#check out puellas stuff everyone

[ouppypio]

wooooooooaahh lots of ppl wanted to hear about the au so uh explanation ( also sorry it was late at a party rn)

Magical Girl Au Explanation Thinggy..

Before everyone chose to be a magical girl, they were once all human untill meeting Caine. Caine is some magical being along his buddy Bubble who he made. Caine has good intentions but due to his lack of understanding human emotions, does intentions back fired. He seen how humans have suffered, either by pain,depression,ect. He wanted to help the humans by either turning their lives more fun n stuff. I haven't thought on what he does but the idea was there are the Abstractions and creatures (example like the gloinks) that wreck people's lives but nobody can see them. As they live in this sorta circus themed world thats you can only kinda can get there without magiccccc....n stufffffffff. Caine decided to gather people who were willing to destroy those monsters, again this au is going through construction so I haven't figured out for some parts like why Caines intentions backfired so if yall wanna give out ideas I'd be happy to hear em. Back to what I was saying, Caine manage to get a few members for his group or whatever u wanna call it. Alot on who he gathered got abstracted ( alot of this is inspired by Puella Magi Madoka Magica so alot of it will be similar to that anime) so the previous members are now Abstractions (like previous magical girls turn into witches) All of the members were once human, but apon meeting Caine. Caine came to the conclusion that the human body was just to weak for them to fight so he came with a solution. By using his power, he turned their human body to these magical forms, essential what they are in the digital circus. But these body aren't human at all, they don't have organs or look anywhere near human like that so that strikes another problem. Since they can live in the human world anymore, Caine decided to create a new home for them, The Digital Circus. All of the members were devastated to learn that their lives were taken away and now having to live in some circus well just like the show... they abstracted. I might go for an idea that Caine erases all of their old memory to help with their sadness but again with it backfiring with them going insane n stuff. Again feel free to leave out ideas.

So now we begin with our story starting with Pomni. Pomni or whatever her human name would be (Pammy? Pamantha? Poppy?) She's is a depressed,overworked, and very much hates her job, office worker. Working for a company ( maybe for a game uh again not sure) who desperately wants to change herself, to prove the people around her that she can do something, that she can make a change, to have a purpose. That goal could spark the interest of Caine, so one day appearing in front of her to make a deal. Maybe possibly one of the monsters attack her. Either by accidentally going to the magic world thingy on mistake ( she maybe noticed a weird group of them going to this portal, or by just peer dumb and bad luck...she would have lots of bad luck) Possibly Caine saves her or the group instead. Which ever I go for Caine strikes a deal with her and she goes along with it because of the desperation to be something. And once she actually learns the horror of this new body and new home, she regrets it...as all the others during there first times. Now me meet the group, starting with the oldest

Kinger, the one who's been apart of the group the longest and most wisest. He's somehow been able to stay somewhat same but due to so much time dealing with all the craziness and losing someone dear to him. The magical girl gig has kinda broken him away so especially he's the plan/ smart guy in the group. Telling information for the group for missions and strategies.

Then Ragatha who's the second oldest member. She is essentially the mom friend, who often aids her friends during battles and keeping check of anyone (especially after someone abstracts) She tries to put on a happy face and cheerfully personality to keep her sanity, as it's her way to deal with her forever situation.

Jax is the third, he's the playful and prankster as always. Often teasing and annoying his teammates whenever he has the chance to. Jax often doesn't wait to attack during missions and ignores everyone's warning, unless Caine gets him to sit down and listen. But all of the sass and humor is his way to cope with the situation.

Gangle is the fourth member of the group, she's quite soft spoken and scared. As she still struggles a bit of her situation, and relys on her mask to deal with her emotions. Although she isn't weak, she can find herself to cower over some missions if they get to much. Mostly when she doesn't have her happy mask on, and that mask helps her with confidence. Although her emotions help her boost her strength if in very strong emotions.Her coping is practically relying on her masks to keep her happy,although a certain someone keeps breaking them.

Zooble is the fifth and came not long after Gangle. They are a distant and "idgaf" type of person, often trying to not get close with anyone and to just get over with it. Zooble sorta chills there untill they go to another mission, and their distancing is their way of coping. Not wanting to make connections to people in fear of losing them, just over all wanting to do the missions and nothing else.

The basic plot of it is Pomni and everyone else going to mission while they slowly start to find out more and more about everything to who they are, Caine and his secrets,and the universe itself. Anyways that's what I'm going to leave off, have a sketch of Pomni and Ragatha designs. I do plan on finnish it aswell with everyone's else but im tired and I wanna go to bed. Also credits to @massivemilkshaketale giving me ideas for this au, ily all and gn :33

designssssssss

[britishsass]

There are plenty of old pictures to find in Subcon, around the destroyed houses and the old castle. The place may have mostly burned, but there are still memories there.

For instance, this one, recovered from the remnants of a two-bedroom house. Sure looks like a happy little friend group, don't they? Wonder where they all went...

(In other words: Hi, welcome back to Owl's AHIT Swap AU, I'm offering a tiny bit of backstory now, because I like to talk about backstory stuff just as much as the actual story. Check under the cut for more info ;) )

Puella (left), Amelie (lower middle), and Bonnie (right) were a trio of very close siblings. They grew up in Subcon with their loving father, and were rarely seen apart from the princess of Subcon Kingdom, Mu (upper middle), who liked to stay over and hang out with them. The quartet went through dozens of adventures together, always finding something new to do.

It's not known what happened to them, but some might say the day Subcon burned, the whole family split apart, running to all corners of the planet, never to return... Not that anyone remembers them now, though. It's been decades since the Subcon disaster, and it's not like others ultimately remember everyone who was there that day.

(And, of course, the version of the image without any added filters and stuff!)

(God, Bow deserves such a better first picture from me, but... Good thing I finally drew her, and Amelie too. I've drawn Mu and Hattie before, but Bow and Amelie are new folks to draw, so.)

[princess-of-the-corner]

Gosh seeing PMMM AU's via time travel reminds me of this one idea I had.

Homura wakes up, seems like a regular, familiar timeline.

She goes through the motions, the habits, the familiar parts.

She barely pays attention to anything outside her narrow purview.

Until she gets to school & the receptionist clicks their tongue at her ring.

"I thought we were meant to be told when someone new was assigned here. Go check out the club room on the top floor."

(or something like that XD)

Confused she goes along with it and finds herself freezing at the name on the door.

"Puella Magi - Mitakihara Branch #1!"

Things she'd been ignoring or glossing over, certain looks or comments, idle chatter overheard, flashes of posters & recordings all come roaring to the forefront of Homura's mind.

Then the door opens with a click and she's greeted by a smiling Madoka who already made a contract.

____________________________

Long story short, this is a timeline where someone's sister or friend died heroically as a magical girl & so their successor wished that everyone would know what heroes the magical girls are.

This led to the masquerade being pulled back, violently.

Suffice to say, Witches suddenly being visible to the public eye and more, leaving their domains to attack causes no end of shock, horror and chaos.

One of the first major reported cases (In Japan at least) was Tomoe Mami defending and saving hundreds, including some noted media personalities as a witch descended on a public park.

She wasn't the only one to do such things of course, but it did give her a very public and uncomplicated heroic debut compared to some magical girls. Especially as her demeanor and manner makes it easy for her to be well liked compared to some rough around the edges types.

(Oriko Mikuni is also of noted importance)

Anyway, chaos spread as awareness grew with some areas or countries not doing so hot & others processing things very well. The truth regarding the Incubators came out and oh boy, did that cause problems; & briefly saw them outright banished from the planet.

Now they are back but are contained to diplomatic agencies & pretty much universally hated but still needed to deal with the problems they created, ala Witches, Familiars & some new critters that popped up that they didn't plan on.

Japan was one of the countries that bounced back rather well, so Puella Magi are largely regarded very positively. Though be it in a "I hope my daughter doesn't become one, its so dangerous" kind of way, with many becoming celebrities.

Mami is a major face for their loosely organized association that collaborates with the government to ensure Puella Magi can live normal lives & defend their communities & get enough support to avoid stuff like turning into Witches.

The Incubators are also not meant to create new, unsanctioned magical girls, so Homura is kind of as giant red flag, save that the Incubators also have no fucking clue where she came from.

____________________________

Aside, but Homura freaks out about Madoka, gets pulled back by magical girl Hitomi & basically tries to fucking bolt with them in hot pursuit.

(She shot Hitomi in the leg but it didn't take & Homura got punched through a window over it)

Mami was in town & helped them orchestrate an ambush after observing Homura's powers for a bit. Did some quick PR & then left with a bound up Homura to go raise merry hell with the Incubators.

There'd be a brief cut to Sayaka & Kyoko at their own local branch being like, "What the fuck is today right?"

Sadly I never got much further than that with planning.

Gods sorry for the massive submission XD

Oh that's fucking WILD I love it

[demoneditscorps]

hello everyone! i’m mod zenitsu! i use any pronouns. my main is @mitternz and my main edit blog is @melodrin so feel free to check my stuff out on those blogs!

credit to @.luvvvie for the heart dividers!

what i can do!

icons, headers, layouts, wallpapers, moodboards, and replycons!

i can do these edits, but DO NOT request for them: gif icons, gifs in general

sources!

cookie run: kingdom, d4dj, demon slayer, genshin impact, hunter x hunter, project sekai, puella magi madoka magica, seraph of the end, sk8 the infinity, the case study of vanitas, toilet bound hanako-kun, twisted-wonderland

i’ll be adding and removing things from the source list sometimes, keep an eye out for that!

blacklist!

all characters from the sumeru roster (except for collei and cyno) (genshin impact)

hisoka, palm (hunter x hunter)

adam (sk8 the infinity)

characters with not enough content (general)

dark themes (such as traumacore, yanderecore, etc.)

any requests that include anything not from my “what i can do” and source list, and any requests that include anything from my blacklist will automatically be deleted with no response.

tags!

