks a stereotypical girl on a date "should" act - being all tolerant and forcing positivity and enthusiasm about everything, and going all "kyaaa!" in the haunted house. This was a strange and deeply awkward situation for her, since after all, she did invite Kaito out on a date-date even if it was actually a trick to clear his name. Maybe the fact the date was a trick was even what made her feel she had to act this way. How could she even act like her normal self in this situation? Her motive was to determinedly Be On A Date with Kaito to establish his innocence. So she tried as hard as she could to be the image she had of a girl on a date.

But Kaito was not having any of this. He took the jerk route of dealing with Aoko's out-of-character behaviour, definitely, but credit where credit is due, he was not happy with Aoko acting all fake and stereotypical-girl-on-a-date, and wanted to spend time with an uninhibited Aoko who felt free to be herself. He could have, y'know, just said this straight away without first being as disagreeable as possible in order to make his point, but oh well.

And so then Aoko finally relaxes and they start being brats having fun together and have a great day. It's cute! Their date doesn't look like a stereotypical date, but why should they have to conform to a stereotype which doesn't fit them? Which was probably Kaito's point.

Aoko clocks Kaito here, and it's much the same in the MK specials, but in the 1412 anime it's replaced with a forehead flick, and Kaito doesn't run after her or shake his own fist or anything in response. I wonder why? I would guess that the 1412 anime wanted to take out violence, but then...this is the same anime which changed things in ep 1 so that Kaito actually got hit by the furniture Aoko threw, unlike in the manga. Maybe it was just because the anime ended that scene on a pretty frame with Aoko happily running ahead and Kaito standing still, and you can't have both that and a scene with a grumpy just-punched Kaito running right after Aoko and complaining like the specials did. I'd say the MK specials adapted it better here, but the 1412 scene was so pretty that I like both versions.

Kaito looks so shifty there as he tries to make his exit.

And Aoko has come prepared with handcuffs. Presumably she nicked them from her dad. Theft: it's okay if it's for a good cause. She may have been thinking to herself that she trusts Kaito, but she still brought cuffs to make sure, rather than taking it on faith. Well...given her conflicted expressions earlier and the way he looked suspicious in class, she must have had some level of suspicion of him of her own. But if she didn't keep Kaito with her the whole time, she wouldn't be able to prove to Nakamori that he couldn't be Kid, so it makes perfect sense anyway.

I like the way that she doesn't explain it to him! She apologises and tells him to stay put a while longer, and looks very, very slightly awkward as she does that, but then she moves on to talking about the film and acting as if suddenly handcuffing yourself to your date is totally normal and requires no further comment. It really does seem as if she doesn't expect Kaito to kick up a fuss. Now I want to know about all the pre-canon shenannigans that Aoko's pulled in this friendship. It's hard to look at this scene and think that surprises only go from Kaito to Aoko.

In the manga here, Kaito had a convenient detachable arm that he tricked Aoko into putting the cuff on, and it's the same in the MK specials, but in the 1412 anime, he just frees his arm from the cuff. The inflatable Kaito-doll is made less completely ridiculous-looking in the anime, as compared to the jelly monster lookalike from the manga and specials.

Kaitou Kid: the very image of phantom thievery at its finest, stealthiest and most elegant. Nobody will notice him as he sneaks away to the crime scene!

Jii is not in the manga for this chapter, but he's added in to both of the adaptations. In the specials, he shows up in a car to pick Kaito up from the theme park (and the car breaks down on the way back), and in 1412, he's in the cinema in the seat behind the Kaito-doll and moving it a bit.

Nakamori de-hatting Kid count: #01. Good luck.

I love Kaito for his Aoko disguise there. Great way to put Nakamori off his trail and explain why he saw Kaito before. It's also interesting in retrospect because of a scene later on in the series where another character may or may not have used a similar trick on Kaito.

The MK specials version of this scene messed it up badly, in my opinion, by making the person Kid is shockingly disguised as be Inspector Nakamori himself, then cycling through various other people before reaching the Aoko disguise. Regardless, the Aoko voice actresses in both anime adaptations did a great job of mimicking Kid.

Dear god, Aoko, you were originally created as a detective character but you're fooled by inflatable jelly Kaito.

