#chibimyumi

[abybweisse]

Were you acquainted with (hope I spell this right) chibimyumi? I only asked because I noticed she'd recently gone on hiatus and I just wondered if she'd heard about the recent announcement about Weston arc being made into an anime. If you weren't a close friend who might know how to contact her would you happen to know of anyone who was? I understand she'd recently had a nasty experience over something stupid, with some people within the fandom and it left her feeling pretty sour and discouraged

My understanding is that @chibimyumi still reads private messages... at least occasionally (and might read posts she's tagged in)... but is very selective on whom to respond to. I'm definitely not close enough to get responses, though we used to communicate sometimes, when she was active here.

However, the news about the return of the anime is just about everywhere by now, so I should think she knows about it, even if she's not spending much time or energy on Tumblr. Anyone she's still talking to on here has probably already had conversations with her about it, if she's still interested.

ETA: As @yume-holic points out in the comments, Chibi going on hiatus really isn't that recent. The announcement was in August 2021, so it's been nearly 2 years already.

[bapydemonprincess]

Hey remember when Yana said this just a bit ago before the anime came out and meanwhile all the proshippers are popping in the main tag now to try desperately spread rumors that the manga is supposed to be shota con and Yana supports the ship ect ect. Wow. Lmao 🤡

@SebacielShippers Checkmate.

[midnight-in-town]

Frances Midford : The Mentor, a summary

To follow with my post about fighting against misinformation, here’s a first topic. 

Ciel’s remaining aunt is often viewed by the fandom as a mean lady who doesn’t care, because of a) all the mysteries around the family that Ciel doesn’t know about and b) the use of comic relief in Kuroshitsuji often used to hide some relevant clues, as previously demonstrated in this post. This is actually far from what her character really is about and I intend to demonstrate it now with a (long) recap post. 

I have talked about Frances a lot in the past, about her caring about our!Ciel and about her possibly knowing, like Tanaka, that he was lying about his identity. While the former is undeniably true, the latter is still up for debate. [X][X][X][X] However, with the upcoming adaptation of the Weston arc (probably) in 2024, I don’t want the old discourse to come back, so without further ado...

What Yana has said about Frances’ character

Besides our!Ciel, Frances is the last remaining Phantomhive (not counting real!Ciel as a BD). She’s Vincent’s younger sister, they both have the same parents (that is to say Claudia P and Cedric K. Ros) and she married out of the family (implying that maybe the Phantomhives have distant relatives still alive), becoming Lady Midford. 

According to Yana, Frances takes after their dad while Vincent takes after their mom and the same is true for her kids, meaning Ed takes after her (thus takes after his maternal grandfather) while Liz takes after Alexis. 

As far as her relationship with our!Ciel is concerned, here’s what Yana said in the guidebook : “Frances' strength of character is why Sebastian chose her as a role model Ciel should follow”. Since her relationship with Lizzie is sometimes also viewed negatively, I’d like to add that both in the guidebook and on twitter, Yana said that “Liz thinks her mom is kind and strong so she looks up to her mom as a role model she aspires to become”, hence the similar hair style.

TL;DR Yana’s overall description of Frances is that a) she’s kind and strong which is why b) she’s Lizzie’s role model, as well as the role model Sebastian thinks our!Ciel should follow.

Now that this is established, here’s what the canon story gives us, to illustrate Yana’s words. Spoilers for the entire manga series and long read below the cut.

Frances’ introduction

Frances is introduced in ch14 and, boy, what a generally misunderstood chapter by some parts of the fandom. xDD

Contextually, ch14 is Ciel’s birthday, meaning it is also the anniversary of the massacre of the previous household and Madam Red just died, after trying to kill him. For those who might wonder, the guidebook confirmed that our!Ciel was quite saddened by Ann’s death (obviously), so really, what a fun 13th birthday in perspective. Cue Liz and Frances. 

The comments on her strength aside, Frances’ introduction is otherwise often misread as her nagging being inappropriate but I beg to differ. As mentioned by @akumadeenglish​ and @chibimyumi​, Yana is Japanese author who likes to explore writing tropes in depth. Though it’s also important to remember that, before the curry arc, Yana didn’t know how long the series would run so everything had less intent, because the story was initially supposed to end quickly.

In other words, Frances’ introduction really is initially to be read as the severe mother-in-law (based on Japanese comical stereotypes) coming to check on how he handles his household, which is why Seb is so stressed out when everything goes bonkers. But that’s only the surface. 

Most importantly though, Frances showed up because it is Ciel’s birthday and, as said above, there’s a lot of negative and dreadful memories associated with this day. So...

...let’s change his mind, shall we? 

Phantomhives love games and Frances is a Phantomhive too, the last one besides our!Ciel, so she knows her nephew and chooses an activity she knew he wouldn’t be able to resist. 