⚡️— requested!

⚡️— self indulgent!

⚡️— accepted!

⚡️— denied!

⚡️— chatting!

⚡️— announcement!

⚡️— other!

⚡️ — asks!

thank you for reading!

[carnoshin]

Slashers With A Magical Girl S/O

Prompt(s) provided by @galaxy-of-pastels, based off of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I was in the fandom when I was younger, so excuse the length!!! 

((I know the cut won’t work on mobile, yet again, so I’m also gonna tag this as “long post.” soz))

(Also. Side-note that I think is funny: technically, all you need to become a magical “””girl””” is human emotions, so. Technically. These boys could make a wish. Too bad I can’t draw men, this seems like it would be fun to do;;;)

Jason

You probably assume that the famous “Jason Voorhees of Camp Blood” is a witch, so that’s how you end up there. Maybe you still have some hope left in you, maybe you’re trying to claim the territory.

Obviously, you’re surprised when the infamous Jason is... Well, he’s just himself. And he’s surprised when you walk off being gored. It does some serious corruption to your soul gem, but you’ve been through worse-- that’s what being a magical girl is, simple enough: not fun and seriously harming.

((As for the general relationship and the specific questions, lol))

Usually, in the Madoka universe, magical girls do not age unless spurned by their transformation (Godoka seems to be a few years older than usual Madoka, for example. Also, there’s a wish that basically splits someone into two people in the manga: it’s transformative, is what I’m getting at). If you are chronologically an adult and pass for an adult, you probably turned later in your teen years. 

Once you make your wish, your body is essentially dead: you’re a ghost possessing your preserved corpse.

Jason relates to that on a certain level, but he’s also vaguely worried about the fact that he is rotting. It becomes a very “monstrous alien or beautiful corpse” situation, if you’re familiar with that saying-- both are psychologically terrifying, but the one people prefer says something about them. That monstrous aspect is part of what drew you two together.

He’s caught off-guard by the idea that you could just. Disappear forever? Only leaving behind destruction and despair? Given the fact that you’re with him, he’s vaguely terrified what your Labyrinth could be like. He wonders if you would hurt him-- he deeply wants you to be able to come back to him, if you ever reach that point of corruption. (And no, he doesn’t care about the consequences.)

You have to leave fairly often to find grief seeds and he insists you leave when he “has to” commit his occasional massacre, in case it corrupts your gem even more.

Technically, only magical girls or kyubey can enter the witch’s labirynth without assistance. Everyone else is affected by either suicidal thoughts or illness. At first, it doesn’t strike him as odd: it’s just a group of teens coming up in the middle of summer, it’s not rare at all. But he finds himself being a bit more reckless than usual-- he’s practically making himself known at this point, no doubt as to whether or not he’s an urban legend.

(I would sincerely hope you don’t bring him into the labirynth: are you trying to get your mans killed?)

Most magical girls can go beyond their fully corrupted gem. (It’s implied that Homura never uses a grief seed after she gets herself set “right,” simply by supressing her sadness.) So if you come back from a fight and you’re particularly quiet, it can be even more stressing on your end when he tries to comfort you-- that release of emotion is what forms a witch, after all. Giving a matter of fact “I almost died” and leaving it at that is your best bet.

 If you became a witch, he’d feel so... Guilty? He’d probably be there to watch the grief seed “hatch” and might get caught in the resulting chaos-- emotion is a very strong thing with magical girls, so if you have lots of emotions for him... He could get sucked in. Once you are slain he just. Sits there. In the same place you were when he last saw you. The quiet of the house, the fact that all your things are still there... It just wrecks him.

(Lmao, did you think a Madoka post was gonna be happy...? Nah.)

Bubba

Again, you are probably there in the assumption that a witch is in the area. Most magical girls ditch Kyubey after finding out what he did to them, so you’re left trying to find them on your own-- not impossible, but certainly harder than just following the little rabbit-puppy-cat bastard. Witches do spread around violence-prone areas, so it’s not a terrible stretch of the imagination.

There very well might be a witch in the area. Though witches can move around, if you catch one early it’s likely to be in an abandoned place-- where magical girls tend to hang around. And, sure enough, there are lots of abandoned places around the Sawyer property. It’s not the best place to set up a base camp, however.

You probably wouldn’t be terribly friendly with the Sawyer family altogether-- probably just Bubba: his secret friend who comes by at night to talk with him. His “imaginary” girlfriend, if you will-- his brothers certainly call you that, at least.

Bubba doesn’t quite get all of the stuff around witches and rumors and familiars and all that. He thinks the soul gem is quite pretty: he can sort of see the resemblance between you and it.

He’s the most likely to take off with your soul gem on accident. It’s really pretty and, since it’s yours, he very much sees it as something precious-- not in the fact that it’s literally your soul so much as “this belongs to my lover. I keep it on me to remind me of them.” So you can see why that would be an issue.

There are a few events where he finds a grief seed nearby his house-- witch’s gravitate towards violence and death, so the Sawyer house isn’t an unlikely place for them to go. You frequently tell him to make sure his family is healthy and he starts to be a bit more “doting” around his family than usual, though it makes them upset at him.

He knows what your soul gem looks like. So he recognizes your grief seed immediately. And then he just... Loses time. He “wakes up” thirty minutes later, dangerously close to the woodchipper in the backyard. He remembers that you told him if he ever lost time like that, he should make sure he’s safe-- that his family is safe and relatively health. And after he does, just like you told him to, he remembers where he saw the little silver and black trinket that looked like your soul gem. And it’s just gone.

It becomes a regular part of his daily schedule to check over by the place he would meet you-- you on the opposite side of the fence that denoted the Sawyer property. You never come back, but... He’s certainly keeping his hopes up.

:(

Brahms

The Heelshire mansion is a good place for a base. It’s only a twenty minute drive from a major city; being an older magical girl, you have a type of authority that the other girls succeed to, so there’s very few territorial issues; there’s a hospital ten minutes away; no one ever comes by, so you can do as much magical stuff as you like without worry of being exposed. Etcetera.

Since your magic is so very advanced, as an “adult” magical girl, you probably end up making a kind of... Temporal space to disappear into. This is the main thing that interests Brahms about you: you enter a room-- one that he can see into and enter, if he so pleases-- but you’re never in the room. For a while, he considers that he might be going insane. Or perhaps you’re a ghost-- things he never believed in, especially because most assume he is a ghost.

He becomes terribly interested with you-- not even in a romantic sense, because he does have a kind of fear towards you: he truly thinks you’re a demon or a spectre-- perhaps a ghost from the witch hunts way back when, as you occasionally mention witches when you have a visitor outside the house.

He takes note of a type of creature outside the house that you seem to absolutely hate. He assumes it’s some strange toy, as he can just barely hear it speaking. One day, it mentions that someone else is in the house and before he knows how to react, you’re searching through the house with something shiny in hand. You never find him: he’s not a witch or a magical girl or anything of the sort, so he doesn’t show up on your radar.

When you go to sleep at night, he is so very careful about taking that lovely gem you seem to have. He takes it back to his room and leaves it there for further inspection. For the next two days, you don’t move even once. He even gets so bold as to check your pulse, shake your body to try to wake you. And then he hears that strange creature that you seem to hate speaking to him: he hasn’t the slightest clue how it got into the house, but he listens to it and returns your soul gem. He sits by your bedside waiting for you to wake up. Needless to say, you’re quite frightened when you do and see a man you’ve never seen before watching over you.

He listens very intently about your life as a magical girl. He’s seen you do such strange things. It only takes one single transformation-- to him it seems to only take a single blink, though you do go through the whole process-- to convince him. He’s not terribly afraid of you turning to a witch--- if you’re unhappy with him, it serves you right. (He... Sucks...)

The thing is, he won’t let you leave very often to get grief seeds. You’re always just on the verge of becoming a witch. If you’re lucky, you can convince some of the younger girls to give you “extra” grief seeds. They suggest you run from him-- plenty of them are homeless; it’s a norm for magical girls.

If you do become a witch, it probably happens in the manor. He accosts the girls who came to destroy your labirynth as soon as everything is over-- he’s awake and alert immediately after. The girls aren’t so kind as to give him your grief seed-- you were extremely difficult to beat, so they can’t just let the grief seed grow and destroy once again: you’d only get stronger and more dangerous.

He gets so lonely, so depressed. He doesn’t eat. He hardly sleeps. He becomes a husk of a man. He doesn’t die from grief, however, no. He has to go through the process of grief. All alone.

