#criminal case lookalikes

[peruvian-flute-band]

OK THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS

THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING

THIS IS JUST IN SEASON 1 TOO IMAGINE THE AMOUNT IN THE OTHER SEASONS

[mrgreyishere]

So I've had a Ghostbusters hyperfixation recently and my friend told me that Ray from Criminal Case looked like Egon Spengler and now I can't unsee it-

[woooyeahbaby]

Hi!!!Can i request platonic L lawliet x reader hcs??like maybe reader is his assistant and they end up developing a really close friendship!!

And if you do fem readers could the reader be fem?if you’re not comfy with that I’d prefer gn reader!!

Anyways I hope you have a great day/night!!

sure can!! :D sorry it took me a bit to write this for you, i’ve been busy. btw i’m comfortable with writing any gender of reader for future reference 🫶🏻 (little note after writing it, i used you/yours for most of it with a few she/her’s sprinkled in there. sorry!!!)

so,, L got a new assistant, he wasn’t too happy about it because he knew he’d have to teach her all the little things he needs his assistants to do all over again.

but this time it was surprisingly easy to teach you! it didn’t feel like as much of a chore as it did when he was training the last assistant.

his favourite part was how quickly you memorized how he takes his tea and coffee, and you didn’t lecture him how unhealthy the amount of sugar he likes in it is! perfect.

within the first week of having your job, you remembered all the little things about him. he definitely appreciates that, since like i said it felt like a chore having to repeat all the simple things to previous assistants.

over that small bit of time, he felt kind of bad for not knowing the same amount of stuff about you that you knew about him. so, he started paying more attention.

after another week, he knew everything about you. and yes, EVERYTHING. this is L.

into the second month of being his assistant, he gave you a gift for “being such a wonderful addition to the workplace and being so helpful”. he’d never done that for anyone before, but he wasn’t about to tell you that. it’d be far too embarrassing.

it was a gift you’d wanted for years but never really had the money to buy it for yourself, however you never mentioned wanting it to anybody other than a few of your friends. how he knew? he’s L!

despite being a little confused on that matter.. you of course gratefully accept it and then go on to buy him something this time!

even though you’re his newfound friend who knows quite a bit about his personality and mannerisms, you don’t exactly know what to get him.. so you settle on a tea set.

you’d been anxious he wouldn’t like it as much as you liked your gift from him, but he actually enjoyed it quite a bit. the next day you see him sipping overly sweet tea from one of the cups from the set.

the others in the workplace weren’t blind to the newfound friendship between you two, and they found it a little strange considering how cold L was to them but it seemed like he had a soft spot for you. they could tell it wasn’t romantic, but they still found it cute.

L wasn’t one for going for walks or going to coffee shops unless he absolutely needed to to get information out of somebody.. but when it came to you and you offered those situations almost daily? he’d nearly jump out of his seat. let him finish reading up on that criminal first, though.

when it comes to the kira case, he feels bad for not being able to spend quality time with you and instead ordering you around constantly and only working. not that he tries to do anything about it, since admittedly he finds his work more important than friendships, but he does feel bad deep down.

he finds it funny how you both share a glance when light or misa say something rather suspicious. almost like you two have the same thoughts about the two suspects.

if light or misa ever say something rude to you, and you don’t stand up for yourself, he’s shutting that shit down! he doesn’t go too hard, though. or else light may think you’re a weak spot for him. however, if you were to die next, that’d be an interesting plot twist…

not that he wants you to die, he just finds that it wouldn’t help light’s case if that situation were to occur. it would be a little more evidence against that justin bieber lookalike.

he’d love to convince you to sit the way he does and have a conversation about the case with him. maybe even share a few of his sweets with you, too.

he’d also like to see you accidentally start to sit the way he does without realizing it. seeing his friend slowly get into the same habit of sitting with her knees to her chest, even shoving sweets into her mouth and listening as he explains his ideas? L would adore seeing that slowly come into play.

if you also started adopting his fashion sense? oh, he may have to promote you to BEST friend.

in the odd occasion you two have free time, he’d love to listen to you talk about things you like. L is sure you’re tired of listening to him drone on about cases all the time, so he’d be totally fine with hearing you talk about your passions. no matter what it is.

and he wouldn’t just listen in and out, he would pay attention to every single detail. he would research it more in his non existent free time just so you could talk about it together!

little after-fic note, sorry if this is less headcanon-y and more.. like, drabble-y? i tried to make it a bit of both. if you’d like to ask for part 2 and maybe add a few things you’d like to see more of then i’d be totally fine with that! totally up for writing for more L :) hope this was platonic enough for you!

[teecupangel]

okay, we chatted about Desmond in otome games. Let's me give you one called KIssed by The Baddest Bidder.

Let's say Desmond got burned by the Eye indeed and his body is taken by Abstergo and next thing Desmond woke up, revived and full of rage in an empty operating room. He wants to hide and settle for something normal but the bleeds of his ancestors' tragic life makes him wanna avenge them some way and he disappeared. Thus leading what begun a mysterious purge to those certain people who work in Abstergo, huge headlines in the news and articles about it.

In the global crime underworld, an uprising faceless individual, mysterious and ominous with an alias name " The Grim Reaper". Mafias and criminals can gain a favor from him as long it aligns his goals. After the purge that went for 2 years, he once again disappeared like smoke.

Desmond starts his retirement as a cleaner in the day shift and a bartender at the night shift in the Tres Spades Hotel. He also ended saving a girl from strange men and now he's being sold in a black market auction as replacement for the girl who broke some glass statue. Sold 20 million is that he worth and they are VIPs in the hotel???? so much for peace and quiet.

Love interests in the game:

Eisuke Ichinomiya - mmmmmm. boss x worker that piques his interest. what if Coralina and her father recognizes Desmond a lookalike of a lord in Monteriggioni

Soryu Oh - used Desmond for some sort of escort or servant for Mei Ling. Yet Desmond acts a bodyguard like wtf how can he shoot with perfect accuracy and track people easily.

Mitsunari Baba - master thief x retired master assassin / hitman. Baba found the perfect partner in stealing albeit by force. what's this he walks silently, can find the target treasures easily. Why does his eyes seem to glint gold in the faint light at night? Baba is a flirt and womanizer yet Desmond is unexpected with witty sexual innuendos that makes Baba blush

Ota Kisaki - a scene where that two faced artist might sneak a peek Desmond's small notebook that he dropped accidentally. Ota opened to see beautiful pencil and pen drawn sketches of people and places. A castle, a fortesss, a homestead. People with a cowl and some don't. Cue Ota felt a chill and turned to see Desmond looking at him with a neutral face but his eyes are furious.

Mamoru Kishi - police man x retired assassin. enough said but make it mamoru aware of the a cold case of abstergo purge and look at Desmond's behavior like he can't... can he??????

Shuichi Hishikura politician x retired assassin. Desmond philosophical talks might make him think twice or shock him with small hints of secret history as playful jokes. Jokes right?????