Ch14 also introduces two important facts that are still relevant as plot points, especially as far as the Blue Revenge arc is concerned. The first one is that our!Ciel protected Lizzie from that bear, so Frances said she owes him. 

Secondly, as stated by Frances herself, she knows the ropes of the “game” (aka acting as the Watchdog) better than our!Ciel (”you’ve still got a decade to go before you can even think of winning against me”). 

In fact, like our!Ciel with real!Ciel, Frances was probably raised as Vincent’s spare [X][X], but compared to our!Ciel who knew next to nothing about his father’s real job until 3 years ago (at the time of ch14), Frances is an experienced veteran...

And that’s why Seb chose her as a role model for our!Ciel.

Therefore it is my opinion that ch14, despite being written back when Sensei didn’t know how long the series would be published, is still relevant as heck when it comes to Frances’ role in the series, aka acting as a mentor for our!Ciel (and for Lizzie, as Yana also stated). Kuroshitsuji is a slow story though, with a lot of build up and it’s why some fans still fail to see how significant Frances is to the plot and to our!Ciel’s development. 

Campania arc

Liz is the one who comes to ask our!Ciel to come with her whole family (thus introducing Alexis and Edward) on a cruise, but it’s also very important to note that she conveyed that Frances thought that our!Ciel should take time off of work:

This led some of us fans to theorize that maybe Tanaka used to send updates to Frances about our!Ciel’s wellbeing and how he fared as the Watchdog: the timing of the cruise works well with Frances’ remark, considering that the Queen just sent Charles Grey as a merry punishment for Ciel’s deeds during the Circus arc. 

This arc mostly highlights Frances’ bravery and strength : she didn’t hesitate to fight for countless of passengers unrelated to her (something that UT said isn’t very typical of Phantomhives, during Weston)...

More importantly, we finally get into Lizzie’s personal motivations and we indeed have the confirmation that...

...Frances is a big key to Lizzie’s strength, confirming the role model/mentor position that she holds in Lizzie’s eyes. I’d like to also point out that Frances completely trusts in her daughter’s abilities, which highlights a very positive mother/daughter dynamic.

Lizzie’s flashback gives us this very important bit...

...a part that’s unfortunately often overlooked by the fans complaining that Frances is too severe with our!Ciel and Lizzie. This scene however makes way more sense once we find out, after the Weston arc, that Frances lost her mother Claudia (the Watchdog before Vincent) when she was probably about 12 or 13 years old (Vincent being 15 years old then). 

To me, this is a big explanation as to why Frances is as serious about training as she is:

Indeed, she lost at least her mom (and later her brother) so, since her daughter is betrothed to the future Watchdog, she wants Liz to be strong enough to survive. All I see in the former panel is a mother saddened by the burden on her child’s shoulder and desperate to imagine that she will be exposed to a lot of danger as an adult. 

Side point there, but it’s likely there’s a very relevant reason Frances’ only daughter was betrothed to Vincent’s heir when they were young kids. We’ll dive into it later, but I believe the answer is tied to the Phantomhive lineage introduced in ch103. 

Lastly, our!Ciel’s flashback also gave us another important bit to explore...

...which is that our!Ciel directly applies what Frances once told him to his current path for revenge: 

Also note the allusion again to Vincent “losing the game”, creating a parallel with Frances telling our!Ciel in ch14 that “he still has a decade to go before he can even think of winning against her”, because he has a lot to learn from her, especially since even he admits that he knows next to nothing about his own family.

The previous spare teaching the spare. How fitting. :D

Weston arc

Even if Frances only appears in this arc during the cricket game, I think there is a lot to be deduced from it. First, I’ve said it long ago and I’ll say it again: I strongly believe Frances played a part into Vincent’s victory during the first blue miracle.

Mind you, Tanaka basically confirmed that Vincent cheated to win (since he knew what Seb and Ciel were up to) and I could totally see Vincent asking his strong little sister to crossdress in order to destroy the Green team. xDD Besides, she certainly seems uneasy whenever the topic is brought up and she also wasn’t fooled by Ciel’s act when he won, haha!

This is silly, but this shows (imo) that Frances and Vincent had a good sibling dynamic, with Frances supporting her brother as the Watchdog as much as she could, which is heartwarming because this means Frances would have no reason not to support her brother’s sons after his death. 

Tanaka (who, according to Yana, was already in the household taking care of Vincent and Frances as children) and Frances happily dancing together at the end of the tournament also confirms this. Vincent and Frances having a strong sibling bond would also explain why, despite Claudia’s death, Frances would agree to the betrothal between Lizzie and Vincent’s heir (and would keep it that way, even after Vincent’s death).