[scoutception]

Ranking the next 5 animes I’ve recently watched

After many distractions on my part, including playing through Steins;Gate, something that has quickly become something I adore like few others, I’ve continued my descent into the world of anime with 5 more series. The stuff I watched was a lot shorter on average than last time, and my attempts to be “objective” and my personal biases align much more closely compared to last time. With that, I’ll begin. 5. Soni-Ani: Super Sonico the Animation

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: subs only. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll. When it comes to visual novels, nitro+ is one of the biggest developers out there, alongside Key. Whereas Key is mainly out to make you really, really sad, nitro+ prefers a different approach. To my understanding, at best, their works are really, really dark, and at worst, they’re going straight for your nightmares, with stuff like Song of Saya and Sweet Pool. So clearly, the best mascot for them is the pink haired, constantly headphoned, and downright adorable Super Sonico. Even if it’s not outright official, it’s pretty jarring. Anyway, with that little rant out of the way, here’s the only thing on this list I actually wouldn’t recommend. Produced by White Fox back in 2014, this anime apparently got slammed pretty hard, and honestly, I have no idea why I even ended up watching this one. Perhaps this’ll be a reminder to be less impulsive in my choices in the future. Soni-Ani focuses on, who else, Super Sonico herself, an energetic and kind, yet clumsy college student who should reasonably be dead from stress and exhaustion. Along with college, she’s an idol, gravure model, helper at her grandmother’s restaurant and guitarist and main singer in the band First Astronomical Velocity with her friends Suzu Fujimi, the witty and manipulative bassist and official leader of the band, and Fuuri Watanuki, the mysterious drummer single mindedly obsessed with food. The series just explores some of the odd, extremely fanservice filled days of her life. It’s ok idea on paper, but in practice it’s just not really anything special or even entertaining for the most part. While I can usually ignore fanservice, it’s downright distractingly prevalent in the earlier episodes, to the point of several episode premises pretty much only catering themselves to it. Even without that, there’s just not much to be found; aside from Suzu and Sonico’s manager, the honestly hilarious Kitamura, who constantly wears a hannya mask and is willing to attack people for attempting to take advantage of Sonico, the characters aren’t anything memorable or entertaining on their own, leaving a lot of episodes feeling dry. They do improve in the second half, featuring episodes like a fairly charming murder mystery spoof, and an episode focusing on Sonico’s cats, of all things, but they’re still not something going out of your way to watch. The voice acting and animation, while at least ok, don’t stick out much either. Overall, again, this is the one thing I’d say to just avoid. There’s tons of other slice of life animes out there that are way better. If nothing else, though, I’m kinda glad I stuck to it just for the surprise cameo by Kurisu Makise’s outfit, considering I was already playing Steins;Gate.

4. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: dub (video release only, apparently) and subs available. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix. Moving onto stuff I’d actually recommend, here’s a nice little anime adaptation of a gag manga by Izumi Tsubaki, produced by Dogakobo. Chiyo Sakura, a high school student who stands at an impressive 4′9″, confesses her love to the tall and mysterious Umetaro Nozaki, and gets his autograph, of all things, for her troubles. Trying again, Nozaki instead takes her to his apartment... to assist him with his manga. As it turns out, Nozaki is a popular romance manga author, whose interests in life start an end at manga, rendering him utterly oblivious to Chiyo’s feelings. Thusly, Chiyo officially becomes his assistant in order to grow closer to her crush, meeting his other associates along the way. The main thing that must be said is that this is not a serious anime in the slightest, and it’s all just big parody of romance manga more than anything, especially with the characters, like Mikoshiba, who acts like a playboy, but in reality is cripplingly shy, and Kashima, the “prince” of the school who is both actually a girl and an airhead who’s frequently on the nerves of the drama club’s president, Hori. A lot of the humor thrives on miscommunication, and it’s exaggerated enough that it works well. Every character is an idiot, in their own ways, but endearingly so, and each of them stands out, from Chiyo, who mostly plays the straight man but has her moments of over imagination, or the hilariously abrasive Seo. The plots are the right kind of dumb too, like Nozaki and Mikoshiba becoming obsessed over a helper NPC in a dating sim, or Hori gaining an intense hatred for people standing on boxes due to Nozaki’s attempts to fix perspective problems. The jokes can get a bit predictable after a while, especially with Nozaki, but overall it’s a pretty funny time. The voice acting is good, and the animation is charming. Overall, this is definitely a fun watch. If you want a good laugh, or just something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, this is definitely something to check out. 3. Angel Beats!

Number of episodes: 13 (+ some OVAs not on streaming services). Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation. As it turned out, visual novels, or at least visual novel developers, became a theme in the things I watched this time around. As mentioned before, Key is one of the biggest VN developers out there, who specialize in making you really sad. From Kanon, to Clannad, to Planetarian, to Little Busters, Key’s made a lot of great stuff, and had some great anime adaptations made, particularly for Kanon and Clannad. Thus, Jun Maeda, co-founder of Key, conceived Angel Beats to originate as an anime, produced by P.A. Works in 2010. Angel Beats focuses on Otonashi, a teenager who wakes up in a strange high school with amnesia, only able to remember his last name. He soon meets a girl named Yuri Nakamura, who informs him that they’re dead, and stuck in a sort of afterlife, seemingly ruled over by a mysterious girl they only know as Angel. In this purgatory, they’re unable to die, as Otonashi finds out first hand at Angel’s hands, and the school is populated by fabricated teachers and students, but the real people stuck there are at risk of being “obliterated” if they act like normal students, ceasing to exist. Unwilling to accept this, Yuri leads class SSS in opposition of Angel and the assumed God that created this world for the cruel fates that everyone stuck in the afterlife met, Otonashi seemingly included. With seemingly no other path to take, Otonashi joins forces with the SSS. The main strength of Angel Beats is its cast of characters. From the pretty mean yet charming Yuri, to the reliable, yet often abused Hinata, to the crazy and energetic Yui, to even some of the side characters, like Shiina, the ninja girl with a crippling weakness for wind up dog toys, or TK, who speaks in gloriously mangled English and dances constantly. The premise as well is honestly fascinating to me, and makes for some very interesting episodes. It’s got some pretty entertaining action scenes, along with some really funny moments, mostly by playing the “nobody can actually die” tidbit for all its worth, with the second episode devoting a good amount of time to slowly killing off the main group in horrible, yet blase fashions. It delivers emotionally too, with the second half in particular having a good deal of touching episodes, especially episode 10. Unfortunately, there’s one giant problem with this anime that brings it down quite a bit: it’s only 13 episodes long. While I’m not a fan of 12 or 13 episode seasons, I can’t say that’s a problem by itself. What is a problem is that they were planning to have double that amount of episodes, causing the storyline to feel very rushed, and leaving nearly every character in the cast that isn’t part of the main group very underdeveloped. While there’s an entire expanded universe of stuff, good luck tracking it all down, and while Key themselves were making a 6 part visual novel of Angel Beats to expand upon it all, something that’s very promising, only the first volume has been released so far, back in 2015, with no word since, very likely because of Jun Maeda’s health issues. Overall, Angel Beats genuinely is a good watch, but it’s kinda depressing, just because of how much potential was cut short thanks to whatever genius decided to cut the episode amount in half. Unless the VN project really gets going again, it’ll probably just remain a bunch of what could have beens. 2. Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Funimation. Continuing the theme I unintentionally set up, here’s this famous little thing, from the mind of Gen Urobuchi, who, among other things, has worked on several nitro+ visual novels, mostly notably Song of Saya, wrote the apparently horribly depressing Fate/Zero, and was a scriptwriter for Kamen Rider Gaim, which, to my understanding, is one of the darkest Kamen Rider shows out there. Will all this in mind, there’s no real hiding that this isn’t going to be anywhere near as innocent as it tries to appear. Even if you didn’t know that, its reputation probably far exceeds it by now. Madoka Kaname is an average middle school student whose life is thrown into chaos when a mysterious girl named Homura Akemi transfers into her class, whom Madoka later finds attacking a strange creature called Kyubey. After rescuing it, Madoka and her best friend Sayaka are attacked by a strange creature known as a witch, only to be rescued by Mami Tomoe, a “magical girl” given power by Kyubey. Kyubey sees much potential in Madoka, and offers to grant her any wish of her choosing, in exchange for her becoming a magical girl as well and helping fight the witches. Homura, however, is completely determined to keep that from happening. Thus starts a chain of event in the lives of Madoka and Sayaka that, suffice it to say, don’t go very well. Without getting too specific, what starts as a mostly typical, if slightly odd, magical girl show quickly goes to very dark and twisted places, comparative to Neon Genesis Evangelion, though not quite as in depthly depressing with it. Everyone takes a beating in some way, and even with just 12 episodes, it can get a bit much for some people, even when it doesn’t end quite as awfully as you might expect. Still, it’s actually very well done. The characters are complex and flawed, but ultimately sympathetic, the overall plot is fascinating, and it ends in a very fitting way. It’s emotional, and has surprisingly good action. The dub voice work is solid, and the animation by Studio Shaft is as well, especially helped by the abstract designs of the witches themselves. While I’m not quite as passionate about it all as some are, it’s definitely earned its reputation. It’s a great watch, and definitely a big recommendation. 1. Steins;Gate