Hikaru Aihara - working assassin x retired assassin. Desmond knows definitely about his work. Would be a nice scene where Hikaru knows the Grim Reaper or had heard or seen him work. Made a positive remarks in the strory telling and Desmond just internally laughs cos that's me but shhhhh

Luke Foster - probably angst and slow burn cos he's a doctor and desmond already have too many bad experiences with doctors and scientists

Rhion Hatter - the mad hatter.....maybe friends to lovers...

Basically just the bidders get a whiplash of what they thought is a normal and simple man named Desmond meets more than the eye HAHAHAHAHA

I’m kinda thinking of how this wouldn’t just end with Desmond going ‘fuck this shit’ and running away from whichever route he is in and the first thought I have is to stop him by pushing into his sense of duty and responsibility.

So we’re going to make Desmond have a desire for vengeance on this one.

He had simply been a retired Assassin, just living his life, when he learned that one of his coworkers died the day before the auction because he had been snooping around to find something.

Desmond learns that the killer is someone connected to the auction.

He saved the girl and agreed to be auctioned because he needs to find a way to get close to these VIPs to learn which of them killed his coworker.

Because his coworker?

… was one of the Assassins of the Japanese Brotherhood.

And that coworker was looking into the auction because one of the VIPs is actually one of the few Templars that escaped the ‘purge’.

When he learned that he was sold for 20 millions by multiple VIPs, he tried to sus them out using his Eagle Vision.

But they all glowed gold.

And that’s when Desmond has to pick one of them.

.

The idea is: the killer of the Assassin can be one of them or someone connected to them, the killer’s identity changes depending on which route Desmond takes. The Templar also changes into someone in the route, maybe even the main love interest.

The main point is that this keeps Desmond into keeping up the appearance of the being a ‘bought’ man, all the while having his own agenda.

Eisuke Ichinomiya – Carolina and her father are the Templars. To be more exact, her father is a Templar but she’s being ‘educated’ as one. This would have an alternate ending of Desmond being able to get to Caroline and she becomes his ally. Her father knows who Desmond Miles is and mistakes this to mean that Eisuke has allied with the Brotherhood.

Soryu Oh – The Templars would be after Mei Ling and Desmond gets to the bottom of it which ends up being messy af because Simon Lee actually has connection with the Assassins in China for some reason. The Ice Dragon is also connected with the Japanese Brotherhood.

Mitsunari Baba – Mitsunari’s next target turns out to be a POE and his informant is the Templar and killer. Desmond taking the POE instead of him will be the main cause of conflict between the two of them.

Ota Kisaki – This is one where Desmond would probably end up taking a more aggressive role because he’s not going to be a pet after the hell he went through from Abstergo and William Miles. Ota trying to talk to him like an unruly dog (maybe even call him a mutt) would end with Desmond punching him which will surprise Ota but also make Desmond interesting.

Mamoru Kishi – Mamoru is super sus of Desmond from the get go and Desmond thinks of him as a dirty cop so they’re not off to a good start. Part of their relationship arc would be Desmond finding out why Mamoru is more on the morally dubious side than plain dirty and Mamoru’s main conflict would be learning about Desmond’s past as the spree killer that singlehandedly taken down Abstergo and plunged the company to ruins by killing high ranking members after he had already fallen in love with Desmond.

Shuichi Hishikura – He and Desmond gets into debates more often than not. Desmond doesn’t have a good track records with politicians and people in power to govern the people so Desmond certainly pretends to be polite but he’s wary of Shuichi. Shuichi sees him as being bright though and thinks he might have a knack for politics which makes Desmond shiver in disgust.

Hikaru Aihara – This one would be more on Hikaru knowing there’s something more about Desmond but he can’t be sure but Desmond has heard of him. The Brotherhood had actually given him a head’s up because he’s a ‘freelancer assassin’. They were coworkers before he bought Desmond so they know each other and Desmond is suspicious that Hikaru might have been hired to kill the Assassin by a Templar.

Luke Foster – Desmond’s probably going to be flirty with him, might even slip and call him dottore more than once. Since he works in a secretive clinic that does back alley surgery, there’s a high possibility that Luke is actually an ally of the Brotherhood, not that Desmond knew that. He's comfortable with Luke sometimes because Ezio's Bleed makes him remember the doctors who didn't ask too many questions and simply healed him. Luke is actually keeping it a secret from Desmond because he believes Desmond is just caught up in all these because he’s trying to protect a girl and Desmond believes Luke is hiding something which means he needs to be cautious about him (this would be angst + slow burn + misunderstanding galore XD)

Rhion Hatter – considering he’s half English and the son of a duke, we can make him a Templar. If you don’t want a Templar x Assassin drama for this one, his grandmother could be the Templar and he ran away from her which makes him and Desmond have similar… family ‘problems’. XD

[agentnico]

Abigail (2024) review

Elon Musk lookalike gets mauled by vamps. Shame it’s not a true story.

Plot: A group of would-be criminals kidnaps the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld figure. Holding her for ransom in an isolated mansion, their plan starts to unravel when they discover their young captive is actually a bloodthirsty vampire.

I feel somewhat guilty of including a plot synopsis in this review. Then again, it’s the marketing of the movie that needs to be blamed, as the trailers reveal the fact that the little girl is a killer-vamp. Yet in the movie this fact is kept hidden until about 30 minutes in. I myself don’t like it when I already know what is going while yet the characters just start to scratch their heads wondering what the hell is happening to them. It makes the inevitable reveal unsatisfying seeing as again the trailers have spoiled it already. I of course understand that the job of a trailer is to sell the movie us and make us want to spend our cash to see a ballerina vampire go crazy loco, but then don’t make a good chunk of the movie a pointless mystery to get to that reveal.

Following said reveal however when Abigail uncuffs herself things do get as expected bonkers crazy. Coming from the folks that did Ready or Not, the movie actually shares a lot in its DNA with that film, even with the last close up shot. In Ready or Not we had a group of people inside a mansion trying to kill a helpless young woman and she outsmarted them all. In Abigail it’s reversed as we have a young girl killing a group of people inside a mansion and they try to outplay her. So it’s very much a case of if you liked Ready or Not, chances are you’re in for a good time with this one.

The writers also try to play around a little with vampire pop culture lore, trying to either play along with or debunk certain myths such as stakes to the heart Buffy-style, or the European belief of vampires being allergic to some garlic (vamps can be such sissies). However in doing so they do end up hitting some plot holes, wherein a vampire is technically undead but here the little girl has a heartbeat, pulse and emotions. I don’t know, I get the whole suspension of disbelief and I’m trying to delve into logic of the supernatural, but I really thought that was [insert Deadpool voice] lazy writing. Other than that all the vampire shiz slayed. Loved the special effects, the high levels of ridiculous gore and the creepy yet over-the-top vampire make-up. The movie was also really self aware of the ridiculousness so fits concept and fully embraced the madness of a ballerina vampire.