If we ever needed proof that Kaito's judgement has always been suspect, here we have him deciding to save time by riding on the side of a rollercoaster. And if we ever needed proof that this is a gag manga, here we have him surviving being hit on the head and falling off the coaster from a great height...

(There's always the alternative interpretation that he survives because he's secretly actually Robo-Kaito version 2. I love Magic Kaito so, so much for being a canon where things like that could be plausible.)

Kaito got really jumpy there when he heard Nakamori's voice over the TV, huh. At little moments like this when somebody (or just their voice) is behind him when he wasn't expecting it, he panics. Maybe he usually feels confident he won't be caught, and I'm sure he's not the type to ever lose sleep worrying, but he certainly is nervous when he's surprised.

Aoko's relief there about Kaito being just Kaito after all is interesting and I'll get back to that in a minute.

(I switched to the other scanlations for this one panel, since I think it has the better translation for this bit.)

It's sweet how touched Kaito was by Aoko's attempt to prove his innocence. She really did try her best for him, so it's nice that her effort actually was understood and appreciated. Too bad for her that her trust was misplaced, but still.

I would have liked to include the manga panel for the bit directly after this too, but I think the anime subtitles for this were clearer than either of the two scanlated versions I have available, so I'll just quote from that.

Aoko: Here. I got you your favorite ice cream.

Kaito: Don't do stuff like that. It's not like you!

Aoko: Even if it's unusual, I'm still me.

Doesn't that apply very neatly to Kaito being Kid?

The main themes surrounding Aoko and Kaito's interactions in this chapter seemed to be ones of identity and fear of change. They essentially have similar worries about each other.

Aoko was worried that Kaito was hiding something, and wasn't the Kaito she was used to, and was relieved when she'd "proved" that he was still himself. Kaito wanted Aoko to be herself, but then at the end he took it too far, to the point where he was constraining her instead by insisting on the status quo, and she had to correct him.

This ended up being a chapter about how you should be true to yourself and shouldn't force yourself to be someone you're not just because you feel it's what's expected of you, but how you're still the same person even if you don't always act the same way.

Kaito definitely paid attention to Aoko saying she was still herself. I think he found it reassuring – that they could change or their dynamic could alter without them losing the other one. Regardless, that seems to be what encouraged him to say that ridiculously cheesy "But ice cream is sweet" line after Aoko said he was being as cold as ice cream.

Given what the Robo-Kaito said last chapter about how he had the urge to give Aoko the cold shoulder because he loves her, it's nice to see the real Kaito managing to get over being cold, just for a few seconds.

The 1412 anime did a good thing in having Chikage laughing uproariously and mocking the hell out of Kaito over that ultra-cheesy line! (Since Aoko told her about it.) A line like that should not go unlaughed at.

[mintchocolateleaves]

Cost of Freedom (7/??)

Summary: In which Kaito learns the reason behind May 3rd. Prison ! AU.

[Beginning]     [Previous Chapter]     [Next Chapter]

With fifty-two days until the deadline on their escape, Kaito finds himself buried under questions that he has no answers to. It’s almost as if he’s slowly drowning in uncertainty, each mystery boiling his blood, his skin itching from the rawness of it all.

It is like he’s readying himself for a test but hasn’t been told what he needs to know in advance. Instead of feeling certain that everything is going to work out eventually, he is left reeling, confusion blurring his thoughts, twisting them until they are only recognisable in the form of anxiety.

Usually energetic, he spends days feeling listless, lacking his usual vigor, maskless and uncertain what he’s doing. It’s the result of being locked up all the time, his freedom gone as if he is a domesticated animal, a bird trapped in a cage that is rusting.

“How much longer,” he asks one day, “until we can leave?”

They are both in the prison yard, feeling the sun beat against their neck, and Kaito is sprawled against the dirt, eyes closed as Kudo sits beside him. People give them a wide berth, decide to leave them both alone, and Kaito know’s by now not to expect anyone to come talk to them.

“I told you,” Kudo sighs, “by May 3rd at the latest, it’s not going to be after then.”

Kaito cracks open an eye, squints against the glare of the sun. “What’s so special about the third of may?”