All that to say, I’m sure the cricket game confirmed to Frances how similar our!Ciel is to Vincent on some aspects (the second blue miracle attests to that), which probably makes him somewhat predictable (and reassuring?) to her.

One thing that I also believe is important is Ed’s mini flashback during the game. On this topic, Yana has said that she couldn’t draw his backstory in detail, so she’ll probably expand on that in the future, which makes me think that there is some foreshadowing in there. 

TBH I think it’s ironic that Ed would consider himself as “ordinary”, considering the whole lineage thing introduced one arc later. xDD But also, if we consider that the tale of Vincent’s first blue miracle is supposed to hint that Vincent and Frances were close as siblings, it’s nice that Ed, who takes after his mom the most, would also have his own flashback about loving and looking up to his sister a lot, despite his small inferiority complex. Considering that Liz sees their mom as her role model though, I guess that means Ed also sees his mom as a role model (though the Campania arc already made that pretty clear). 

During the Weston arc, Frances also managed to surprise Sebastian, both by recognizing him (lol) and by stopping him despite his intent to leave, which is, according to the demon himself, no small feat: 

Like the usual nagging she does towards Seb though, it’s played for laugh, but as introduced in this post, I believe overused comic relief is a way to foreshadow some hints and we’ll dive into it with the next arc. 

Last but not least, during this arc UT commented that our!Ciel was different from his ancestors when he willingly put himself in danger to save Joanne...

...but as presented during the Campania arc, it seems it’s a trait he shares at least with his aunt, furthering the parallels between them and the fact that she would definitely make a good mentor for our!Ciel, because they’re quite alike and can probably understand each other. 

Green Witch arc

The only relevant part of this arc with Frances’ character is the introduction of a special lineage in the Phantomhive family by German Shinigamis...

...something that might explain why our!Ciel was able to notice them, when even Seb didn’t. So this begs the question: who else in his family shares this lineage? And obviously, Frances and her kids might !

My personal opinion is that the lineage thing is old and is probably why the Phantomhive family became the Watchdogs, many generations ago. But also, if our!Ciel can notice Shinigamis thanks to it, could it explain why Frances was able to detect and catch Seb during opening ceremony before the cricket game at Weston? And why she always nags him about his appearance (both hair and face)? That remains to be confirmed, but...

...at the very least Bravat in the recent arc confirmed that some gifted people like himself can “sense” that demons are different. Just like animals [x][x], apparently. Bravat is irrelevant besides being a small scale villain though, so I take it as a hint for a more plot significant character, such as Frances, whose nagging behavior towards Seb is way too overused as comic relief anyway. 

The lineage thing is yet one more family topic on which Frances probably has answers to give to our!Ciel (the only other people who might know about it being Tanaka and UT). 

Bonus : if what Vincent said below about strong-willed women in the family line (from a side story “With Father”) is a hint towards the lineage thing...

...then it’s probably why Vincent wanted Lizzie to be betrothed to his heir in the first place and why Frances agreed. 

Blue sect & blue revenge arcs

I already mentioned that Bravat’s innate ability to recognize Seb as a demon was a hint that other characters, like Frances, might be able to guess that Seb is a demon as well, so moving on to ch151 :

This chapter confirms that UT has known Frances since she was very young (which is a hint to the UT = Cedric theory of course), which also explains why, knowing about her strength, UT went on with the whole BD massacre on the Campania despite the presence of our!Ciel and the Midfords on board. 

Also, while this chapter neither confirms nor denies if Frances knew about our!Ciel lying about his identity (like Tanaka and UT did), she didn’t show anger nor disbelief about the situation, just her incomprehension.  

More than anything, this chapter strongly hints that our!Ciel will at some point seek his aunt for a talk before the final confrontation with UT and real!Ciel, because both are seeking answers to their different questions (our!Ciel needs to find out about UT & his grandmother and the lineage thing, while Frances will want to know what’s the deal between the twins). Speaking of which, a talk between Lizzie and Frances is probably also in order, before Lizzie can choose our!Ciel’s side again.

Lastly, ch151 hinted that Frances doesn’t fully believe that real!Ciel’s return is “natural”...

...and, i mean, why would she? She faced the Bizarre Dolls on the Campania and, for all we know, Edward told her how the Weston arc ended so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ considering that UT has been involved every time, the Midfords probably aren’t far from connecting the dots about real!Ciel being already dead. 

To sum up !

Outside of the narrative, Yana said that Frances was Lizzie’s role model and that Seb also wanted her to be the model our!Ciel should follow. And, in my opinion, the entire series so far (as I tried to present in this post) is slowly building up to that because :

our!Ciel and Frances are very similar: both the spares & both survived their parents’ and brothers’ death 

both saved folks unrelated to them despite being Phantomhives, meaning that they are a bit alike and can understand each other

our!Ciel literally built his path of revenge following the advice Frances told him about how to counterattack an opponent

Again, to understand who targeted his family, our!Ciel needs to find out about his grandmother, about the lineage and about why his dad had to be killed amongst other things. The only people who can answer him are UT, Tanaka and Frances. 