The cast assembled are all on top form. Dan Stevens continues his banterous cool guy role fresh from Godzilla x Kong, and Kathryn Newton weirdly reminded me of Miley Cyrus here. Not sure why, something do with the make-up. Abigail Weir going from Matilda to killer vamp is honestly a fantastic acting career move from her agent, and Weir nailed it and felt so natural in the role. Kevin Durand as already mentioned looked like a beefed up Elon Musk, only more likeable. Giancarlo Esposito is in this for literally 5 minutes. Barely a cameo.

Ready or Not definitely felt fresher and better of the two, however Abigail is nevertheless a crowd pleasing horror comedy that offers plenty of jokes and slasher gore to please fans of the genre, and Abigail Weir is showcasing herself as a promising new talent.

Overall score: 6/10

[all-eyes-no-dragon]

How about we try reincarnating/isekaiing someone who isn't a salaryman or otaku NEET

Let's isekai a jock who cant believe this shit is happening, someone who doesn't know about anime or game tropes and doesn't immediately assimilate to the new world

Someone who won't just ignore their past life to the point where viewers even forget they're from another world because it just isn't relevant

Isekai has a lot of potential but they keep using the same rinse and repeat tired dry formula

Isekai people and not have others swoon and randomly fall at their feet for absolutely no reason despite the MCs having personalities as flavourful as the sand in the sandbox at the play park

Isekai more women, old people, little kids, uh college students maybe? I don't think I've ever seen a college student be isekaied before

Where's "I Just Wanted To Get My Degree In Archeology But Now The Prince From Another World Won't Stop Proposing Because He Thinks I'm A Goddess"?

Where's "Grandpa Retired But Fell Down A Hole So Now He's The Ultimate Baker In Another World"?

Where's "My Parents Hired A Fairy To Come To My Birthday Party But It Ended Up Being The Real Deal And Now I'm Stuck In Another World"?

Where's "I Scour This New World, Searching For A Way Home"?

Personally, "I Don't Have Time For An Adventure, I Need To Be Back By Dinner" sounds like a charmer to me.

Down with lookalike bland harem protagonists with no personality, dimensions and the exact same jobs (or in the case of the lack thereof)/hobbies (gaming, or however they want to spin it). Heck, these guys are basically all going to the same worlds as well so they've basically all got the same stories too. A shame.

This is why people hate isekai, which I think is a shame really, cuz I love the concept. Just,, I prefer to cherry pick the genre for gems

Side note: let isekai protags say weird shit that no one understands because

👏 cultural 👏 barrier 👏

C'mon, this is a different world, there's gotta be some basic stuff the protag might say and be met with blanket stares

Like in re zero apples are called appas

Totally small stupid and inconsequential but u look stupid af if u call it anything but an appa

Now, if u were reincarnated and had to grow from a child, I suppose u would have time to assimilate to the culture.

Ugh, but I wish they would let reincarnations stay kids longer. If their old world is gonna become obsolete, I want to see them slowly lose that. Forget people's faces, the names of their coworkers, what street they lived on. Forget the smell of their favourite flower, the taste of their favourite food. Forget what the texture of jeans feel like. Make me feel emotions.

Let's see them weird out their new parents by not being used to the New World's culture. Let's see people shrug off them accidentally talking about stuff because wowiee, kids say the darnest things

Stop having isekai kids gather 10 wives at the tender age of 9 :)

I like the MC of the webcomic "The Beginning After The End" 's stance on the dubious subject of having romantic relationships as a reincarnator (or at least, I like it so far. I'm mid 100s into the comic so idk if they about to switch up)

Basically the MC died as an adult so he sees all the kids "his age" as children and he even said a line about how he would be a criminal if he got romantic with one of the girls who like him 🤣

I guess it's up to self perception? Like, this body is 13 but my brain is 45. Which am I actually, then?

Let reincarnators be confused about this as well, cuz even irl people debate this a whole lot (cuz it's just one of those "well, technically" things. I think the fact that we even have to go "technically" to excuse it is a bit of an ouch tho)

I'm open to other views and counter arguments on any of the things I've just said, tbh. These are just some things I think are missed opportunities. Like, people will keep watching and watching it even if it's the same thing (why do you think there's so many "Peter Parker's Field Trip To Stark Industries" fics? People will continually consume the same thing slightly tweaked if they like the premise enough). I just think changes to how we approach isekai might bring in some new viewership and increased positive opinions on the genre

Also, the comically long titles are a fun thing but I know some people abhor them. They want titles that are creative and don't basically just summarise the show's premise. Because, with a title like that, it shows a lack of creativity and ingenuity. Not to say that it needs to be toned down all the way, just reduced to keywords.

"Undead Unluck"

"Spy x Family"

"Dragon Ball"

"First Night With The Duke"

"Little Shop Of Horrors"

"Villain To Kill"

"Pride & Prejudice"

"Cirque Du Freak"

"Mirror Image"

(Yes, I did just write down the names of random things I like. 3 animes, 3 books, 2 webcomics and a,, movie/play(?) I watched it as a play, anyways. okay, the 3animes is kind of a lie, I'm impatiently waiting for undead unluck to come out as an anime. ive never consumed any content for it but the trailer)

These titles give you a vague idea of important symbols/things in the narrative, no? But you don't know exactly was going to happen.

But I'm only speaking for some people, I find the long titles to be funny and a bit intriguing. Of course, I wouldn't mind some good old fashioned original names being brainstormed. These thoughtlessly long titles allow all these different producers to just pump out what is, at its core, basically the same ideas, just switched up a bit so the homework doesn't look copied

[duckapus]

CSF Plot Stuff

Since the Mario cast all got mostly properly reset, Bowser is once again trying to kidnap Princess Peach, and sends a strike team to do so. Said strike team is led by Captain Spletzer(who is still human and has a rivalry with Mario) and her companions Bob(who is a notably better swordsman but still very much Bob) and Boopkins(who is almost as big and strong as Bowser and more willing to fight but still very much Boopkins).

SMG3, SMG4 and Lil Coding actually show up during the attack and try to help the Bros fend them off, only for a completely different group consisting of Mr. Monitor lookalikes(except with riot gear and black screens displaying red rectangles for eyes) and Goonies to hijack the kidnapping and take Peach to their boss. Said boss is obviously Benedict, who is still alive in Reboot World and has upgraded from a criminal empire to an actual empire, but is still stuck as an egg. He grabbed Peach in the hopes that her mystical healing powers that she has in some games can cure his condition.

Now it's a rush by both sides to save Peach from this new third side, and in the confusion the strike team somewhat accidentally captures 3. And since he's him, he kinda-sorta-just go with it joins their team, and convinces Steve to go along with it when he happens to show up. Mostly to hopefully get the band back together, partly to relive his villain era. Also because his Avatar programming is trying to kick in, Mario keeps getting progressively stronger urges to do weird, impulsive, and even just plain stupid things.