Kudo smiles. It’s strained, and goddammit, Kaito just wants him to stop with all of the masks. If this is what Aoko meant in the past when she’d said it was difficult to read him, then he’s ready to apologise tenfold. “It’s always good to work with a goal in mind.”

“Would it kill you to be honest with me?” Kaito says. He doesn’t quite expect his voice to come out so agitated, had been under the belief that he’s been suppressing his feelings enough to keep the pretense of calmness - but apparently not.

Kudo flinches away, turns. He says, “We just need to leave before then, okay?”

“I don’t trust you Kudo.” Kaito breathes, and it’s like the words unravel off of his tongue before his brain can fully process them. “I can’t, because you don’t tell me anything.”

The is a sharp inhale from beside him, and Kaito is surprised at how he’s remaining in one place despite the cold look Kudo sends him.

“You don’t exactly tell me things either KID,” Kudo growls, animosity lacing his tone. “Like… What exactly is this Pandora that you’re so obsessed with? And what’s going on with you, you were fine and now suddenly you seem like someone’s taken the life from you?”

Kaito sits up, and now he’s glaring too. “How do you know about Pandora?”

“All of that tapping you do, it’s always the same sequence, repeated over and over again, spelling out that stupid word!” Kudo snaps. “I don’t expect you to tell me about that, so why do you expect me not to do the same?”

“Because you are not the one who’s got to worry about whether us escaping will lead to more people dying!” Kaito cries. He’s glad that people keep their distance from them, because his pitch is rising, louder and louder, filled with more emotion than he can realistically handle.

It is like a crescendo of noise, and he cannot process his emotions because he does not have an off button.

“You think I want to leave so I can kill more people?” Kudo asks, and he is quieter now. His glare has faded away, his skin paling until he is colourless, washed out in the same way a corpse is. The hurt in his voice is gut-wrenching to hear, but Kaito is at his limit of feeling guilty.

“Well do you?” Kaito asks, and he feels faintly like his heart might give out with how heavily it is pounding in his chest. “Because you’re not exactly forthcoming with any useful information. Forgive me for being skeptical.”

Kudo stands, glances at Kaito for a single before tearing his gaze away. It’s almost as if he can’t bear to look at him - Is it because he can’t keep up the appearance of pretending to be upset? Or is it because he’s trying to avoid falling into despair?

“They were all criminals.” The ex-detective says, “I’m sentenced with killing six criminals, so why would I try to escape when everyone here fits my MO?”

Kudo doesn’t turn back as he storms off, and Kaito is left to stare after him. As soon as he steps back inside C-block, Kaito draws himself up, jumping on the balls of his feet.

Is it that difficult to just say ‘don’t worry, I won’t kill anyone?’

The thief doesn’t know. All he can do is imply Kudo’s meanings, intended double-meanings thrown into every word. News articles had said that he’d valued the truth over everything else, and well - maybe part of making sure everything he says is true is making sure nothing is certain.

“Jeez,” Kaito rubs at the back of his neck, staring at the open doors, “he’s so annoying.”

Except, he’s more worried than annoyed.

“This place is driving me insane,” Kaito sighs, turning in the direction of the laundry room. It’s the subtle things that make him feel out of touch with reality. The way the wind whispers against his neck, taunting him with it’s freedom, his fellow prisoners and their eyes follow him.

Mostly it’s the hollowness, the boredom that wraps around him in an embrace, and the feeling that it will never let go.

Kudo doesn’t show up for laundry duty, which means that the guards stack Kaito with double the work. He groans, complains over the fact he’s got twice as much to do because Kudo’s being a jerk, but ends up biting his tongue the moment one of the guards gives him the option of helping out or spending a day in solitary.

(Kaito would like to point out that this is unfounded seeing as all he was doing was cursing Kudo, it’s not quite worthy of solitary. But hey, what does he know?)

As he’s folding blankets, he finds that his mind slips into a steady rhythm, his hands working without needing any direct instruction. It gives him time to think.

Aoko’s request of the difference between Kaito and KID isn’t something he necessarily wants to think on, but it’s the first place his mind wanders. He doesn’t know exactly what Aoko means by them being two different things, but is that simply because he’s spent too long immersing himself in both?

“What is so different about the two?” He mutters, racking his brain. Both are magicians, both have never thought much for the rules. Both like to prank others, although KID’s were always on a greater scale and they were designed to fool hundreds.