Number of episodes: 24 (+ 1 OVA). Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Funimation, Hulu, Crunchyroll. Finishing off my unintentional theme with an actual adaptation of a visual novel, there was no way I wasn’t checking this one out with how utterly passionate the VN made me. This is at least partially a bias placement, but this anime is a very, very good adaptation, and a great way to experience the story without the VN, and a great watch even having gone through it. Rintaro Okabe is a college student on break living in his “laboratory” in Akihabara. A self proclaimed mad scientist, he whittles his days away hanging out with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru Hashida, inventing useless gadgets in a supposed fight against an evil organization. One day, Rintaro and Mayuri go to attend a press conference by Doctor Nakabachi in Radi-Kan, who claims to have invented a time machine, only for it to end horribly for all involved when Rintaro discovers Kurisu Makise, a young neuroscientist who had recently had her thesis published in a major science magazine, murdered by an unknown assailant. Sending an email to Itaru about the incident, Rintaro suddenly finds the world to have changed. According to everyone else, the press conference had been canceled due to a mysterious satellite that crashed into Radi-Kan, and Rintaro later runs into Kurisu, alive and well. Investigating, Rintaro finds that, by complete accident, his modified microwave has become a device capable of sending emails to the past- and that SERN, a French research organization, has been conducting time travel experiments of their own. In his attempts to understand the capabilities of what he’s invented, and his curiosity as to why his memories appear to be out of sync with everyone else’s, Rintaro rushes into a series of experiments that change his life, and those of friends old and new. This is something I could rant about all day, but putting it as succinctly as I can, I’ve never been as fascinated by time travel as Steins;Gate has made me. As fantastic as it, it’s also shown to be unpredictable, limited, and downright unsettling, especially when nobody knows just how time even works. It’s a story about the concept of time travel as much as a story about using it. The story definitely starts a bit slowly, but it’s well worth pushing past. As an adaptation, it doesn’t even need to sacrifice much, with the most that’s lost being some details in a few later arcs that aren’t worth much in the long run anyway. Beyond that, the main strength of the story is the cast of characters. Rintaro, with his rather severe case of chuunibyou, is a unique protagonist to begin with, but the events of the story turn him into an honestly fascinating and downright tragic character, and easily one of my favorite protagonists in a long time. The rest of the cast is just as good, with Kurisu being a great mix of intelligence, ravenous curiosity, and flusterability, with her and Rintaro’s interactions always being entertaining. As well, there’s the always kind, yet ditzy Mayuri, the outgoing, but odd Suzuha Amane, the endearingly gentle Luka Urushibara, and the energetic and wily Faris, just for some examples. The cast is downright loveable and very easy to get attached to. While I prefer the Japanese voice cast overall, the dub isn’t to be overlooked, with Trina Nishimura as Kurisu, Tyson Rinehart as Itaru, Cherami Leigh as Suzuha, Lindsay Seidel as Luka, and especially J. Michael Tatum as Rintaro giving great performances. Visually, White Fox did a great job giving it a distinct look. While the VN had a gorgeous and unique artstyle, it’s not really something that can be translated into animation. Instead, they used a whole lot of washed out colors and saturated lights that, combined with the sparse use of flashy effects and even music, gives a very subtle atmosphere to it all. Even beyond the style, it looks very good on its own, and it’s especially nice not having Rintaro look like a ghoul half the time, like he does in the VN.

Overall, this is very much something worth checking out. I’m beating a dead horse here since Steins;Gate is already wildly popular, but it’s that way for a very good reason. There’s also an extra OVA episode, along with a sequel movie, though both are only available via Funimation. They aren’t quite the best, but they make for entertaining watches worth checking out. And with that, that’s the end to my rambling. With the exception of, again, Super Sonico, everything here is very much worth a watch. I’m sure, once I emerge from the hell of Steins;Gate spinoffs, I’ll get to watching even more stuff. Till then, though. -Scout

[loopy777]

You've got me curious now as to what anime youve seen, enjoyed and why.

Oof, I don’t track that type of thing. I’ve been asked about anime I like previously, and I feel like I always forget something. I suppose I should start a MyAnimeList one of these days, just for reference.

So let’s list everything I can remember, as well as a pithy reaction.

Baccano!This one is just so much fun. It’s violent and crass in a classy way, it’s funny in a weird way, and it’s a great example of a non-linear narrative. I love it.

Code Geass (Season 1)Ugh, I only watched this one because people solicited my opinion on it. Well, my opinion is that it’s not as smart as it wants to be, there’s too much contrived melodrama (and considering the wild premise, that’s saying something), and Kallen would be a wonderful and interesting character if she wasn’t always being demeaned for fan-service. I quit when the first season finale kicked off, because I felt things were just getting too contrived. I hear it really fell apart in the second season.

Cowboy BebopI found this a bit pretentious. It had good episodes and bad episodes. The production quality is good. But I'm not sure why it's legendary. Still, I liked its sense of humor, and enjoyed it when it wasn’t trying to be super serious. My favorite character is Ed.

Demon SlayerI'm mainly watching this because my brother wanted to give it a try on Toonami, but I kind of checked out when it unceremoniously removed everything difficult about the sister being a demon and made her into an order-following sidekick that fits in a suitcase. Now the latest episode introduced a loud annoying side character, so we may quit. I have no idea why this one is so popular.

Fullmetal AlchemistCovered

Gatchaman CrowdsI was asked to watch this one, as well, but it went a lot better than Code Geass. It’s a bit weird, and I think it's naively optimistic about the internet in many ways, but I still found it's exploration of Internet-age superheroes to be interesting, and it's the best, most mature take on the Power Rangers-style ‘sentai’ genre that I've seen. I don't know how well it matches up with its Gatchaman legacy, but as its own thing, it's pretty good.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (including 2nd Gig)This is another legendary one that I think is good but a bit over-rated. It's a good piece of modern Cyberpunk, but it's very talky, and very jargon-filled. I'm almost convinced that the viewer is not meant to follow half of the conversations, that they're just part of the ambiance. I tended to like the stand-alone episodes better than the storyline episodes. Still, it’s a very smart series, and probably the best thing in the franchise, from what I’ve heard.

Log Horizon (first season only)I’ll tell you what- I think it’s possible to make a good anime with the premise of people from the modern, real world entering a fantasy realm (either another dimension or a VR video game). Log Horizon did not end up being that ideal. The main character is a Gary Stu, his romances with girls who are either ten years old or just look like they’re ten years old are creepy, and it got boring seeing the protagonists’ plans always succeed without much of a hitch.

Lupin III (series 4 and 5)I like this franchise when it's being clever, when it's springing a twist while playing fair. Sometimes, though, it doesn't play fair with its twists, leaving me underwhelmed. And while the regular cast is amusing, they're fairly shallow characters; this isn't always a bad thing, as that allows them to slot into all kinds of genre fare, but does limit the storytelling ambitions. It’s fine.

Macross franchiseSuper Dimensional Fortress MacrossI still like the original, despite how dated it is. It's probably the best possible implementation of 'soap opera in space.'

Macross PlusI'm not sure why this one is so revered. I feel like it doesn't play fair with its mystery, despite being such a short story, and whole thing with the killer popstar AI just left me cold.

Macross 7I like the music, but the story really drags for the first half with a formula that’s repeated far too long, and then falls apart in the end. The love triangle isn’t resolved, and in fact I’m of the opinion that two of the participants didn’t even know they were in competition. The bad guys are allowed to sail off into the sunset, forgiven, despite still inhabiting the bodies of kidnapped humans. But this isn't a series you watch for the story; this is a series you watch because you like the idea of a rockstar flying into space in a transforming mecha, controlled by an electric guitar, to sing at alien invaders. Personally, I think the idea is dumb. Plus, this ruins the premise of the original series by adding in what is effectively magic.

Macross ZeroThis is pretty good and has the best dogfights in the series, but it has one of those weird arty endings that anime sometimes likes to do where no one can tell what actually happened and we need to find translated interviews with the creative team to get it explained.

Macross FrontierBy this point, I was wondering why everyone is so eager for the Macross franchise to get American distribution. It’s better than Macross 7, but feels like a first draft of the intended story, and the creative team lost track of their own subplots. The two AU movies do a more satisfying take on the same basic story, but sometimes they come across like an abridged recap of the series, so you really need to watch everything to get a satisfying experience. That said, the final experience was indeed fairly satisfying, making this the second best thing in the franchise for me. Still, I wouldn’t say it lives up to the original in any way.

Macross DeltaBoy, this one was dumb. Everything wrong with Frontier is worse here, with none of the good stuff.

The Melancholy of Haruhi SuzumiyaI still want an ending for this, despite nothing worthwhile coming from it since 2011. It wouldn't even be hard to pick it up again; set it in modern times, and explain the fact that everyone has smartphones now to be a result of some weird off-screen Haruhi antics.

Mobile Suit Gundam franchiseMobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded OrphansI've only ever experienced the Gundam franchise because my brother wants to get into it and he keeps trying to find a vector. This was my first experience with it, and I found it very 'teenage boy,' in both tone and story. I was underwhelmed.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096Another case where the storytellers reached the end only to have forgotten the rest of the story. Why does that happen so often in anime? And I think it assumes the viewer is familiar with the whole rest of the franchise, because there was a lot that just went straight over my head but didn't seem like it was supposed to. Nice animation and art style, though.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Advent of the Red CometEverything I said about Unicorn, only more.

My Hero AcademiaCovered

NichijouThis thing is still hilarious, even after a rewatch. Stick with the sub, as the new dub's voice-acting doesn't have the same range and power of the original, losing a lot of the humor.

Outlaw Star I'm struggling to remember a lot of this one. it’s another I watched because my brother was interested in it. I do recall that it was a fairly standard Space Western that ends in a way that's more like serious science fiction, and that for some reason a Japanese swordswoman in classic clothing was part of the cast. Now I wonder if that was an homage to Lupin III. Or maybe Japan just really loves throwing classic samurai into everything, regardless of setting or genre.

Pokemon (part of first series)I was in high school when this franchise first came to America, and for some reason all the geeks in my high school thought it was the greatest thing. The games were good, yeah, but the anime? I don't think it's bad for a kiddie cartoon, but it obviously has no greater ambitions than pleasantly occupying the kids for 22 minutes. Personally, what I really want is a series about Team Rocket done in the style of Cowboy Bebop.

Princess TutuCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I forget who asked me to watch this, but I owe them.

Puella Magi Madoka MagicaCo-owner of the Best Magical Girl designation. I still haven't bothered with anything but the original series, and I continue to be happy with that choice.

Samurai ChamplooI liked this better than Cowboy Bebop, but only because its ambitions were lower. It leaned more into its genre, had fun with its style more even when being serious, and as a result became more enjoyable. I overall liked going on a journey with these rascals, but I think it ended at a good point. I don’t need more.