Meanwhile, 1 and 2 end up in the heart of Benedict's territory and get saved from some Monitors by a resistance group consisting of Tari(who's now a hacker and can use a gun), Shroomy(who is absolutely Jacked), Auri Bori(Benedict is one of the main villains of course he's here), and Hal Monitor(one of Benedict's Monitors who was reprogrammed into a rebel by Tari). The resistance as a whole is led by Saiko.

Also meanwhile, Welony was able to shield the Yiga Clan from getting rebooted along with everyone else, and Byte wasn't affected at all, so they're still free to do their usual villainy. And the Admins are trying to restore Emmy's data and figure out who tried resetting her in the first place. Considering how the vast majority of Admins feel about her, there's an unfortunately long list of suspects.

And for a few other important details that didn't fit in anywhere else:

-Melony doesn't currently exist because the Fierce Deity mask is in Benedict's arsenal of "just in case" doomsday weapons. If it ever ends up on a watermelon, she'll be back memories and all.

-Anyone attuned to Meme Energy(so anyone who's usually part of the crew, plus a few extras) can tell that something is Wrong with how the universe currently is.

-Prolonged exposure to SMGs will slowly restore the memories and abilities of anyone who got rebooted.

[winns-stuff]

Self insert anon here, again. I don't think there's anything wrong with self inserts - I'm sure many authors fanfic or not pick parts of themselves to inject into their characters. I do however think in LO's case with Persephone being a full on lookalike / self insert for RS' fantasy is a bit ... Odd considering the events of the comic: Persephone, a rich heiress gets showered in nepotism left and right while getting a rich CEO to fall for her and cater to her every whim, every single man is obsessed with her, she gets away with genocide via a ten yr timeout / community service (while Demeter arguably gets a worse punishment and Hades gets no punishment for harboring a international criminal), goes on shopping trips with lavish wealth while being on the lam for murder / genocide And afterwards is continuously degrading to poc + lower class citizens (nymphs, satyrs etc). And has no bearing or consequences for anything she does as the world revolves around her (and almost all her problems are swept under the rug due to being a rich guys obsession). Like this is RS' self insert / fantasy ... Seems a little sus.

Yeah see, I agree with you completely. It’s completely fine if the author or creator inserts themselves into either the story as a whole or the main character, it becomes a problem though when you start forfeiting your story just because you inserted yourself in it. No one wants to read about a main character or self insert who gets everything handed to her, everyone loves her, she can do no wrong, and nothing is her fault. Saying this in the nicest way possible but it’s boring and incredibly predictable and that’s all Lore Olympus is now, plot wise nothing really made sense in season 1 but the very least the character still had some depth to her (Persephone) there were still things you could relate to her to, but nowadays all she is is a fantasy. She’s not actually a character, just a way to vent all of the dreams and goals that someone probably fantasizes about. All of this wouldn’t even be a problem if Rachel didn’t hide behind these big topics, I genuinely feel like she included them just so that it wouldn’t be criticized as much as it would without all of the serious topics it showcases. They go nowhere and they give little to no actual good representation, it falls flat in it’s goal to be serious especially when the comic takes it and makes it a huge joke that nearly everyone in the fandom laughs about.

Lore Olympus isn’t about any of the serious topics they put in their story it’s just about fluff. So actually call it that, stop saying it’s a deconstruction or purity culture and a feminist retelling when you don’t actually want to display any of that in your story. It’s insulting to both messages and you’re actually feeding in to the opposite sides of the messages you claim to be on.

I say this in the nicest way I possibly can because I’m genuinely irritated that Lore Olympus is still known for that when it doesn’t even try to touch on those things.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Righting Wrongs (Yuen, 1986)

This review contains spoilers.

I’m used to how Hong Kong’s distinct historical and political subtext worms its way into its movies, even seemingly lightweight ones. Something like Police Story provides an obvious example, moving from a cheerful action comedy (full of breathtaking, death-defying action sequences) to something angrier, where the hero has been left to fend for himself by the institutions he once served but has lost faith in (but still with breathtaking, death-defying action sequences). But even then, that movie has its share of levity throughout, and ends on a note that I certainly wouldn’t call bleak. Perhaps it’s on me for not looking too much into this movie beforehand, but I was struck by how bleak this is. Within the first few minutes, an entire family is killed in order to sink the case against a pair of mobsters. Dismayed, the prosecutor decides to take the law into his own hands. But while in Police Story, the hero taking the law into his own hands got results and saved the day, the same thing here maybe does take down the criminal mastermind, but gets a lot of other people killed along the way.

I watched the Hong Kong cut and one of the alternate endings (my copy, freshly arrived in the mail from 88 Films, includes a few other cuts that I understand have different endings). Both of them end with the hero dead. The Hong Kong cut maybe leaves a bit of room for ambiguity, with the hero’s body floating in the water after he dives out of a plane right as it crashes, but the alternate ending ends with a grim punchline, with a group of partiers on a nearby boat choosing to ignore the corpse so that it doesn’t ruin their fun. I think I prefer the former, in part because I wanted to believe that the hero survived, but also because it ends things right at the peak of a crescendo. The latter drives the themes home, but allows things to come back down. Or to use punctuation, it’s an exclamation mark versus a period or ellipses. I guess I’m like Elaine Benes in that I’d opt for the former.

The hero is played by Yuen Biao, who I’d previously known mostly as a supporting player in the movies of his better known friends and co-stars Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. (The three of them make up my most watched actors this year, according to my Letterboxd stats.) In those other movies, he usually had an offbeat, likable presence, bouncing off Jackie and Sammo to hit a different set of comedic notes. (My favourite is probably his role in Dragons Forever, where he navigates his political and philosophical confusion and tension between capitalism and communism through his treatment of his pets.) Disappointment might be the wrong word, but I was definitely caught a little off guard by how seriously he plays things here. He’s effective in the role, and it’s the right tone for the surrounding film, but I did miss the quirkiness of his other roles. To the extent that there is levity here, it’s provided by the dynamic between a slobbish cop played by director Corey Yuen and his doting father played by Wu Ma, but like I alluded to earlier, nobody here gets a happy ending.

But while this is certainly a grim movie, it’s far from a joyless one, in that it’s directed with a constant forward momentum and packed full of top notch action sequences. I don’t know what I can say about the action here that would meaningfully differ from anything I’ve said about other classic Hong Kong action movies. I need to get better at discussing technical matters; the two touches that stood out to me were the uses of undercranking and body doubles, which are less offensive here than usual because of how relentlessly the action hurtles ahead. But one is simultaneously in awe and likely wincing as they see one  crackling, fast paced, painful-looking action scene after another, whether it’s Biao taking down a group of assassins (which include a Mick Jagger lookalike and a gunman with an accordion), trying to avoid getting flattened in a cramped garage while the villains try to play bumper cars, Cynthia Rothrock and Karen Shepard going (wo)mano a (wo)mano (this apparently was notable for casting non-Chinese actresses in a Hong Kong movie in a non-gimmicky way), or Biao chasing after a plane on foot in the breathtaking (and death-defying) finale.