Kaito’s tricks were always just that… tricks. But KID creates magic, creates illusions because he is an illusion himself.

Is that the difference Aoko was talking about? That one is real and the other is a concept?

No. That’s not it. After all, people are just concepts melded together into a living personality - there’s a distinct contrast between the two.

He decides to think of something else instead. Rather than try to strain his mind, he decides to think on the significance of May 3rd.

Kenpo Kinenbi takes place on the third, is in the middle of golden week. A national holiday brought in after the war, constitution day celebrates new principles brought in after the end of the war… well, Kaito doesn’t think that there’s anything special about it.

Only… There’s something about the day that would make their hiding a lot more easier. It would be easier to disappear when most of the country is travelling over the holidays, and it’s typically busiest on May 3rd. It’s a possibility, but something in the back of Kaito’s head tells him it’s not the only reason.

There’s too much urgency for that to be the only reason. There has to be a reason why Kudo’s gotten so emotional over the date, despite usually keeping a collected voice.

“I’ll get it out of him eventually.” Kaito promises himself, grabbing a blanket, “and tomorrow, he’s going to do my share of the laundry.”

Kudo is not in their cell when he goes back after lunch, but Kaito’s not worried. He’s either in solitary - again because apparently he spends a lot of time there - or he’s actually decided to go down to their kitchen duty.

Wherever he is, Kaito doesn’t care. Let Kudo wash double the dishes, it was his idea for them to help out, after all.

He sits back on his bunk, skims through one of Kudo’s books and finds that it’s extremely tiring sitting by himself. Maybe if he had playing cards to perform tricks with, or a coin to practise sleight of hand with, it wouldn’t be so tedious inside the cell, but words have never been enough to keep him entertained.

Kaito misses being part of a crowd.

“Damn that detective,” Kaito says and he’s not exactly sure whether he’s cursing Hakuba or Kudo, “keeping me cooped up like this.”

Ah, Hakuba then.

“And that idiot, always creating more questions than answers. Damn them both.”

And Kudo.

He decides that the only interesting option will be to go down to the kitchen and attempt to find more information on the prisoner who’s left him in a fit of confusion.

Kudo is not in the kitchen, nor is he in the cafeteria. Solitary then, Kaito supposes.

“That idiot,” Kaito sighs, “causing all this trouble for me.”

Behind him, snickering catches his attention. He leans against the wall temporarily, listening in to the conversation behind him.

'I can’t believe they’d try to mess with a guy like that.’

'They’re not messing with him, they’re just giving him a taste of what’ll happen next.’

Kaito takes a deep breath, glances around until he meets the gaze of the group who’re crowded in a circle. One of them catches his eye, smiles over at him - he’s never learned the man’s name, hasn’t really cared enough to learn it.

It’s not like he’s going to be here long enough to make fake friendships.

“Don’t you worry KID,” the guy says, “you won’t have to deal with him long.”

Kaito scowls, turns around. And then - then he hears the cry. It’s choked pain, low and guttural, almost like a wounded animal. Someone laughs.

He turns, follows after the sound until he’s in the kitchens stock room, glancing at the backs of four men each one glowering down at a figure: Kudo. He’s holding his throat, coughing on dry air.

“Wh- What are you doing?” Kaito says, racing forwards. He shoves past the prisoners, dropping down in front of Kudo, glancing at the raw fingermarks against his neck.

“We’re just training him,” one of the men says, and… wait, is that Yoshida at the side of the group? Didn’t he learn enough after losing one eye? “You know, for when it actually happens.”

“For what happens?” Kaito says, shielding Kudo from the others.

“You didn’t know?” Laughter echoes the room, “we’re just training him for the same thing that awaits every serial killer. We’re all very eager to buy tickets, Kudo, wouldn’t do well for you to get to hurt now.”

Kaito watches them as they leave.

And slowly, it clicks.

“They’re going to hang you.” He turns back to Kudo, eyes wide. It’s the standard punishment for serial murders, for them to be executed. And with six murders under his belt, Kudo is going to die.

Kudo glances at him, and Kaito can see he’s trying to hide his wounds - not the physical ones, but the emotional ones that he’s harboring. No wonder he doesn’t want to talk about it, things don’t hurt as much if you leave them alone to form a scab.