I believe UT and Tanaka are more connected to Claudia, but also both are by real!Ciel’s side for now, making them less accessible for a talk. This leaves Frances for the time being and, as Vincent’s sister and Claudia’s daughter, it seems appropriate that answers would be coming from her. 

Also, in shonen series, usually the hero(es) have a mentor figure who will help them “unlock their potential” through training. Kuroshitsuji is not your usual shonen and I doubt our!Ciel can become better at fighting lmao, but Frances can certainly help him better appreciate the massive scale he’s bound to face when seeking his revenge. Especially if it all goes back to events from 3 generations ago and a worldbuilding full of supernatural elements, as well as a world war he doesn’t entirely comprehend yet. 

Frances acting as a mentor/role model for her own kids also foreshadows that they’ll follow our!Ciel on his journey and, like him, they’ll definitely need her wisdom/knowledge to be able to reach the necessary level for survival by his side.

As to when all that is going to happen, well, I’d say Frances will probably take on a more active role in the plot when, to quote Seb in ch14, "[our!Ciel] will overconfidently believe that he cannot lose and that it will be necessary for him to carry himself with humility while striving for his goal". Because by then, "an adult who will be firm with him is what he'll need". 

If that doesn’t foreshadow the current conflict between the twins, I don’t know what does. xD

Thanks for reading!! As always, let me know if I’ve forgotten anything !

[bibyshitsuji24k]

What do you squirrels think about the change of studio? Any theories?

Mine is that A1-Pictures didn't want to take the risk of animating the Weston College arc because apparently, that saga didn't have good sales in the manga nor good acceptance among the Japanese fandom [i think i read this in @chibimyumi's blog].

Please let me know your thoughts!

Btw I still deeply admire A1's work in the adaptation of the Campania's arc. I will always cherish the contributions of Minako Shiba, the character designer for all of Kuro's adaptations, who sadly passed away in 2021 ;;

[queengurako]

I am so glad that thanks to @margridarnauds I discovered this awesome musical. The dvd is beautiful with booklet and backstage. Im sure I cant resist to buy M -version soon or others Toho Musicals (Mata Hari, 1789 and Lady Bess 💕).

Thank you @chibimyumi for the subtitles.

[blaacknoir]

Grell is no longer referred to as an okama by Yana and hasn't been for a while. Yana refers to her as onna, a woman, nowadays. Japanese reader / Tumblr user Chibimyumi's posts explain this. You're right that if you want to headcanon Grell as an okama then it isn't hurting Grell, but it is the truth that she's a trans woman and there's a LOT to back it up. If you feel like the evidence is wrong then I guess there's no help for it

Anon, you seem to be under the misconception that I am actually up to date on everything Yana has said. You're assuming malice when the actual reason was ignorance--I haven't been active in the fandom since 2016-ish, and the wank around Grell's gender bugged the shit out of me then, too.

After reading the post, I can say that yes, there is plenty of evidence to state that Grell is a trans woman. I was not aware of some of this. I appreciate you providing the information.

(Still not gonna stop my nonbinary!Grell headcanon though.)

[bitteraristocrat]

I wanted to contribute the manga version of this because I feel like it's a lot less subtle than the anime.

Bonus, one of my favourite Yun-bastian creative liberties from the Tango on the Campania musical was immediately after this scene Sebastian gets too comfortable with his master praising him and gears up to be praised more, and then...

(gif credit to ©chibimyumi)

Can we just take a few seconds and pay attention on Sebastian’s face when Ciel praise him:

and there:

This smile will kill me! And this one is my favourite,when Ciel motivates him:

THIS!

He never had a bond with anyone like with Ciel ,and in moment like this ,It’s hard to believe that Sebastian is just cold ,heartless demon♥

[so-bitya]

  ׅ         𝅄    ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 So-Bitya's Masterpost 𖦹 ⋆｡° 𝅄    𝆬      ׅ  .

general ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

"the maid did it" misogynoir in kuroshitsuji whitewashing in anime - soma ft. usopp whitewashing in anime - agni ft. cithis sebastian knows seduction doesn't work (anti sebaciel) genderbend au: bardroy, lau, and wolfram madam red au: what if one of the parents survived instead? phantom & ghost rewrite ideas

elizabeth + the twins ͝ ⏝𝅄︶ ͝ ⏝ ⊹ ⏝ ͝ ︶𝅄⏝ ͝

anime: the flower ring pt 1 pt 2 anime: season 2 finale anime: alice in wonderland ova lizzy's dynamics between r!ciel and o!ciel o!ciel and r!ciel have similar views of class "lizzy only cares about her interests!"