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 3, Signal Song Performance + Start of Challenge Mission 1

Hello lovelies! When we left off with my Ultra Super Duper important Produce48 Rewatch Project, we had finished the grade reassignments and I did some number crunching. Now we'll dive into choosing the center for Nekkoya (WHO COULD IT BE???) and the performance itself, as well as the beginning of the first challenge mission. Woot!

Ok, we’re about 19:30 into episode 3. The next portion of the episode deals with the girls’ huge performance on MNET. First, they gather as a group, and sweet vocal coach Soyou comes out to tell them that they’re going to choose the center for the performance. 

If you’re newish to Kpop, it’s worth knowing that when people say “center,” they mean the person who stands in the center for a lot of the performance. For most kpop performances, the performers take turns standing in the center, and the “center” is just the person who usually begins and ends the performance in the middle, and/or takes center position at key points. A center is usually chosen for their looks, charisma, and dance ability. When people say someone just simply “is” the center of a group, they mean that this member tends to take center position for most of their performances. For example, Nayeon could be considered the “center” of Twice, Jungkook could be considered the “center” of BTS, Hyunjin is probably the “center” of Stray Kids, Kai is probably the “center” of Exo, and Irene is generally considered the “center” of Red Velvet. 

In many cases, the other members of a group can absolutely steal focus from the center. Just think of Sana stealing focus in Twice’s performances of Cheer Up. In the case of this huge performance of Nekkoya, however, the center position is even more important, because during this performance, the girls never change position. The center is in the center the whole darn time. Also, as the show points out, the trainees who got the “center” position in the first two seasons of PD101 ended up debuting in the final lineup (though neither currently dominates the Kpop landscape -- Choi Yujeong is a member of the criminally underrated Weki Meki, and Lee Daehwi is a member of the not quite as underrated but still underrated AB6IX.) (Please note that this is also a WKMK stan account.) 

Anyway. 

How will the center be chosen for Nekkoya? By trainee vote! And the 14 members of Class A are each going to do a one minute performance to try to convince the other girls to vote for them as center. 

We see Bae Eunyeong from Idol School -- the mint Chewing Gum girl -- saying that she’s taking the responsibility of choosing seriously since the person she vouches for will probably debut soon. 

First, we see Lee Chaeyeon, future soloist. Kim Choyeon (fire eyes girl) is cheering for her, because apparently Chaeyeon helped all the A-class girls learn the dance, despite apparently being sick when they got to learn with the teacher! In other words, she learned the dance better from watching the video than they did from working with the teacher. That’s Chaeyeon for you. We see a few seconds of her dancing, and she does great, of course. She never had a chance, though, because her face is slightly imperfect. I mean, so's mine. So's everyone's. IDK.

Next is Kim Shihyeon, future Everglow member. She comes out in a gray “F-class” shirt, queueing a flashback to when she was on season one of PD101 and was placed initially in F. 

She introduces herself as “Kim Shiyhyeon from class F” and then sings, very nicely, while dancing lightly. She sounds great, though we only hear a second or two. Also, live vocals don’t matter much for this particular performance. Still, I love that she went with what she had -- a pair of pipes and a great backstory. 

Honda Hitomi dances energetically, adding a little cartwheel-flippy thing at the end.  

Ko Yujin, the “Hyuna lookalike”, immediately drops into a split and does a bunch of other dance moves straight out of Roll Deep or something.

It’s all good, but it’s obviously the wrong vibe for the song, so I’m not sure if she actually though this would win her the vote or if she just wanted to show everyone what she was working with. 

Little Kang Damin, future member of Queenzeye, does a pretty straightforward performance of the song, using a headset mic, singing and dancing. She says, “I want the center position if the opportunity is given.” I think she knows that she’s not likely to get it, not with both Gaeun and Sakura standing in line in front of her.

Damin’s labelmate, the flat tummied Hwang Soyeon, dances without singing, adding in a kind of weird windmill-of-arms at the end. I guess her enthusiasm carried her away. 

Little Lee Haeun, the “mini-Chungha” girl, also does a pretty straightforward performance of the song, using a headset mic. And like Damin, she does a great job, likely knowing she won’t get chosen but just wanting to show her skills. 

When Ah Yujin steps up, the editors play weird inspirational music, and splice in comments from other girls about how pretty Yujin is and how she would make a good center. We get a longish clip of her in the rehearsal space, totally overthinking what would make a good audition performance. I mean, most of the other girls are just literally performing the song that they are auditioning to be the center of, doing the moves that they will be doing as center. Just do that, Yujin, you silly goose.

We finally get to see her performance: she begins by saying “It’s dry in here. I hope to quench you all! Drink it up!” I had to pause the video because I cringed so hard I lost the use of my eyes and ears for a while. When I tuned back in, she was dancing -- what looked like original choreography -- and saying, in Japanese, “I love you all!” I’m obviously not the target market for this, because apparently at least some of the girls found this charming, and she got some votes. 

Next up is THE SAKURA, who Kim Shihyeon says “is so pretty, she doesn’t even have to do anything.” But of course, she has done the most -- she changed the Korean lyrics to something befitting the moment. She’s worried she’ll mispronounce it and people won’t understand her “sincerity.” She lays out all these pieces of paper on the stage, then begins her performance. My Korean is pretty limited, but the show put her new lyrics up on screen, and I was able to use my translator app to find out that she’s singing, “It was hard, lonely days, but let’s get through it together.” 

She does a perfectly adequate job of singing and dancing, then picks up her sign. It says “Center -- Nekkoya 🩷” (the center position is mine). It’s very slightly misspelled, which is kind of cute, as it shows that she did it by herself. 

Last up -- that we see -- is Lee Gaeun, who sings and dances charmingly, adding in some Japanese at the end. 

We don’t see any part of the performance of Kim Na Young (future Lightsum), Takahashi Juri (future Rocket Punch), Yabuki Nako (the one who moved up from F) or Na Go Eun (future Purple Kiss). 

Soyou comes out to tell the girls that per the voting, there are only a few remaining candidates: 

Lee Gaeun: 

They appreciated that she spoke Japanese and liked her witty new lyrics. 

And Sakura: 

They appreciated how much effort she put into it. 

Soyou reveals that actually, so far, they’re tied! So they need to have a final vote between the two. 

In the end, Sakura wins. Gaeun smiles that cute anime smile of hers, and Sakura begins to cry.

Gaeun hugs her and says “congratulations” in Japanese to her. Sakura apologizes profusely, saying that Gaeun’s performance was much better than hers (I mean, it probably was) and Gaeun comforts her, still speaking Japanese. Of course, in being the kind of person who would tell Sakura that she, Sakura, is the perfect person for the center, Gaeun is just sort of proving that she herself is the perfect person to be center. 