Spice & Wolf (first season)I watched this on someone's suggestion, and found it a little underwhelming. What I really appreciated were the two main characters, especially that they seem to be into each other, romantically and sexually, and aren't freaked out by it while at the same time not being in a hurry to become a couple. It was just a kind of, "Yeah, this could really be something if we ever find the time." It was so amazingly mature and real. Too bad the main Economics plotlines just wound up being tepid.

Tekkaman BladeMy thoughts haven't changed on this.

Tiger & BunnyI'm still fond of this one, and I'm actually kind of curious to revisit it in light of My Hero Academia.

Transformers ‘Unicron Trilogy’These three cartoons are true anime, produced by and for Japan. (The other cartoons in the franchise were written, and sometimes animated, in the west.) It's garbage that assumes its child audience are morons, and on top of that the first two series wound up with laughably bad dubs. How this trilogy revitalized the franchise, I have no idea, and thankfully I'll never have to worry about it.

Volton (original)Either this or Robotech/Macross was my first anime; I was too young to say which I discovered first. I'll admit that the original Voltron isn't good, despite the toy being neat, but I have a soft spot for it. I tried the Netflix reboot, watching the first three episodes, and found it to be vacuous junk. Maybe some day a version of this will come along that will do justice to the toy.

And I think that’s it. If I remember anything I left off, I’ll reblog with the addition.

[arlingtonpark]

Winter 2020 Anime Round-Up

I decided to do a round-up of all the anime I’m watching this season because, turns out, most of the shows I was interested in were bad!

I.D. Invaded.

This is a psychological thriller sci-fi mystery type show. It’s about a police unit who uses this sci-fi technology to detect a killer’s murderous intent and create a sort of virtual reality projection of the killer’s mind.

They then take a special agent and insert him into the projection to hunt down clues and find the killer’s identity and whereabouts.

Enjoying this show is not cheap. It asks a lot of you.

1. Don’t laugh at how ham-fisted the exploration of how a killer’s mind works is.

2. Don’t laugh at the special agent’s official designation being “The Brilliant Detective.”

3. Don’t question the ridiculous premise of the show; they use a killer’s particles to create the projection of their mind to hunt for clues, but are later shown using those same particles to pinpoint the killer’s location.

4. Don’t laugh at one of the police unit’s agents being a teenage girl.

5. And, of course, don’t notice all the expository monologuing for the audience’s sake.  

The show is silly, but there’s some intriguing stuff in it. The conflict between the unit’s field squad and the desk workers can be good, though the locus of that conflict being about what seems to be a bureaucratic oversight is pretty weak.

The teenage girl is the most bald-facedly ridiculous thing about this show, but she is unironically the best character. She does some daring, crazy shit in this show and I was legitimately shocked by it.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

6. Don’t laugh at the OP using recycled production materials and footage from the first episode.

Signs of a quality production right there.

 Plunderer.

>.<

This. Show.

I feel bad for Sarah Wiedenheft. She voices the main heroine in the dub. The in-over-her-head, naïve, helpless heroine, Hina.

God, help us!

Hina is a woman with a mission. She is bubbly and naïve, but stubborn and she gets in over her head by the end of the first episode. Why?

You know why, fool! So she can be rescued by the hero.

This show puts a creative spin on the typical shonen formula. Many shonen shows are designed to be wish fulfillment for teenage boys, with Mary Sue main characters for them to project onto.

The crazy spin on the formula here is that it’s wish fulfillment for sexual predators.

That’s not a joke.

The show takes place in a magical world where everyone is branded with a “count,” a number that increases whenever they complete a task specific to them.

Hina’s count goes up whenever she walks 100 km. Another’s count goes up whenever her food is complimented.

The count is denoted by a number that’s branded somewhere on their bodies. Hina’s count is located on her inner thigh, just below her crotch.

Meanwhile, this is what the hero does to Hina the first time they meet:

This is them at the end of the episode after he rescues her.

You know how in Dragon Ball, Master Roshi was this old pervert? The hero here is like that, except he’s young, not old, and a predator rather than just a pervert.

Licht is the hero; his count goes up whenever he dates someone, I guess, but the thing about him is that he’s a predator, so his count is actually -999. If your count reaches zero, you’re Kylo Ren-ed off into an abyss never to be seen again, so negative counts shouldn’t even be possible.

The reason the hero isn’t dead is because he’s actually.

Wait for it.

The Legendary Ace!

A badass fighter spoken of only in legends!

Who is this show even for?

It’s clearly supposed to be a wish fulfillment kind of show, but the only people I can see projecting onto the hero are, like, really, really pathetic people who fantasize about sexual assault.

(Another female character’s count is located on her left breast.)

The heroine is looking for this legendary ace, but even though she’s lived in this world her whole life, and has traveled throughout it her whole life, she knows nothing about how the count system works.

That was necessary, you see, for two reasons: so the system can be explained to us in monologue, and so the heroine can be made helpless and in need of rescue.

Those with a higher count have a high social status. This could have been a cool exploration of how luck is underappreciated as a factor in one’s social status, since how counts are determined is completely arbitrary and some are easier to increase than others, but no, we don’t get that.

People with a lower count must obey people with a higher count. But you’re in the military, there is an appeals process: if you have a lower count and are ordered by someone with a higher count to do something, you can challenge the high count to a duel and if you win, you can ignore their order.

You can then take the loser’s count and add it to your own.

These duels are called “star stakes.” >.<

Hina, naturally, is suckered into one of these duels and is about to lose everything when Licht saves her by agreeing to duel Hina’s opponent on her behalf.

And just to emphasize how infantilized Hina is in this show, Licht not only saves her physically, he even provides her with some emotional support, but phrased in a way that totally talks down to her.

 Asteroid in Love.

I’ve already seen the first episode three times, and I have no shame!

Doga Kobo is the Kyoto Animation of the past few years. Just as KyoAni made a name for themselves with a string of shows about cute girls doing cute things, Doga Kobo have sort of taken on that mantle.

Three Leaves, Three Colors; Gabriel Dropout; New Game; Senko-san; and now Asteroid in Love are all shows with good characters with good design work and animation better than they had any right to have.

This show is about a girl named Mira who meets a boy named Ao during a camping trip. He has a thing for astronomy and Mira is completely won over by it. They promise to discover and name an asteroid together.

Tragically, that one camping trip was the last they saw of each other.

Comically, they happen upon each other at the start of high school and wouldn’t you know it? Ao was a girl the whole time!

She was very tomboyish at that time in her life, so Mira mistook her for a boy.

But whatever, Mira’s friend still ships them.

They’re both passionate about astronomy, so they reconnect and become good friends real quick.

The friendship between Mira and Ao is by far the best part about this show; unfortunately, everything else is very generic.

High school club? Check.

Club member who’s boisterous and excitable? Check.

Club member who’s serious and down to earth? Check.

But in spite of all that, I could watch this show all day.

The presentation is excellent. The character designs are lovely and the direction and animation are amazing.

 Magia Record.

A spin-off of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Magia Record takes place before Rebellion, but in an alternate universe where the events of Madoka Magica haven’t happened yet. There’s a new cast, but the main cast of Madoka Magica will be back as major characters.

InuCurry, who did the artwork for the witches’ labyrinths are back, this time as series co-directors and co-writers.

The Magica Quartet, the brain trust of people who created Madoka Magica, Gen Urobuchi, Akiyuki Shinbo, Ume Aoki, and Atsuhiro Iwakami, are back too. The four are collectively credited with coming up with the story.

Shinbo, who co-directed Madoka Magica, is back as an animation supervisor. Aoki is back in her role as character designer. Iwakami is co-credited with series planning.

Yukihiro Miyamoto, who co-directed the original series alongside Shinbo, is back as assistant director.

This show…it’s just good to see it all back. The character designs are a bit different from the original series, but they nailed the aesthetic otherwise.

Magia Record draws heavily from plot elements first used in Madoka Magica, but it’s not what I would call uninspired. Anyone who’s seen Madoka Magica will notice the callbacks, but they’re fun, not cringeworthy.

It reminds me of how The Force Awakens brought people back in to the Star Wars universe by heavily echoing A New Hope, but Magia Record is much more creative in its echoing than Force Awakens was.

Everyone who likes the OG series should check this out.

There’s already much intrigue in the story. A magical girl whose wish was granted, but also apparently simultaneously erased from existence, rumors of a city where magical girls can be “saved,” and a Kyubey who is a separate entity from the others.

The show is an adaptation of a mobile rpg. This is from a cutscene.

Iroha Tamaki, the main character of Magia Record, and Homura Akemi. 

Get excited.

 Bofuri.

This show is like Asteroid in Love, in that it would be totally boring if it weren’t totally charming.

This is the type of show that takes a silly phenomenon in the real world and makes it the premise of the whole show. Maple is a girl who’s just gotten into video games. Because she’s a newb, she puts all of her points into defense at the expense of even basic stuff like speed and strength.

Thus ensues hilarity.

There’s not much to talk about here. Maple is endearing as a video game noob. The artwork is great. The writing is legitimately funny in a subdued way.

A+

 Darwin’s Game.

I watched this show because the premise reminded me of King’s Game.

For those who don’t know, King’s Game is widely considered to be the worst anime ever made. It sucks.

King’s Game is about a death game administered over the phone and it the point is that everyone dies. It tries hard to do horror and it fails hard. I watch it every Halloween. :D

Darwin’s Game is about a mobile app game that pits players against each other in death matches. You win by killing all the other players.