posts i like/reference* not mine!!! °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

chibimyumi - lizzy's feelings for o!ciel chibimyumi - o!ciel's feelings for lizzy chibimyumi - yana isnt interested in writing romance chibimyumi - boarding arc sucks akumadeenglish - morality in kuro

[abybweisse]

I figured you may have a better answer than anyone else, but would you happen to have some idea where to look for investigation into the development of Kuroshitsuji? The anime specifically, I've been looking and poking around to little avail so if you have any sources or know anyone else who might be able to tell I'd love to know! Thank you~

Anime development

I'm not as into researching the anime, so I would suggest checking out the blog for @chibimyumi. Some of this has already been discussed there. The blogger is on hiatus, but you can find good info already posted. And then you might check out the blogs of people who are in the threads of those posts, since they are likely to write their own posts on the topic, too.

[grelleswife]

I wish chibimyumi was here so much to go over the recent chapters, since things are really getting crazy :((

Her keen insights and linguistic expertise are dearly missed, especially with all these new mysteries to unravel. 💔

[margridarnauds]

Hello~! It's me again. Could you give us a top 5 of your favourite and least favourite theatre costumes of all time and why ^^

Almost ONE YEAR LATER but here we go! Let it not be said that I don’t fulfill my asks come Hell or high water. 

So, first time I tried to do this, it DELETED on me because TUMBLR and then my heart was, subsequently, so broken that I couldn’t do it. HERE’S TO HOPING IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN. 

The Hall of Shame. 

1. Morgane’s.................whatever this is, La Legende du Roi Arthur

Look. Look. I can’t say anything. I literally can’t say anything about this. The colors, the weird leather belt over the weirder bodice, the pants......I just. I just. I-

This musical made a lot of weird fashion choices, in keeping with the ultra-stylized nature of French musicals, some of which worked, some of which didn’t, but this one in particular earns top spot on The Hall of Shame. 

2. Juliet’s dresses, Romeo and Juliet (Takarazuka 2021) 

Now, you might say that there are uglier dresses on this list. You might say that there are dresses that are worse made on this list. And I would agree. But THIS production committed the single worst crime it could possibly commit: It disappointed me. Because at first we all saw the updated promo pictures pictures and were like “Oh! They’re changing the costumes around! That’s wonderful!” and THEN. And t h e n . 

Breaking my own rule to include two because I literally can’t choose and both committed Sins. 

Starting off with this one. Because........red belt on polka dots. Why. Why. The fabric is dull and almost totally colorless, the pattern is hideous and looks more like it belongs on a much, much older woman, and the cut itself is rather dull and unflattering, and that’s not including the leather belt that I half-suspect she stole from Morgane when Morgane was passed out. (Honestly, God help me, but Morgane’s belt at least looks fitted to the outfit. This looks like they tried to fit it, shrugged their shoulders, gave up, and called it a night.) The only excuse I can find for this gown is Lord Capulet deciding that, in a desperate attempt to keep suitors away, he’s going to start dressing Juliet up in his mother’s clothing. 

And then....

Her words are singing love. 

But her eyes are screaming “Help me, help me, I’m being held captive by this mismatched boho dress that they grabbed off the rack of a ‘Wandering Spirit' store. Save me. Save me.” 

It’s disappointing, for me, because the promo pic looked SO GOOD. 

The color is a much deeper, more vibrant red, the fabric looks more consistent (even if it still includes some of the more inexplicable fashion choices), and even the headpiece looks, roughly, like it SHOULD be there. But then, when you see it in stage lighting, that goes away, and all that you get is a collection of clashing fabrics on top of one another in a dull, limp mess of a dress. Toho RETJ made some weird costuming decisions, it made some decisions that I STRONGLY doubted working out, but, at least, when you saw them in motion, they worked and were consistent with the worldbuilding that’d been established (Capulets and Montagues both had a distinctive look, each character wore clothing that fitted them and their personalities, etc.) But this? No. There’s no reason for it to look that badly, they just dropped the ball. It’s trying to do a hundred things at once and succeeded at doing none of them. 

And what’s annoying to me is that I KNOW that Zuka CAN do better. This isn’t me saying “Lol Zuka.” I KNOW that they can do some wonderful things with fashion. 

This production wanted what Casanova had. Look. 

Look at that wonderful, watery fabric. Look at how consistent it is. Look at how pretty it is. Look at how clean and elegant it is. Look at how they manage to capture the look of a rose while doing so in a clean, elegant way. Look at how this was for MINOR, BACKGROUND characters, not one of your leads in ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC. SONGS. IN. THE WORLD. OF MUSICAL THEATRE. 

Zuka broke my heart there. Broke. It. 