“That’s why your parents want you to escape, that’s why you’re so urgent…” Kaito whispers, “because you’ll be killed.”

“They… can’t until I… turn eighteen,” Kudo rasps, “but when I do…”

May 3rd. The day before Kudo’s birthday, the day he becomes a legal adult, the day they can finally start pushing the process for his execution. Any day after would possibly be his last. It makes every breath harder to bear.

From the moment he first met him, Kudo has made it clear that people should be punished. It’s why he fought back against Yoshida, it’s why he tries to maintain order in the prison. For him, someone who’s so hellbent on justice to try to escape his own punishment…

“You didn’t kill them, did you?”

Kudo coughs. It is only now that Kaito can see the tears lurking behind his eyes. He looks helpless, staring up at the thief - it reminds him of himself, the moment he’d found out about his father’s murder, the way he’d felt when they’d buried him in the ground.

“I didn’t.”

[authoratmidnight]

Arc V Episode 138 Translated Script

Script and Translation from DMC3444 on NAC

Manliness

Last Time’s Egao Count: 252

GONGENZAKA:  As we left Academia’s underground training facility and headed for the surface, Sawatari and I found Edo and Sora, both wounded, in a city of the Fusion Dimension, which has been torn apart by a cataclysm that no one expected. GONGENZAKA:   According to the two of them, this cataclysm was caused by Akaba Leo merging the four dimensions together. GONGENZAKA:  We learned that the one who destroyed the city was the fusion of Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, Yuri, and the four dragons, Supreme Dragon King Zarc. He was resurrected when they became one. GONGENZAKA:  Edo and Sora believed that Yuya’s soul is still residing inside Zarc, and fought against him. But they were defeated by his overwhelming power. And now, even Kurosaki and Kaito… Captain Falcon: Action Magic, Miracle, activate! Kaito: Action Magic, Evasion, activate! Zarc: Using my power, I can negate and destroy cards added to the hand outside of the Draw Phase! Captain Falcon: Even the Action Cards… Zarc: Get out of my sight! Captain Falcon: AAAAHHHH! Kaito: AAAAAHHHHHHH! GONGENZAKA:  But we must not give up. Just wait. Yuya. GONGENZAKA:   If your soul is locked inside Zarc, I… JACK: And I, Jack Atlas, will set it free! Let’s do this! Narrator: The world is divided into four dimensions. Across these dimensions, there are four boys, who all share the same face, And the dragons they possess call out to one another, As if seeking out each other… (Opening Sequence) JACK: It’s my turn! When I have no monster on my Field, I can Special Summon Red Gargoyle from my hand! JACK: Then, I summon the Tuner Monster, Red Resonator! JACK: Red Gargoyle’s effect activates! Red Resonator’s Level is doubled! I’m tuning the Level-4 Red Gargoyle with the Level-4 Red Resonator! The king's roar shall make the heaven and earth tremble! Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul! Synchro Summon! Come forth! Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight! Tokumatsu: Are you all right, kids!? Frank: What on earth is that giant dragon!? Tanner: Red Daemon's looks like an ant in comparison! Amanda: Is that the Fusion Dimension? SAWATARI-SAN: Damn it! I’m left behind while this big showdown is going on...! THIS IS YOUR FAULT, CROW! Sora: Crow? SAWATARI-SAN: Yeah. He saved me in the underground facility, and… (BB flashback) SAWATARI-SAN: If it’s Jack and Gongenzaka, They can deliver our feelings to Yuya for sure! SAWATARI-SAN: Let’s watch over this match together, okay, Crow? JACK: Sakaki Yuya! If your soul still exists, listen to me! JACK: Wherever you are hidden right now, I will find you and drag you out! JACK: That’s right…Just like when you dragged Battle Beast out when he was hiding in his fortress! JACK: I’m going to bring you back my way! JACK: Once per turn, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight can destroy all Special Summoned monsters with ATKs equal to or lower than its ATK, and inflict 500 damage for every destroyed monster! I… Zarc: Foolish Synchro user! The moment you summoned a Synchro Monster against me, your fate is already sealed! JACK: What!? Kaito: What does he mean? Captain Falcon: Don’t tell me…Just like when he Xyz Summoned on my turn… GONGENZAKA: Is he going to do it without a Tuner? Zarc: I release the two Supreme King Servant Dragon – Darkwurms on my Field, and perform a Synchro Summon! My trusty servant and bearer of the wings of light! Tear our enemies asunder with the sharpness of your deadly wings! Synchro Summon! Come forth! Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing! Tokumatsu: That’s the Yugo guy’s…! Frank: It resembles it, but it’s not the same! Tanner: Besides, Yugo, Yuya, Yuzu, and… What was he called again… Some other guy! Amanda: Sawa…Sawa… Tokumatsu: Is it someone we’re supposed to know? Tanner: Anyway, Yugo is an ally! He’s not an enemy! SAWATARI-SAN: Damn it! If only I could fight somehow… I could have told Yugo to remember our Entertainment Duel! Zarc: When Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing is Special Summoned, It will negate the effects of all opposing monsters, and destroy them! JACK: I send Brutal Red from my hand to the Graveyard! Until the End Phase, the destruction of Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight will be negated, and it gains 1000 ATK! Frank & Tanner: All right! He protected Red Daemon’s! Tokumatsu: It also got a 1000 ATK boost! As expected from Jack! JACK: Let’s do this, Yuya! Battle! I attack Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing with Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight! Zarc: Once per turn, Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing can negate the battle, and destroy my opponent’s monster! And then, I can inflict damage equal to the monster’s ATK! JACK: Due to the effect of the Brutal Red I sent to the Graveyard, During this turn, Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight won’t be destroyed! Kaito: He repelled it again! GONGENZAKA:  Red Daemon's Dragon is Jack’s soul. As long as Jack is with it, he won’t ever let it be destroyed! Captain Falcon: But the only thing that Jack can do on this turn is… JACK: I set one card face-down, and end my turn! At this moment, Brutal Red’s effect ends, The ATK of Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight returns to normal. JACK: I won’t ever give up! No matter how hard you fight back, I will keep going down the road ahead of me! And if there is no road ahead, I will forge a new one! Until I can reach you! GONGENZAKA:   I, the manly Gongenzaka, shall forge that road for you! It’s my turn! I summon the Tuner Monster, Superheavy Samurai Battleball! When there is a Superheavy Samurai on my Field, I can Special Summon Superheavy Samurai Rokka-ku(9) from my hand in Attack Position! (Note: Rokkaku literally means hexagonal, and 9 is an inverted 6, so there) GONGENZAKA:    I’m tuning the Level-6 Rokkaku with the Level-2 Battleball! Temper the battle-scarred blades, and let your iron hammer echo across the field! Arrive to this scorched battlefield, filled with searing flames! Synchro Summon! Take the field! Level-8! Superheavy Samurai Katanaka-G! (Note: Katanakaji literally means swordsmith) Zarc: Hmm…The other one is also a Synchro user, huh? But summoning it in Defense Position is kind of cowardly. GONGENZAKA:     Did you forget, Yuya? This is my Dueling! Steadfast Dueling! Zarc: Steadfast Dueling? GONGENZAKA: If you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you! When Katanaka-G is successfully Special Summoned, I can Special Summon as many Superheavy Samurai as possible from my hand! First off, Superheavy Samurai Swordsman! Next, Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler! And Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei! Shuzo: Over here! Tatsuya: That’s…! Futoshi & Ayu: Gongenzaka’s monsters! Tatsuya: What on earth is that giant dragon? Shuzo: Has the Fusion Dimension finally begun the invasion that LDS warned us about!? GONGENZAKA: Look, Yuya! These monsters are the battle-hardened heroes that have fought against you! GONGENZAKA: You wanted to polish the Entertainment Dueling you inherited from