With some shows it’s clear the writer can’t decide what they want to do. This show can’t decide if it wants to be trash or legit good.

Immediately you can tell this show is going to suck because the artwork is terrible. This is an ugly show to look at.

The show opens with a cold open clearly made to make the audience ask questions. It succeeds too well.

The opening depicts a random person being chased through the streets and then killed by an invisible furry.

Seriously.

By God, the fanservice in this show…

This doesn’t even fully capture the shamelessness of it. If you watch the episode, you’ll notice her dress has frills from the waist down.

Except for when we see her kneeling down, when her dress is suddenly a single piece of cloth. So we can better see her ass outlined through it.

Things temporarily get good when the main character has to fend off the furry from the opening. It really is thrilling, but everything goes back to crap when the mc has to fight the dress woman in the above picture.

He doesn’t kill her though. Oh, no, he doesn’t.

She becomes smitten by how strong he is and the episode ends with her asking him to bed her.

-barf-

[recentanimenews]

Anime NYC 2021, Day Two

If the first day was defined by the lines outside, the 2nd day was defined by the lines INSIDE. My schedule for the day had to be adjusted a bit as it became clear that if you wanted to go to a panel, you’d better line up early. The afternoon was filled with staffers screaming “The Fate panel is full!”. Despite this, I was able to attend four excellent panels, and will regale you all with my experiences.

We start off with Yen Press, who had quite a few announcements, which I suspect are May and June 2022-ish. The Geek Ex-Hitman is a Shonen Ace Plus title about a sinister hitman who sees a cute anime figurine and decides to just abandon his entire life and move to Japan to get more. It was described as along the lines of The Way of the Househusband. The Other World’s Economy Depends on the Bean Counter (Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shidai) is from Enterbrain’s B’s Log Comic, and combines Isekai with BL. Nights with a Cat (Yoru wa Neko to Issho) is a Comic Walker title that is exactly what it sounds – cat manga. These are the sort of sketchy biographical titles you used to see at the back of seinen magazines but you know they’d never get licensed. Now they are.

After some giveaways, we got the manga version of Chitose-kun Is in the Ramune Bottle (Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka), whose light novel has been announced by Yen On already (and will have a digital release as well, I checked). It runs in Square enix’s Manga Up!. Hi, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion (Doumo, Suki na Hito ni Horegusuri o Irai Sareta Majo desu) comes from Kadokawa’s Flos Comic and will be familiar to Cross Infinite World fans, as they’ve been putting out the novels. See You Tomorrow at the Food Court (Food Court de, Mata Ashita) is a 1-volume title from Comic Newtype about two unlikely friends who meet up every day to eat. This one interested me the most of the manga announced. And because its spinoffs are almost as endless as Cells at Work, we get Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Gaiden: Another Story. It’s a spinoff.

Light novels! There were… well, let’s call it 2 1/2 announcements. The Bride of Demise (Shuuen no Hanayome) is a dark fantasy from the creator of Torture Princess, a series I find compelling if depressing. Sasaki and Pi-chan (Sasaki to Pi-chan: Isekai de Slow Life o Tanoshi Mou Toshitara, Gendai de Inou Battle ni Makikomareta Ken – Mahou Shoujo Up o Hajimeta You Desu) has a subtitle from hell but looks quite interesting, about a pet bird who turns out to be from another world and the business of selling isekai’d stuff with the salaryman who owns him. An the reason I said 2 1/2 announcements is the third is that No Game No Life 11 will be coming out over here in chapter installments! The prologue hits digitally November 25th.

The next panel was Dark Horse Comics. They didn’t have any new manga announcements, but did have a fun panel where they reminded everyone how old the company is and how far manga has come since the late 1980s. I remember buying some of those 32-page floppy manga comics, and wish You’re Under Arrest could come back out, despite the bad art at the start. They also mentioned the fact that Japan, of course, imports Western Comics and translates them to Japanese. Adam Warren’s versions of Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair can be seen in stores there translated. They also talked about artists who are well known for Western comics but are clearly manga-inspired, like Wendy Pini with Elfquest.

Speaking of the blend of east and west, Shigeru Mizuki was a huge fan of Hellboy, and wrote blurbs for its Japanese release. And of course Monkey Punch’s Lupin III is famously influenced by the Mad Magazine work of Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragones. And the creator of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt does doujinshi for Umbrella Academy, which sounds hella cool, not gonna lie. There were a few announcements that were at least new to me. Yoshitaka Amano has two new artbooks that recently came out, and this also led to a discussion of the Vampire Hinter D omnibuses also being released. Good for fans of that author. They are also quite happy with Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and the third volume is out next month.

After that I was supposed to meet up with Erica Friedman for a late lunch, but Zack Davisson got to her first, so instead I went to the Localization panel, which also had Carl Horn, Mari Moromoto, and Lynzee Loveridge. In other words, an all-star lineup. It was a very good panel, and the audience actually managed to be engaged and polite about it, which if nothing else shows you the panel did not happen on Twitter. Indeed, Twitter harassment of translators was mentioned at the panel, with Caleb Cook’s being a particularly painful example. The panel had a lot to talk about, but I think what came up most often is that a lot of “correct/wrong” answers depend on the material, the publisher, and the editor. Sometimes end notes are frowned upon, sometimes they’re beloved.

Erica mentioned that the ideal localization for her should be a seamless reading experience. The goal is not to see the mechanics of translation under the hood. There’s also slang – Zack avoids it, but it’s usually there in the Japanese, and Mari uses it. It can date a title, but it also means that the words don’t just lie flat on the page. Naturally, Squid Game also came up, and the kerfuffle over what turned out to be closed-captioning titles. Sometimes it’s not even something the translators can help, as they get overruled by editors, Japanese creators, etc. (I remember how ADV, way back in the day, had to fight tooth and nail to not make Ryo “Joe” Saeba in the City Hunter anime.)

We also got a reminder that Japan can see things differently than we do here. When Scarlet Johannsen was cast in Ghost in the Shell, there was a lot of pushback here. Meanwhile, Japan was like “OMG TOP HOLLYWOOD STAR!!!”. They’re far less stressed in Japan about things that we here in North America freak out over. Mostly as fans still tend to prefer titles be translated as “literally” as possible, usually meaning “I Like ‘Em Big and Stilted” (with apologies to Julie Brown). It was an excellent panel that I am happy I attended, and afterwards I was about to pass out, so I had a very late lunch and then decompressed for an hour or two. This con has 50K people, and even extroverts can get overwhelmed by it.

The last panel I did before I gave in and went back to the hotel (sorry, Manga Magazines panel, I am not 23 anymore) was J-Novel Club, with Sam Pinansky and Kristi Fernandez giving us 10 new titles – all light novels. We started off with Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home (Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!), a J-Novel Heart title about an isekai’d woman (though that rapidly becomes unimportant, a with a lot of isekai titles where they clearly want to write fantasy but know what sells) and the adventurer who loves her.

Fantasy Inbound is a title that may have a lot of hardcore fans saying “but what about Campione!?, as it’s by the same author. It’s a story where the isekai comes to OUR world… and things do not go well. After the apocalypse, can a student survivor and an elf girl try to salvage something? Prison Life Is Easy for a Villainess (Konyaku Haki kara Hajimaru Akuyaku Reijou no Kangoku Slow Life) is a short two-volume series where the villainess happily accepts her ex throwing her in prison… because she STILL has all the power. I’ve actually recommended this as a license request, it’s supposed to be hilarious.

To Another World… with Land Mines! (Isekai Teni, Jirai Tsuki) has a class transported to another world and all getting cool powers, but our hero seems to be one of the few people taking it seriously as a real-life (and possible death) matter. Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer! (Tensei Reijou wa Boukensha wo Kokorozasu) is what it sounds like a villainess title where the heroine tries to avoid her fate by doing something else. My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: Why Can’t We Move On? (Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta) is a high school romance… well, ex-romance about a middle-school couple who broke up but are now siblings.

Magic Knight of the Old Ways (Furuki Okite No Mahou Kishi) is similar to Fantasy Unbound, as fans will say “But what about Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor?”. Indeed, they may be doubly annoyed as this seems to have a similar premise of magic knights teaches a group of students. Saint? No, I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! (Seijo-sama? Iie, Toorisugari no Mamonotsukai desu!) is a series about a chosen one who decides she’d much rather pet furry animals, from the creator of Woof Woof Story: I Told You to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch, Not Fenrir!.

My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World (Kajiya de Hajimeru Isekai Slow Life) is a slowlife isekai about a guy who (no surprise) finds out he’s super powerful, and also that the cat he asked for is a catgirl. Like most slow life titles, the goal is to keep having it and not get dragged back in. The most surprising announcement (well, almost) came next, with When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de), an older LN series from the writer of Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend? and the artist for The Devil Is a Part-Timer!. What if you got super-awesome powers to help save the world… and nothing happened and you’re still going to school like normal?

Finally, the surprise announcement came via a very familiar voice. We’re getting Slayers in audiobook form, read by the legendary Lisa Ortiz herself! I’m interested in seeing how this goes, as I think Lina in the anime and Lina in the light novel are two very different beasts. In any case, it was a very fun panel but I was wiped, so I went back to the hotel to… well, type this all up. But I am going to go get a late supper now, I promise! And there’s still SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY! Though give the lines from today, I think I will limit myself to two panels.

By: Sean Gaffney

[ordinary-funky-feline-type]

You should check out George DeValiers Lily of the Lamplight PruAus fic even though it was not completed! Actually, check out everything by him!! He has some GerIta and UsUk too, good stuff. I also do recommend Puella Peanut, she has some really good PruAus fics. And RusAme if you like that.