Everyone applauds and cries, including someone sitting in my chair. We hear Jo Yuri’s voice saying, “It warmed my heart. Even though they’re rivals, I could really feel that they’re already friends.” Kwon Eunbi says, “It didn’t seem to be about who won or lost. It was more like, ‘We won together.’” Choi Yena says, “I don’t know why, but I was happy. My heart grew that much bigger.” Sakura says, “I looked around and realized I had so many friends.” 

To cut through the treacle, the always squinting Yu Minyoung (mint polka dots, fell from B to A) says, “I’m a little worried that people might only see Sakura. She’s so pretty, otoke?!?”

Time passes, and now it’s time to film the big Nekkoya performance, on the big diamond shaped stage. 

Kim Da Hye asks Kim Cho Yeon and Goto Moe what their ending pose will be, then demonstrates her own -- a spot on impression of the classic out-of-breath, earnest smile you always see. It’s really funny, so check it out at about 34:30 in. 

The A girls go up on stage, and the other girls are jealous, especially the ones who had been in A but were moved down. The girls in F are taking it hardest, because they’re not even allowed to go up on stage. 

The other girls notice that gavely-voice Noe is starting to tear up, and they try to comfort her.

She interviews, “To be honest, I’m neither good at singing nor good at dancing. I couldn’t even be on stage.” Other girls are really sad, too. 

A few of the girls -- I think it’s that YGK+ model Ahn Ye Won and the show's favorite punching bag Shin Suhyun -- call the other girls together, saying “no crying! Come here!” and they all end up doing a cheer together.

As it turns out, they’re dancing on the floor right in front of the stage, so they actually are kind of visible. 

You can see the distribution of the groups -- the pink A girls are in the center, flanked by a stripe of orange B girls, with the yellow C girls and Green D girls at the corners and the back. Gotta say, I’d rather be that D girl in the left corner than the D girl all the way in the back. 

On the day of the actual recording, they do one run-through, and the judges notice that they all look terrified instead of happy. (Soyou calls out Damin for always making the same cutesy face -- pretty funny.) The judges encourage them to show more cheerfulness in their performance, and they try again. 

Their actual performance is a hit. At this point, I’m good not hearing the song again for a while, but here is the full length performance if you want to see it. It’s kind of interesting what happens -- Sakura is the center for the first part, and then the second half of the stage comes out and Gaeun is sort of the center for that group. 

But as I think I said in my Boys Planet recaps, I never really understood the appeal of these super huge dance numbers. You can only see the people the cameraman and editors choose to show you. It might be different if you were there live...? I don't know. I understand that it's a tradition on these shows and all that, but it never really captures my interest.

Sakura interviews that if even one person hadn’t been on stage, it wouldn’t have been the same, that all of them came together to do the performance. Not sure how she’d know that if she has her back to literally all of them. But seriously, she really has the gift of diplomacy, doesn’t she?

When they’re done recording the performance, the girls are stunned to find out that finally they’ll be meeting the alleged host of the show, Lee Seungki! He comes out to strains of electric guitar and lots of applause. Future Kep1er’s Dayeon says, “He’s really handsome. Chincha chincha chincha chincha.” You could say that she really really likes him! Nomu nomu nomu nomu jowa! 

Rocket Punch’s Juri and Purple Kiss’s Na Goeun like him too, so maybe liking Lee Seungki helps you debut!

They’re all looking at him kind of like this:

He tells them that he’s here to help and that they can talk to him any time. He says that he’s heard that they’ve worked really hard, but also that a few of them have given up and gone home. It must have been hard for them, he says, which is actually pretty kind. He tells them not to give up, and encourages them to keep their dream in mind. Whatever he says, it seems to really help them. 

He says that he believes that an international powerhouse group will emerge from this show and take all of Asia by storm. They all cheer. 

Challenge Mission 1 Begins: Group Battle Mission

At 43:40 we move on to the next part of the series: the first challenge mission. 

The girls gather in the studio dressed in their class colors, and cheer loudly when Lee Seungki comes out to greet them. 

Hwang Soyeon looks especially delighted. 

Lee Seungki explains that their first challenge will be a group battle mission which will help decide if they stay or get eliminated. He tells them that they’ll be divided into 16 teams of 6, doing 8 different songs -- in other words, each song will be performed by two different teams, which will be each other’s rivals. Within each pairing, there will be one winning team and one losing team. Each member of the winning team will get 1000 bonus points, and only the top 58 ranked trainees will survive.

The trainees view the 1000 bonus points as a “free pass” to stay, but I wouldn’t really agree with them. It’s nice and all that, but knowing what I know about the vote totals in the first round, it would only make a difference to people who are *right* on the line -- between 58th and 61st place. If you were going to be in 62nd place or below, or 57th place or above, it wouldn’t matter at all.

So, sure, you want the 1000 points, but what you want more than that is to come off as especially winsome in the rehearsal footage. That’s how you win the attention of the National Producers. Ideally, you should be really pretty, at least moderately skilled, very hardworking, and extremely sweet to the other girls, but perhaps a little bit put upon or martyred. 

The trainees can’t believe that almost half of them are going to be eliminated. Nakanishi Chiyori, from What’s Your Name?, interviews, “I felt as if someone was poking my heart with something sharp.” They’re all varying degrees of desperate to survive. 

The song choices for the 16 performances are revealed. 

The songs:

Short Hair by AOA (from June 2014) 

Peekaboo by Red Velvet (from November 2017) 

Love Whisper by Gfriend (from August 2017) 

Boombayah by Blackpink (from August 2016)

Very Very Very by IOI (from October 2016)

High Tension by AKB48 (in Japanese, from November 2016)

Like Ooh-ahh by Twice (Japanese version, original version from October 2015)

Mamma Mia by Kara (Japanese version, original version from August 2014) 

Naturally, the Korean trainees want a song in Korean, while the Japanese trainees would prefer a song in Japanese. And, though no one is saying it right now, probably none of them want to do Boombayah, a song with famously difficult choreography. None of the others come close. It’s like that time they had NCT-U’s Seventh Sense on a Produce101 season. It just filled the trainees’ hearts with dread. 

Seungki explains that he’ll be choosing trainees at random to be team captains, and that those girls will get to choose the other members of her team.

But first, Sakura gets to choose her own team, because that’s how this show works. I’m lowkey surprised they didn’t just write “Sakura” on every ball and then choose her name at “random”. 