your father, While I wanted to refine the Gongenzaka Dojo’s teaching, Steadfast Dueling! The two of us fought against each other many times ever since we were kids, And worked hard together to improve our skills! Those intense days are still carved deep in my heart! GONGENZAKA: It’s the same with you, isn’t it!? Yuya! Zarc: Entertainment…Steadfast… GONGENZAKA: That’s right! Recall your entertainment spirit, Yuya! And then attack me, just like back in the old days! GONGENZAKA: I’ll catch that attack with my Steadfast Dueling! I end my turn! Zarc: Hmph! Nonsense! GONGENZAKA: Even if you attack Jack’s Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight, I will protect it! Even if my body will be broken! JACK: Even if your body will be broken? GONGENZAKA: Yeah. With Katanaka-G’s effect. We will protect Red Daemon's! JACK: Then, I can defeat him with the Scarlight that you protected. So this is what you meant by forging a road for me… Zarc: HAHAHAHAHAHA! GONGENZAKA: What’s so funny!? Zarc: You two are cooperating with each another? How foolish… JACK: You’ll find out whether we are foolish or not by attacking us! GONGENZAKA: Now, come at me! Zarc…No, Yuya! Come at me with your entertainment! Zarc: Very well. But my entertainment can be a bit violent, just so you know. Captain Falcon: What!? Kaito: Zarc is conducting his entertainment…? Edo: Did he respond to it? Sora: Yuya, who is inside him… Zarc: It is my turn! Zarc: From my hand, I activate the Equip Magic, Supreme King Violent Spirit! I equip it to Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing! Zarc: Since you asked for it, I’ll attack your monsters! Battle! I attack Big Benkei with Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing! Zarc: At this moment, due to Clear Wing’s effect, the battle will be negated, and Big Benkei will be destroyed! I can then inflict damage equal to its ATK! Zarc: Due to the Equip Magic, Supreme King Violent Spirit, Clear Wing’s effect will affect all of your monsters! GONGENZAKA: What!? All of them!? Captain Falcon: At this rate… Kaito: They’ll be wiped out… Sora: This is Zarc’s… Edo: Entertainment… SAWATARI-SAN: Please, Crow! Protect them! (ZETSUBOU commercial. Brb) GONGENZAKA: When my cards would be destroyed on the Battle Phase, I can release a Superheavy Samurai on my Field, And Special Summon Superheavy Bushin Fudomyo-O from my hand, in Defense Position! GONGENZAKA: Protect Jack’s soul, Fudomyo-O! GONGENZAKA: , Fudomyo-O can negate the destruction of two monsters! SAWATARI-SAN: Jack…Gongenzaka… Futoshi: Gongenzaka… Ayu: What happened to him!? Tokumatsu: I don’t know. But Jack is the former King. Something trifle like this… Amanda: Look! JACK: We received damage equal to the 1000 combined ATK of the three destroyed monsters, but… GONGENZAKA: Due to Fudomyo-O’s effect, I was able to protect us and Red Daemon’s Dragon Scarlight! And Due to Fudomyo-O’s effect, the Battle Phase will also end. SAWATARI-SAN: Did you see that, Crow!? He did it! Gongenzaka was able to protect Jack’s dragon in that kind of situation! You’re awesome! Gongenzaka! Tokumatsu and kids: He did it! Huh? Amanda: What is that? Tokumatsu: What the hell is this!? SAWATARI-SAN: T-That’s… Sora: The City… The city in the Synchro Dimension has showed up! Tokumatsu: What in the world was that… Tokumatsu: AAAAH! Zarc: AHAHAHAHA! This is getting interesting! You gave a good response to my entertainment! You have my praises. JACK: Laugh while you can! Gongenzaka sacrificed his monsters to protect me. I’ll definitely smash through your thick armor, with Red Daemon’s Dragon Scarlight! Captain Falcon: Jack is going up the highway… Kaito: But is the highway even physical? Edo: The dimensions’ fusion is not complete yet… Sora: But Jack is not hesitating! SAWATARI-SAN: I’ll believe in you as well! Keep charging toward Yuya, Jack! Edo: He’s going up! JACK: It’s my turn! I activate the Trap Card, Vision Synchro! With its effect, I can send Red Sprinter and two Tuner Monsters, Dark Resonator and Net Resonator, from my hand to the Graveyard, in order to Synchro Summon! GONGENZAKA: Synchro Summoning with monsters in his hand!? JACK: Listen to the throbbing of my soul! Can you feel it? Can you feel the vigor of my life!? Behold, Yuya! This is my Dueling! Remember! Our Duel, which set the entire City on fire! I’m double tuning the Level-4 Red Sprinter with the Level-3 Dark Resonator and Net Resonator! The king and the devil shall now merge together! Feel the soul of the Crimson Dragon, and let out a war cry that shakes all creation! Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level-10! Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant! Tanner: Amazing! He Synchro Summoned from the hand! Amanda: And a Double Tuning, to boot! Frank: He has two Red Daemon’s Dragons now! There’s no way he’ll lose! JACK: I activate the effect of the Net Resonator that was used as Tyrant’s Material! As long as Tyrant is around, I won’t receive effect damage! GONGENZAKA: I activate Fudomyo-O’s effect with Red Daemon’s Dragon Scarlight and Tyrant as the targets! Due to this, until the End Phase, those two monsters won’t be destroyed! GONGENZAKA: This is the best that I can do. I’m counting on you, Jack. Awaken Yuya’s soul with your soul, that dragon! 3 kids: Go for it, Jack! SAWATARI-SAN: Please! Settle it, Jack! JACK: Battle! I attack Supreme King Servant Dragon – Clear Wing with Red Daemon’s Dragon Scarlight! Zarc: No matter what you do, the outcome will not change! Once per turn, using its effect, Clear Wing can negate the battle and destroy your monster! GONGENZAKA:  Due to Fudomyo-O’s effect, Scarlight won’t be destroyed! Zarc: But that monster won’t be around for long. Due to the effect of the Equip Magic, Supreme King Violent Spirit, Clear Wing’s effect will affect all monsters! Fudomyo-O will be destroyed, and you’ll receive damage equal to its ATK! GONGENZAKA:   But due to Net Resonator’s effect, Jack won’t receive damage! GONGENZAKA:    AAAHHHHH! SAWATARI-SAN: Crow! Damn it! Where did he go!? Hey! Crow! GONGENZAKA:    AAAHHHHH! SAWATARI-SAN: Gongenzaka! GONGENZAKA: Go, Jack! JACK: Yuya! Your friend sacrificed himself in order to give me a chance! I’ll deliver his feelings to you with my attack! Take it, Yuya! The strike of my soul! JACK: I attack Clear Wing with Red Daemon’s Dragon Tyrant INFERNAL CRIMSON HELL TIDE! Tokumatsu and kids: He did it! Sora: But then, due to this… Edo: Zarc’s Life will… Zarc: As long as there are Supreme King monsters on my Field, I won’t receive damage due to Supreme King Gate Zero’s Pendulum Effect. JACK: What!? Zarc: Then, due to the effect of Supreme King Gate Infinity, I will gain Life Point equal to the damage I would have taken. JACK: I end my turn. At this moment, Vision Synchro’s effect ends, And Red Daemon’s Dragon Tyrant returns to the Extra Deck. Frank: To think that he has an effect that can increase his Life… Amanda: Why are Crow and Yuya not coming to help him out of this pinch? Tanner: Where are you, Crow!? SAWATARI-SAN: Hey! Are you all right!? Pull yourself together! GONGENZAKA: He…reacted to the word “Entertainment.” Yuya is in there. Bring him back! SAWATARI-SAN: Gongenzaka… GONGENZAKA: You’re the only one left! I’m counting on you, Sawatari! Save Yuya… Crow: There’s still one more person who can fight, you know! SAWATARI-SAN: You’re…! Zarc: It is my turn! You’re the one who has entertained me the most so far! So, I will personally grant you a reward! The reward known as DESPAIR! SAWATARI-SAN: We’re joining in as well! Duel Disk: Intrusion Penalty, 2000 points. Zarc: Battle! I will attack Red Daemon’s Dragon Scarlight! JACK: AAAAHHHHHHH! JACK: You two, huh…Then, I’ll leave the rest to you. SAWATARI-SAN: Sure! I’ll handle the rest! I, the Super Ultra Hyper Strong Duelist, Sawatari Shingo the Great, will put an end to this! Crow: Hah! You think I’ll let you hog all the spotlights? Frank: That’s…! Amanda: Crow! Tanner: I knew he was there! Crow was there as well! Sora: Crow… He was resurrected? How? Edo: When the new utopia is born, the people will also be revived there… Reira: No way…Father is…! Reiji: What is Akaba Leo doing? Did Ray say something? Reira: Father is trying to split the world back again… Using the four cards that were brought back in my place… Reiji: Four cards?