Oh i do know him! We’ll meet again gave me PTSD, like it did with everyone. I actually read some of Lily of the Lamplight and Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart back in 2015 but i don’t remember anything. It is definitely in my plans to read his stuff this year, so thank you so much for the reminder! (also that song bangs). And Im not into RusAme, but i do have Puella Peanut in my radar, will def check out that PruAus stuff

[scenarios-on-ice]

(Well, I liked it anyway, and if you’re losing your touch it really didn’t show :)

And now for Viktor confessing in Russian as he falls off the roof…you’re welcome. Or sorry, depending on your reaction.)

Ok random thing, but do you perhaps remember the Scarecrow guy who first appeared during the Auction arc? Without spoiling anything let’s just say he’s starting to play a bigger role in the plot so there are lots of theories going around about his identity (and of course almost 90% of the theories are “SCARECROW IS HIDE” because most of the fandom wants Hide back, therefore everyone and anyone mysterious is automatically Hide).

Well, I was trying to multitask by trying to puzzle out Scarecrow’s identity while watching an AoT AMV about Marco and Jean at the same time, and I got confused, so I ended up with:

Marco is Scarecrow

(‘such a legit theory *pats myself on the back*…wait a second’)

I’m guessing you were confused because of how feminine Furuta’s facial features are? Because he does look like a girl XD like, if someone drew a genderbend of Furuta it would probably just look like his canon design + breasts - Adam’s apple

I do feel kind of (KIND OF) sorry for him in some ways though, because the Washuus are extremely messed up.

And as for Shuu…it’s amazing how Ishida suddenly turned him into this super likable guy in Re despite the fact that he used to be one of the most hated people in TG, and still make it feel true to his original character (as in, the stuff he does now doesn’t seem OOC and child!Shuu being a sweet little boy sounds strangely plausible).

9 YEARS?! That’s so cool! I used to be pretty good at piano when I was younger but stopped learning due to stress from my teacher and now it’s been years…so I recently started learning again (it’s only been a couple of weeks) and of course I’m not that good at it anymore. I mean, I’m still good at reading sheet music and it’s not like I suck, but…yeah, I suck XD

Yes, Eliza was truly helpless (I’m sorry for being such a troll but…)

The world has no right to my heart, The world has no place in our bed, They don’t get to know what I said I’m burning the memories, burning the letters that might have redeemed you You forfeit all rights to my heart, You forfeit your place in our bed You’ll sleep in your office instead With only the memories of when you were mine I hope that you burn…

Your name is Luna, You are a poet This blog is proof, so we all know it And you Are awesomeness personified If anyone says otherwise it’s certainly a lie So the blog is unbelievably adorable Everybody knows the level’s unimaginable… (And now is the time I run out of rhymes lol

Seriously why didn’t I do this for Valentine’s Day? The idea came too late ㅠㅠ)

Oh, and I think you said you were sixteen? And if you stil are, I guess we could say you’re…only sixteen but your mind is older?

Really? That’s good to know ^^ I don’t like loosing touch, but I don’t really have the will to continue ^^;; I did not need that… I will now go cry because that’s a heartbreaking thought… And just imagine his master’s (Eros!Yuuri’s) reaction ;-;

Okay, but let’s be honest: A new character who’s identity isn’t 100% sure: *appears for a single panel* Fandom: OMG THAT MUST BE HIDE

*gasp* but you’re right, it must be Marco! It finally makes sense…

Yup, that’s pretty much the only reason… I mean, tumblr has made me really weary of assuming people’s gender, so I really wanted to see the official gender before saying anything.  I have a weird need to photoshop boobs on to him and say it’s a genderbend.

 Honestly, I feel nothing but resentment towards him. Dick. 

Okay, but I actually liked Shuu a lot in the original TG and I feel like I’m the minority (probably am hahah). I mean, he was trash and acted like a pedo, but he is pretty likeable.  And now he’s even more likeable. Nice. 

Yup, it’s been pretty long since I’ve started playing ^^;; I almost quit in my 3rd year, since I got a new professor and he was horrible. He always pushed me to go to ridiculous lengths to improve my playing. But now I’m glad I didn’t quit ^^

So I definitely know how you feel. But I’m sure you can get awesome! You’ll even be able to play the songs from Hamilton soon ^^ Well, the ones that are playable and not entirely rap hahah

Listen here you little-

My name is Luna I am a writer Definitely not a poet Because have you seen me make a good rhyme even once? But hey I try You’re much better than me at this

Hahahah, if anything, I’m younger since I’m incredibly childish.  By the way, have you ever watched ‘Puella Magi Madoka Magica’? You’d definitely like it. I won’t say anything bc spoilers, but if you ever do decide to watch it, here’s my advice: Do not give up on it, no matter how ridiculous it seems. It’ll be worth it after ep 3.

Also, check this out: Spamilton

[hemlockdumpling]

2016 Anime Challenge Revisited ~ February

Bit of a mixed bag in February with dark magical girl shows, socially awkward cringe comedy, shameless fanservice show, romcom and cliche storm tournament show. Yatta.

Selector Infected WIXOSS + Selector Spread WIXOSS Ever thought "I want something dark, with cute girls in it and card games?" You might want to check out the Selector WIXOSS, a dark magical girl series with trading cards, little cute summons and the cost of fighting for a wish. Chosen girls with special cards that can summon special fighters must battle against others in order to have their wish granted. However, if they lose three times, something terrible will happen. It's difficult to talk about the complexities and clever twists of this show without spoiling it, but it's really worth checking it out blind, not knowing what will happen and experiencing those shockers fresh.

My only quibble is that there was little development about the card game itself. I would have liked to have known about the non-essential cards and how they could play into overall strategies. As it stands, the greatest importance - though I understand why - is the special summons from the cards, the LRIGs. It's quite light on the thorough card game itself, placing more emphasis on the action, which isn't a bad thing, but it would have been nice to get a little more depth to such a crucial part of the series.

Parts Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Part xxxHolic, Part Yu Gi Oh light with a sprinkling of Mai Hime, Selector Infect WIXOSS and Spread are all about reminding you to be careful what you wish for and how far you are willing to go to get that wish. Enjoyable watching for those that like something a little darker.

WATAMOTE -No Matter How I Look At It, Its You Guys Fault I'm Not Popular- No, really. That's the title. In a series about an otaku schoolgirl with sever self-esteem issues trying to be popular, WATAMOTE certainly takes the crown in Cringe Comedy. The trials and tribulations of one Tomoko Kuroki trying to become more sociable and failing in spectacular fashion is super awkward and you feel terribly embarrassed for her, but there are some identifible moments for those that struggle in social situations. It also has a lot of video game and anime references, so those in the know should get a laugh.

We get a personal look into the good and the bad with Tomoko, from her relatable difficulties in learning to adapt to living with people and her less sympathetic moments. Every flaw is on show here and the laughs are always at her expense (hence, the cringe comedy.) You'll either love her or hate her, like the Marmite of Anime, but either way, you'll perhaps find a little of yourself in Tomoko or know someone just like her.

Freezing + Freezing Vibration (+OVAs) Oh boy, this is it. The Granddaddy of Personal Not Cool in 2016. Remember how I said the greatest disappointment is a show with potential only to be brought down by its shortcomings? This is another of those shows for me. Freezing starts out with an interesting premise, but sadly fell short for me personally because it relies on tasteless fanservice and a cast of unlikeable characters. In a world where beings called Novas wage war with humankind, only girl warriors called Pandoras and their male partners called Limiters can fight against them. However, the majority of the first series does little to take advantage of this idea and focuses more on some story about Satellizer el Bridget ("The Untouchable Queen") and Kazuya Aoi, a whole deal about learning to trust, which is all well and good, but it all happens around an institute full to the bursting brim with horrible, unlikeable Pandora. When the fate of the world is at stake, you think they'd spend less time bullying and sexually harrassing their underclassmen? By the time the action really kicks off, it's all too late in the game, even though the last few episodes of series one are the best thing about it.

Deep breath.

Freezing Vibration, the second series, is actually an improvement in some areas because we get a proper story with much more at stake, dealing with the subject of E-Pandora, normal girls who are given the powers of Pandora artificially. Despite the whole Louis storyline which was ABSOLUTE GARBAGE, I prefer Vibration to the first series, even though it still has its flaws.

Only touch this series if you can over look plenty of fanservice, very unlikeable characters that spend more time biscuiting than actually getting together for the greater good and actually being nice, much trigger content in the way of abuse, especially in the Sibling Arc. Really not everyone's cup of chamomile tea. The OVAs are actually shorts that serve no purpose other than fanservice. That's honestly it. Moving on.

Toradora! (+OVAs) After the absolute meltdown I had with Freezing, getting to the highly recommended Toradora! just in time for Valentine's Day was a fresh of much needed air. A love comedy about Ryuuji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka, two misunderstood high schoolers helping each other in their pursuit of love with two other friends in their little circle. Hijinks ensue as the course of love never runs smooth. A light hearted little series with plenty of comedy, but touches on some very emotional territory later. What I liked most about Toradora! is the group of friends itself, how each character has their own personality and feels like they belong. They all give flavour to this charming little romance series and was perfect for Valentines Day.

Even now, my feelings about Taiga herself really have changed. I initially grew weary of her aggressive behaviour and thought her to be just another tsundere. As the show continued, I saw more of the real Taiga and it really helped me to understand why she is who she is. Refreshing. If anything, I only found myself at odds at the later stretch of the series when - avoiding spoilers - matters of the heart change and I am still trying to assess whether I enjoyed this direction compared to the alternatives. The ending was still heartwarming, however, given the nature of the show and it's worth watching.