3. Christine’s Yellow Contest Dress, Phantom (2019)

Ronan Mazurier called. He wants his yellow coat back. 

I don’t know what they were trying to do here, I really don’t. Make her look like a bumblebee? The cut isn’t particularly flattering (which you can say for most of the costumes on the main characters, I honestly think the best costumes in this production are on the side characters), the color is garish, and there aren’t really any....details that could salvage it? Like, some good embroidery or detailing MIGHT be enough to save it (though I don’t really think so, ngl), but there’s just. Nothing here. Nothing to redeem it. It looks better in motion than it does in still images, but that’s really, really not saying much. 

4. Mozart’s Everything, Mozart das Musical

Modernizing historical musicals is a gamble: Sometimes, you’re able to effectively mix historical fashion with contemporary fashion in order to convey the feeling of the era while not bogging down actors and actresses in heavy historical costuming. Probably one of the best examples of this I can think of is & Juliet, which mixes aspects of 16th century fashion with modern fashion. Hamilton is another example of a musical that does a really, really wonderful job of mixing 18th century and contemporary fashion, conveying that idea of “The story of America then by America now” (Not getting into any of the rightful critiques that have been made against that thesis, I’m just saying that, when it comes to the costumes, Hamilton does a good job conveying that idea.)

And then. Mozart. 

Poor. Poor. Mozart. And whatever you want to call the dreadlocks + 18th century coat + tank top (?) + jeans combo. This one is going to be HIGHLY controversial, since I know a lot of people love it and it’s never going to change because the costuming is viewed as iconic, but I really, really hate how they did the stylization of this musical. I feel like, as far as approach, Mozart l’Opera rock did a much better job with modernizing 18th century fashion. I know what they were TRYING to do as far as showing Mozart as a man outside of his own time. But the end result, in my opinion, is a hideous mishmash of No. 

5. Orléans’ Black Court Suit, Marie Antoinette

Now, it might be wrong for me to put so much hatred on this one coat. After all, it’s actually, all things put together, not a BAD coat. It actually looks quite accurate from the period, more accurate than Orléans’ silver coat from the 2018 production.

I do like the gold detailing on it...in theory. Is matches the floral gold embroidery that we see A LOT of in extant garments, like the one above from the V & A costume gallery. In practice, it looks quite bulky and cheaply done, like someone bought one of those easy stick embroidery sets from Amazon and got to work. More than that, though, it really....represents everything wrong with Orléans in 2018, in that this is clearly a Villain Coat. If this was any other character, if this was Artois from 1789, I’d probably love it. But not Orléans. Not replacing the iconic outfit. 

Honorable mentions: 

- Anne of Cleves, Six 

- Death’s Cowboy Suit, Elisabeth (2005 Wien)

- Ronan’s Yellow Coat, 1789

- Ursula, The Little Mermaid (Shiki)

- The Pink Dress™ from Poe Clan (2021)

The Hall of Fame: 

1. Marie Antoinette’s Silver Gown, 1789 (Takarazuka)

It only feels fair after giving Takarazuka such a sharp critique in the Hall of Shame that they should get top place when it’s deserved. Just because I don’t uncritically love EVERYTHING doesn’t mean that I unfairly criticize them, either. And this gown, in my opinion, is the epitome of what musical theatre costuming should be, and evidence, for that matter, that a gown doesn’t NEED to be overly elaborate to be stunning. The simple silver embroidery and the choice of fabrics are PERFECT, with the darker gray and the light silver complimenting one another perfectly. The lace is wonderful and subtle enough that it’s almost possible to miss it amongst everything else, and the gown furthermore shows off Antoinette’s development in the show, as we see her go from her elaborate, vibrant party gowns to this very, very simple, toned down dress, her hair loose. 1789′s had a lot of really wonderful costumes across the various productions (Olympe’s dresses in the Toho, with the exception of the pink dress, forever own my heart, as do MA’s), but this gown, in particular, earns its spot, and imo deserves more attention than the more famous flower gown from her opening scene. (Lovely gown, good costume designing, but a little too busy and over the top for my personal taste.)  

2. Anne Boleyn’s Red Dress, Lady Bess

Is this the most accurate gown in the world? No - The sleeves are more Italian than English, the under-sleeves look more like they’re late 16th century Italian and the French hood, while more accurate than most of the attempts in Lady Bess, still looks nothing like a proper French hood. (Lady Bess, in general, borrows a lot of fashioning from the Elizabethan Era as opposed to the Marian Era.) BUT. But. The materials used are absolutely exquisite, especially that sumptuous red velvet, and I adore the gauzy fabric that covers it, since that really gives the impression of Anne as a GHOST. The detailing is also exquisite. Overall, Anne gets only two dresses: This and her execution gown, but she really, really makes it work. 