Sakura chooses “Lee Chaeyeon-chan” first, surprising almost no one. Chaeyeon probably is the one who taught Sakura the choreo to Nekkoya, and her teaching skills alone would make her an extremely useful member of any team. Then Sakura chooses sweet-faced Motomura Aoi second, which surprises… everyone? I mean, that’s not who I’d choose if I had my choice of everyone. But they’re both on HKT48 so they’re probably friends. Then she calls for Kim Minju-chan, likely because (a) Minju is a Very Pretty Girl and fairly highly ranked and (b) maybe they met somewhere and got to be friendly? After all, she calls her -chan not -san, which is a friendly name tag. Then she calls for Kim Choyeon, who, from everything we can tell, is a really sweet girl, and a hard worker.

She also has amazing facial expressions.

Her last pick is Kwon Eunbi-chan, who is a solid choice. Both Choyeon and Eunbi probably cemented their spot by being friendly to Sakura when they were together in A class. 

Left to right: Sakura, Chaeyeon, Aoi, Minju, Choyeon, and Eunbi. 

They stand together on stage and the Avengers theme song music plays. But I, an intellectual, know that often the *second* team picked is just as good, if not better, than the first. 

Sakura has to then choose the name of the next team’s captain by picking a ball from the machine. Everyone wants to get picked, including a familiar face….

… but Sakura chooses An Yujin, future IVE member, instead of Huh Yunjin, future Le Sserafim member. Well, instead of everyone. And it’s totally random, right, MNET?

Yujin knows what’s up. So she chooses:

Na Goeun, future Purple Kiss

Jang Wonyoung, future Queen of all Kpop (and member of IVE)

Choi Yena, future soloist

Shiroma Miru, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle

Honda Hitomi, certified cutey-pie (but not shown in the screenshot)

Really, really strong team, in some ways stronger than the first team. To be fair, as much as I love Miru, I might have picked someone else, but Yujin was on B-team with Miru and they might have gotten really close. 

She draws out Yabuki Nako’s name to be the next team captain, and holds the ball up straight to the camera like the commercial queen she is.

Does anyone else just want to buy pink ping pong balls now for some reason?

As a reminder, Yabuki Nako is the girl who moved from F class all the way up to A. From Nako onward, we don’t see who anyone picks, but we do see the next few team captains. Kojima Mako, Matsui Jurina, and Oda Erina. From there, things speed up. We see teams being picked and the ranks thinning out, until all that’s left is… the leftovers. (The reason I’m interested in the order that the captains get selected is that it gives us a sense of where a team fits in the hierarchy from AVENGERS at one end to LEFTOVERS at the other end.) 

Team leftovers: Sato Minami, Chiba Erii, Asai Nanami, Asai Yuka, Kang Hyewon, and Han Chowon. 

Poor Han Chowon, future member of Lightsum. For some reason she doesn’t get picked, despite being a member of B-class and having some obvious skills. It must have been galling to see people picking Ds and Fs ahead of her. Meanwhile, true to her basic lot in life, Miss Purity Kang Hye Won is like, “I wasn’t upset, but I didn’t know what to do.” Asai Yuka, who auditioned with Knock Knock, probably didn’t get picked because she’s only 14 and relatively inexperienced. It must have been so depressing and embarrassing, and as much as I kind of laugh at hopeless Hyewon, I feel sorry for all of them. Well, most of them. 

Chiba Erii has prepared a brand new facial expression for the occasion. Totally different from the spaced out look she had in class, right? This one is like, 2% angrier. 

I know I should be being nicer about it, but I find it really difficult to work up much sympathy for Chiba Erii. She strikes me as a girl who has always had an easy time in life because she’s pretty, and she expected that to continue. I'm probably being unfair, right? Sigh. Well, part of the point of these recaps is for me to mention my opinions, and that's one of them - that an accident of bone structure shouldn’t be an excuse to be unpleasant and dull.

Next, Lee Seungki tells them that the way they’ll be deciding who will get which song will be with a race. UGHH. They ran races on all four seasons of Produce101, and it’s always a mess. I get it that part of these shows is to just be fun, silly television for the viewers, but I don’t know, doesn’t it seem like a terrible idea? A bunch of extremely eager people placed into a situation in which they could easily harm themselves or others in their enthusiasm? 

Produce X 101 was the last time they did the race, for the record. For Girls Planet 999, they did a challenge where they had to find each other’s baby photos, and for Boys Planet, they did it based on fancam views for the signal song performance. Either seems better than just like, who can run fastest. 

Anyway, the girls discuss the songs that are right for them, and then the team captains line up for the race. (The teams can’t choose a runner -- the captain has to run.) There are two signs for each song on the far wall, but there is only one sign holder for each song, so the runners have to first grab the song they want then sprint back to the other side of the room to get that sign into the sign holder first in order to guarantee the choice.

I explained this song selection method to My Fella and he said, "Why don't they just put the song holders at the bottom of a deep swimming pool?" and I was like "I don't know why they're not at the heart of a volcano" and he was like "that's where they keep the signs themselves." We have fun, My Fella and me.

A few girls say that they have experience running track and field, including future IVE member Ahn Yujin, Kim Yubin, one of the CNC school girls, Lee Chaejung, future member of Alice, and Queen Jurina.

They run to the strains of “Chariots of Fire” and a lot of shrieking. Little Bibian looses a shoe. Looks like no one wants High Tension by AKB48, but fast runner Chaejung grabs Boombayah, and Hwang Soyeon grabs Like Ooh Ah. There’s a bit of a scuffle at the end, as Ahn Yujin and Kato Yuuka fight over who will really get Very Very Very, and Seungki has to come over to make the call: Ahn Yujin wins.

The winners get to choose which team they want to face off against -- and that team will have to do the same song. Jurina, whose team won Peekaboo by Red Velvet, chooses Kim Yubin’s team to be their rival, dashing Sakura’s hopes. Jurina is too smart to choose Sakura as a rival! 

Lee Chaejeong, whose team is going to do Boombayah, gets to choose almost any team to go up against, and makes the strategic choice: the leftovers team. It’s a way of quite possibly guaranteeing success. As Won Soyeon puts it, “I feel bad, but… I don’t want to die.” This means that the least skilled team will be forced to do the most difficult song. Some of the girls on the leftovers team start to cry almost immediately -- pigtailed little Asai Yuka just buries her face in her hands and sobs, and Asai Nanami (Sailor Venus) interviews that for the first time, she just wants to go home --   and everyone feels awful.

I get it -- first no one chooses them to be in a team, and then they get chosen right away as the weakest rival to do the hardest song. It’s a one-two-three punch that had to really hurt. 

Lee Seungki asks directly, “why are you crying?” and Erii answers just as directly, “We don’t think we can do it [perform Boombayah].” 

Seungki kindly says, “In my experience, having the resolve to accomplish something will make people watching you feel touched by your determination. So having the resolve to be able to do it will touch the hearts of the National Producers. And nobody can predict the final outcome of that. So believe in yourself and be strong. I’ll have high hopes for all of you until the day that you turn those tears of sadness into tears of happiness.” 

Aww! That’s some good stuff, Seungki. 