Also, the ED Theme "Vanilla Salt" is super cute and addictive. <3

The Asterisk War S1 Following the negative reception this series received from YouTubers I followed, I decided to try this anime for myself. The story is about super powered students from various academies in a giant city competing in a tournament called Festa and the winners can have any wish granted. Enter Amagiri Ayato, one of the superhuman Genestella who transfers to the school (as many Protags are want to do) to find out what happened to his sister. We have Tsundere Fire Princess Julis on board with plenty of accidental fanservice moments and put downs, but not without feeling bitter because she didn't get a head pat from the Protag. HEAD PATS FOR EVERYONE. Blonde Bombshell Claudia with a genuinely interesting story about her Ogre-Lux that actually serves to better her character. Childhood Friend Saya with Deadpan Snarker mode activated enters with guns and bubblegum blue hair. Badass Adorable Rank 1 Kirin arrives with plenty of reluctant fanservice for all. Take out all the cheeky fanservice and it's not too bad. Sorry, I'm terrible at explaining stuff.

Something of a cliche storm with many ideas and characters you've probably met before, but not the worst series you can spend your free time watching. I honestly didn't find anything terribly new here and the tournament arc was about average as can be expected, but it's always something anime and colourful to watch if you want a little action and stuff?

P.S. ED Theme "Waiting for the Rain" is still stuck in my head.

[loopy777]

Is there any anime besides full metal alchemist that you'd recommend?

Well, first I need to add a clarification to your question: I love the Full Metal Alchemist manga, as well as the Brotherhood anime adaptation. My first experience was with Brotherhood, and then I went back to watch the original anime and found it lacking.

But yeah, I’ve seen others that I can recommend to people who share my tastes. I don’t watch a whole lot of anime, though, and I just don’t get a lot of the more popular stuff,so this list will probably look weird and incomplete.

I’ll say why I like these things, and people can take their own recommendations from that…

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: I love this, although I could do without the fan-service elements. (Lampshade-hanging is not an effective criticism of a trope, it is merely a way to use that trope while pretending to be above it.) I like the sense of humor, I like the way the sci-fi elements manifest in such mundane ways, I like how the romantic plotlines are all completely subtext, and I always enjoy a good robot-learns-to-be-human subplot. But obviously the best part is the snide, sarcastic narration. I’ve read fan-translations of all the Light Novels, and am in the process of acquiring the official English releases. (If anyone has paperbacks they want to sell, hit me up. I like those covers better.) One of my few remaining instances of self-destructive optimism is to hope that the rest of the novels will someday get anime adaptations.

Nichijou: Although technically ‘slice of life’ stuff, this anime hits the sweet spot between Surreal and Ridiculous humor. It also has the best physical character-acting of any anime I’ve ever seen. When a character freaks out, the body language is a sight to behold.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Best magical girl ‘deconstruction.’ (Note: I have not watched the Rebellion sequel movie, and based on what I’ve heard, I have no interest in doing so.)

Princess Tutu: Best magical girl. And for once the decked-out outfits make perfect sense.

TIger & Bunny: Not the greatest, but I enjoyed this new take on superheroes, where instead of being vigilantes they operate as sanctioned law enforcement who also compete in an ongoing Reality TV gameshow. The main character is one of those rare examples of a Loser Single Dad who truly comes across as charming and sympathetic. If you do check this one out, be aware that there’s a movie that adapts a couple of the early episodes, and then works in a new episode’s worth of content. I thought it was a better introduction to the extended cast than they get in the regular series, so I recommend watching that movie at about the point where it chronologically takes place.

Tekkaman Blade: I admit I might have a little bias with this one. It’s about an angsty young man who turns into a super-robot to fight an alien invasion. I watched the first season when it aired dubbed on TV in the 90′s, and a decade later was able to finish the series when it was released on DVD. It’s angsty and melodramatic and a bit formulaic at times, but it’s a fairly grand epic. I prefer the dub to the sub because the music was fully replaced with a synthesized soundtrack by Shuki Levy, who all children of the 80′s and 90′s knows makes the best TV beats, but I also like having the sub on DVD because the story makes a bit more sense before the adaptation.

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: The original. Yes, it’s old and everyone has 70′s hair and it’s full of dated J-Pop and the animation can be atrocious and the sequels utterly miss the point and then there’s the whole Robotech adaptation thing. But the first series is also one of the best space opera epics around, and has a really good message. Also, it has the best mecha in all of anime; that’s an objective fact because the designs were stolen to make Transformers toys. I’ve watched the original SDF Macross series and read the Robotech novels, so I have bits and pieces of both floating in my head with no structure.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Made you look. ;)

[recentanimenews]

Fan Shrine Fridays: Pokémon, A Fighting Game Legend & Our First Mega Collection!

    It's the start of the weekend, and y'all know what that means: it's Fan Shrine Friday time! But what exactly do we do in Fan Shrine Fridays? Why, we show off how much we love anime, manga and games by displaying glorious collections featuring characters and series we love! No collection is too small, really. So if you've got a collection that you're proud of, send a photo our way, and your collection could be featured in this segment! Plus, it's a real treat for me to see all your amazing photos filled with a whole bunch of cool stuff! Let's get this party started and check out some collections.

      We're starting off with Asher's Chuuya ita bag collection! That's a lot of love for Bungo Stray Dogs' Chuuya! Ita bags are really a great way to display smaller goods like pins, can badges, straps, ribbons, to even plushies like we see in the second image. You can take a closer look at Asher's ita bags here. 

    Next up, we have Mary's collection! I'm already digging this one, because she has Nendoroids from one of the BEST shows I've ever seen, Pop Team Epic. ...What? Some of you haven't seen it? Well, you best go watch it right now because it's GREAT! Besides the majestic Pop Team Epic Nendoroids, I spy some A Bride's Story manga volumes, which is another stellar series worth getting into. You can get a closer look at Mary's collection here.

        I absolutely ADORE collections being laid out like Kachi has done with theirs! Kachi mentions that their collection got to be this huge thanks a combo of working at a comic book store for 10 years and then moving on to working a tech job that lets them keep building the collection up. There's a lot of love for Haikyu!!, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, One-Punch Man and Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun! I really just wanna... grab those Nozaki-kun idol standees right out the pictures; I had no idea those existed, and they're RAD! Also, how cute are those cloud wall shelves?! You can get a closer look at Kachi's collection here, here and here.

          Another bright and colorful collection! This collection is from Twitter user @squirtlesprout, and it features a whole lot of adorable Pokémon plushies adorning the shelves! There's a selection of really good manga, like The Ancient Magus' Bride, Inu x Boku Secret Service, Kamisama Kiss, and plenty more. Let's not forget about those Animal Crossing plushies! (Who's excited for the new Animal Crossing coming to the Switch next year? It's all I'll probably be playing at that time!) You get a closer look at @squirtlesprout's collection here, here, here and here.

      Love Live fans, this one's for you! Chase has a lovely collection centering around his fave characters, Riko and Maki! I really dig how Chase has the straps hanging from the top of each shelving! The pen light being on display as well is a nice touch. You can get a closer look at Chase's collection here, here and here.

        Bookcases are great to house anime and manga volumes, but what about a figure library? Hotaru's collection features characters from Love Live, Fate/Grand Order, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Touhou Project, and more! If I saw a display like this at a friend's house, I couldn't help but to stop and look at all the pretty figures! Get a closer look at Hotaru's collection here, here and here.

          Next, we have an awesome figure and plush collection from FGC legend, Justin Wong! Yup, your eyes didn't decieve you; Justin sent us his anime shrine for all to see! And what a sight it is! First off, I would love to just dive into that pile of plushies (yes, my initial desire when I see a plush pile like this is to dive right into them. SEND ME MORE PLUSH COLLECTIONS, PLEASE!). His figure collection is pretty impressive, ranging from series like Kuroko's Basketball, to Dragon Ball, Yuri!!! on ICE, Re:ZERO, and of course, Street Fighter. I really dig the Street Fighter figure display, because it looks like the bases connect as the characters face each other! You can get a closer look at Justin's collection here, here, here and here.

          Let's wrap this up with a mammoth of a collection from Brad! His collection is almost like walking into an anime home video museum! Brad mentioned that he's been collecting anime for over 15 years with over 4,000 DVDs and BDs. Dang, that's A TON of anime to watch! This collection has something for everyone, but the thing that caught my eye was that there's some rare stuff I haven't really seen before, like that Galaxy Angel Rune volume, and that Cat's Eye set. Also, check out those Urusei Yatsura DVDs and Lupin the Third collection! This collection is truly marvelous! Check out way more from Brad's collection here, here, here, here, here and here. Can we visit this museum?

  That wraps up this week's Fan Shrine Friday. I hope you enjoyed browsing through these collections as much as I did! Fan shrines show off just how unique everyone's love of anime can be, and we can't wait to show you the many more collections we've gotten so far, and the ones we have yet to see!

  Want to be in the next Fan Shrine Friday feature? Show us your love for anime and manga and send over your collection photos by sending your selection of photos via e-mail to features@crunchyroll.com titled "Fan Shrine Friday Photo Submission". Please don't tweet over your submissions, because I likely won't get to see all of those; I can better organize and track them via e-mail. We'll be showing 'em off every Friday, so if you think you have the best collection and you want it to be seen by fans from all over, this is your chance! 

  What did you think of this week's collections? Think you got the coolest anime/manga collection? Show us what you got by sending your collection photos to features@crunchyroll.com!

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Nicole is a features writer and editor for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com