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, TOHO. (Image Credit: Lavinia Fontana, Ritratto di nobildonna, 1580)

I SEE YOU. (Image Credit: Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi by Bronzino, 1545)

(Have I ever mentioned that there was a time, a few years ago, where, if you were my friend, you WOULD see selections from my 16th Century Costuming Image Collection? Because...I was really, really into 16th century costuming.)

3. Christine’s “Wishing” Gown, Phantom of the Opera

Sometimes, I become so wrapped up in my non-English musicals that I forget about musicals closer to home. Which would be a massive oversight in the case of Phantom of the Opera because all of its costumes have more than earned their place as some of the most iconic costumes in musical theatre history. The Wishing Gown and Star Princess gown are probably my two favorites, but the Wishing Gown gets a special shoutout for the distinctly “wintery” look it has, with the frosty blue silk (apparently, actually a turquoise color), slightly snowflake-like look to the floral accenting on the bodice, and lace. It really works with the tone of “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” and the cloak gives it a properly dramatic look. 

4. Anna’s Black Dress + Fur, Anna Karenina

In my opinion, this musical includes some of the most gorgeous costuming ever put on stage, which made choosing any individual costuming hard, but the simplicity of the black combined with the elegance of the fur accents really, really sells it for me. I could spend a whole day just running my hands over the fur. Again, accurate? ...not really, but it does a wonderful job showing the style and the elegance of 19th century Russia. 

5. Donal’s Black Brat + Doublet, The Pirate Queen

The Pirate Queen in general provides some wonderful, wonderful examples of 16th century costuming (including some of the MOST accurate costumes for Elizabeth I that have ever been put on the stage), but this one in particular is magnificent in terms of how it constructs Donal’s character and position in 16th century Irish society, to the point I’ve written an entire meta on it. A good costume, in my opinion, looks good on stage, but a really, really great costume will tell you exactly where that character is in their arc WHILE looking great, and this brat does both. The show had its faults, but the late, great Martin Pakledinaz did a truly wonderful job with the costuming and deserved far more kudos than he got for trying to tackle a notoriously hard period as far as costuming is concerned. 

Honorable Mentions: 

- Orléans’ black coat/Marie’s gold dress, MA 

- Mina’s blue cloak, Dracula

- Josiana’s gowns, The Man Who Laughs (Korea)

- The Sternenkleid, Elisabeth

- Anastasia’s blue evening gown, Anastasia

- Elsa’s ice queen gown, Frozen

[akumadeshitsumon]

Sebastian, chibi called you a teenage mutant ninja bunny

I presume you are referring to miss @chibimyumi? I am not sure why she is so keen on insulting me in every possible way, but rest assured that I am aware of her transgressions against me. All actions will have their consequences. Sooner rather than later if I have any say in the matter.

[[Hey @chibimyumi, want to go into hiding together? The Anons have betrayed us, it is time to abandon ship and flee.]]

[jackobzielinski]

Tagging game

I was tagged by @abybweisse tag 10 fav characters from 10 different fandoms and 10 people

fandoms

Black Butler - Frances Midford

Bungou Stray Dogs - Edogawa Ranpo

Tokyo Ghoul - Ken Kaneki

Death Note - L

Harry Potter - Albus Dumbledore

Game of Thrones - Arya Stark

The X-Files - Fox Mulder

Inferno - Robert Langdon

The Man in The High Castle - Nobusuke Tagomi

Westworld - Maeve Millay

people @chibimyumi @phantomhivetwinsteam @thedarkestcrow

[midnight-in-town]

Hey Anon! Thanks for your thoughts. :)

I'll admit that I'm not the biggest Seb fan (tho I enjoy his character very much) haha, so my thoughts can pretty much be summed up by my answer above and what Yana previously explained about his character (see links above).

To elaborate though, I agree with you: indeed Seb is far from emotionless, he mostly lives by his demon's aesthetics, he takes his job as our!Ciel's butler very seriously and he does differentiate easily between humans, despite overall reducing them to "grasshoppers".

However, while some fans like you might disagree with this, I highly doubt (as presented above) that Seb is capable of getting challenged emotionally, meaning he's not capable of much development (which is why I'm not his biggest fan). That's because, as a demon, he's an All Black character (unlike human characters in Kuro who mainly take a stroll on the grey spectrum of characterization).

So, no matter what may happen in Kuroshitsuji, to give a few examples, I believe humans are and will stay grasshoppers to him and he will probably never hesitate to eat our!Ciel's soul (as ch95 proved), despite also saying he's enjoying his dynamic with our!Ciel a lot.

That being said ! Kuroshitsuji wouldn't be as compelling and enjoyable as a story if our!Ciel's lack of self-worth and faith wasn't supported by Seb acting as a catalystic abyss. That's why they make such a good duo and I love reading about their dynamic. :))

Also, to quote @chibimyumi's (whose analyses about Seb's character here and here I really recommend to read), despite his lack of achievable development, there is still a lot of nuances in Seb's character and I really enjoy that Yana allows us to speculate about aspects such as "how continued servitude may have made Sebas into what he is now. Sebas is a powerful demon, and yet whenever he is summoned onto earth by a human, he would be in some type of servitude to ‘a mere mortal’, or to him, ‘cattle’. How does this influence Sebas’ proud mind? How does a frequently repeated sacrifice of authority and autonomy affect the mind?"

TL;DR Seb has many layers as a character, as you and others have presented so well ! However, it's the fact he's not capable of being challenged by his surroundings, precisely because he thinks humans are grasshoppers and way below himself, that creates a void of development, leading to some kind of intertia that cannot fully influence the narrative. That's why, despite Seb being the main character, the plot is mostly driven by our!Ciel's predicament.

That's a rather unique writing choice by Yana-sensei (so kudos to her) and I think she's managed to write both our!Ciel and Seb quite well so far, which is why I also (mwhahahah) hope to see a possible conflict arising between them. Because, if one part of a good-working duo cannot change (Seb) while the other can have his views challenged (our!Ciel) then, ultimately, we're bound to have a gap to discuss. :))

Sorry for rambling? I don't know if that answers your question, but I wish you a nice day Anon!!

Hello! :D

Is it just me or does Sebastian treat Finnian oddly gently throughout the series? (sure, ignoring the whole ordeal in the green witch arc)

Ofc ik hes not an UwU demon who won't hurt anyine but his methods when it comes to reprimand Finnian or scold him seem to be more gentle in comparassion to him punching Bard or yelling at Mey rin.

The fact he let Finnian hugged him 2 times when he could've simply avoided the hugs, he gave Finnian money to plant the garden when Sebastian could've let Ciel deal with it for Finnian to get the right reprucussions, he also gives him gentle reminders about to not use his strenght with normal people, and he calmly accepts when Finnian accidently breaks a shovel or any gardening tool, Sebastian also praised Finnian during his first harvest and calmly answered Finnian's question about the orgins of peas lol.

And also this may be rather small, but in the book of murder arc when Sebastian wakes up Bard to give him instructions but also accidently wakes up Finnian, he apologizes for waking him up and tucks him in?? Like?? There was absolutely no need for him to do that??

And yes, Finnian has been scolded by Sebastian alongside Mey Rin and Bard but hes rarely seriously reprimanded by himself (even in the green witch arc when Sebastian kicks Finnian out he goes out of his way to thank him for what hes done for the young master and didn't injure Finny enough to get a scar or anything of the sort)

Idk... I just find it oddly nice that whenever Finnian is distressed he chooses to go Sebastian and even go as far as hug him, and Sebastian instead of telling him to stop, treats this like a normal occurence and just tells him to not y'know... Accidently throw people across their room and break their backs.

Like I said earlier, I know Sebastian isn't a soft UwU character and he may have his reasons for this but I don't quite know why... Or maybe this is all far fetched and im reaching too much lol.

Hello Anon and sorry for the delay! Sorry, but no I don’t think anyone gets special treatment from Seb, aside from our!Ciel since they have a contract and Seb legally can’t hurt or lie to him... to a certain degree (*cough*ch95*cough*). 

When it comes to Finny, I’d say that he used to be rather unpredictable with that strength of his...

and Seb was on the receiving end of it more often than not before Mey, Bard and Tanaka were around. In that scene above from ch163, I always had the feeling that Finny was simply too quick for Seb to stop then. 

Anyway, to Seb who’s an elite trash demon, humans are grasshoppers, so whoever that is...

...

...

Seb treats them all the same way, especially when he becomes not so patient.

TL;DR Finny is as much a grasshopper as anyone else in Seb’s surroundings, so there is no special treatment. 

Have a good weekend Anon!

[dailypicsofyuta]

Since you asked, I shall comply. Could you please gush about Furukawa's terrible fashion sense (which I personally love to hate and hate to love)?

i LOVE yutas terrible sense of fashion rhsklskfnskdkddk i love how he just picks things to wear and he does NOT care if they go together or not and if they look good or not... he just looks like he wears clothes without a second thought. its SOOOO funny

his fashion choices were actually another thing that made me become really interested in him at first, because he would just wear SO many layers and i thought it was sooooo funny... one my favorite choices of his are his stupid red crocs and fluffy socks combination uuuaaagghhhhh

[vvlin91]

chibimyumi replied to your photoset “The reason I came back here is not to pursue happiness. I came back...”

@vvlin91​ Your gifs are of course always a blessing, but your comments are the cherry on top

 *whispers to your ears* because I’m a blessing