Chiba Erii says, “ganbarimasu,” which is translated as “we’ll work hard” and is sort of the Japanese equivalent of “Fighting!” His words seem to cheer up the other girls, too, especially Hyewon. 

The selections continue, in order I think of when the girls got their sign in the holder, until the very last team -- Ahn Yujin’s team -- gets stuck with the team no one wanted to face off against: Sakura’s team. Uh oh! This will be a tight race. 

So, the teams have all been created and songs assigned. Now it’s time for the girls to start preparing! But that will have to wait for the next post!

Thanks as always for going on this Grand Journey with me. How is it going for you? Are you watching along? Are you just reading? Just skimming and looking for info about a favorite? (That's ok -- I know people might want to do that, which is why I bold the names of the trainees.) I hope all is well with you and that you've already come to some sort of acceptance about your New Year's resolutions.

Love ya lots,

BPR-unnie

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Buried in His Boots by Kris Pearson writing as Kristie Klewes

Merry Summerfield Cozy Mystery #5

Merry Summerfield once again is first person on site when a dead body is found…a body wearing very distinctive boots.

What I liked: * Merry Summerfield: book editor, pet and house sitter, divorced, amateur sleuth, sister to Graham, knows everyone in the community, good friend, intelligent, may eventually find another man to date

* Graham: Merry’s brother, lawyer, sharing the family estate with his sister, owns two great dogs, has a new romantic interest in this book

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* The animals, mostly dogs this time…added a lot to the story

* The side plots that may have a part in future books in the series: the forestry work group, the arrival of Erik’s daughter, the upcoming wedding or Erik and Heather, the underlying secretiveness of those working at the Burkeville Bar & Café, and others

* Wondering if Merry might end up with one of the attractive interesting men in town or someone else entirely

* The way the mystery was resolved and Merry’s part in it

* Seeing and/or hearing about previous cases and finding out how people from previous books are doing

* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to like

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

Brilliant house. Amazing views. I thought I’d hit the house-sitting jackpot until Claude, the big beagle lookalike, unearthed a body from behind a collapsing wall in the yard. First we saw the distinctive boots that proved to be a truly gruesome trophy. This led to all sorts of speculation. Hi – I’m Merry Summerfield, freelance book editor and house-sitter of Drizzle Bay. I’ve been tipped out of my beachside haven because it’s now a crime scene - but do you think that’ll stop me trying to discover what really happened? The murderers won’t be Dex and Dom - the short, bald, house-renovators - because this is their lovely new home. Boastful Brett Royal from the Whale Watch boat is talking far too much and bringing the murder to everyone’s attention, so it’s probably not him. My brother’s new equestrian girlfriend? But she seems so nice! The semi-criminal boys being re-trained on the forestry land in the hills? Hmmm… Suggestions come thick and fast, but nothing seems quite right. Detectives Bruce Carver and Marion Wick are in hot pursuit of the truth, but they won’t solve the mystery of whether my summer flirtation will be with Vicar Paul or Black-ops John. That remains as murky as the mud on Lord Drizzle’s farm. Maybe a Christmas concert will help? This fun cozy mystery is full of your favorite people from the other books in the series. Plus some new ones, a puzzling murder, a touch of romance, and laugh-out-loud lines. Be happy – Merry is back!

[peruvian-flute-band]

well this one's kinda obvious isn't it

hmmm

[goodthoughts001]

Colin Kaepernick Denies Involvement In Sexual Assault Case

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is denying that he has any involvement in a criminal case following an incident in a Miami hotel room. TMZ reported yesterday that Kaepernick is being investigated in connection with an alleged sexual assault.

“The charges made against me in the TMZ story and other stories I’ve seen are completely wrong,” Kaepernick tweeted yesterday. “They make things up about me that never happened.”

Kaepernick didn’t specify what details of the story were inaccurate, though TMZ reports that their source in the Miami police department has changed his story, downgrading the incident from a “sexual assault” to a “suspicious incident.”

Kaepernick followed up his earlier tweet by saying, “I want to thank all the people who have shared their encouraging sentiments. I assure you that your faith is not misplaced.”

The NFL star seems unconcerned with the allegations against him and has been spotted partying at various nightclubs several times since the investigation began.

Specifics about the incident remain scarce but according to TMZ, a woman claims she was naked in a bed with Kaepernick smoking marijuana and she later awoke in a hospital. The nature of her injuries are unknown.

Angelina Jolie Lookalike Forces Deliveryman to Bang Her at Knifepoint, Stabs Him Six Times

Luminita Perijoc, a 31-year old Romanian who prides herself on resembling Angelina Jolie, has been sentenced to four years in prison after stabbing a deliveryman six times.

The incident occurred after she made this same man perform oral sex on her at knifepoint.

According to court documents, the victim (Nicolae Stan) was delivering wine to Perijoc’s apartment when she threatened him with a four-inch blade and prompted him to undress.

She demanded vaginal and oral sex from Stan and, when he was unable to get an erection for a third go-around, she thrust her knife into him six times.

The victim was somehow able to escape to Perijoc’s and call the police from his cell phone.

A judge initially sentenced Perijoc’s to five years behind bars, but the sentence was reduced after she claimed to be on medication at the time of the attack.

“I think she wasn’t used to anyone saying no because she flew into a rage when I declined,” Stan said. “When I refused she attacked me with a knife, and forced me to have sex with her but she still stabbed me.”

Stan is a married father of three and says he understand folks may mock him for turning down someone who (sort of) looks like Angelina Jolie, but…

They don’t understand why I refused her, but they do not know what it is like to have a mad woman yelling at you at knifepoint,” he said. “They look at her, then look at me and laugh. But I think anyone would find it impossible to perform with a knife at their throat, even if they were with Miss Romania.”

We’d have to agree with that statement.

John Winkler, Tosh.0 Production Assistant, Mistakenly Killed by Police

Very sad news out of West Hollywood yesterday:

John Winkler, a 30-year old production assistant on Tosh.0, was shot and killed by police who believed him to be the culprit at a murder scene inside an apartment complex.

According to the  L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, deputies were called to the complex amidst reports of a knife attack.

They arrived to find a man running out of his residence, holding a bloody neck would, with Winkler giving chase. Both individuals were headed toward the officers.

Prosecutors say that deputies fired at Winkler, thinking he was the attacker, and killed him on the spot.

“The apartment door suddenly opened and a male victim came rushing out,” read a statement from the LASD. “He was covered in blood and bleeding profusely from the neck. Simultaneously, victim Winkler ran out of the door, lunging at the back of the fleeing victim. Both ran directly at the deputies.”

It continued:

“Winkler was similar to the description of the suspect and was wearing a black shirt. Believing Winkler was the assailant and the assault was ongoing and he would attack the entry team; three deputies fired their duty weapons at him.”

Friends say Winkler, who moved to California six months ago, heard screaming from the apartment in question and had gone to check on the occupants.

The actual suspect, meanwhile, is now in custody and has been charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of torture in connection with what allegedly went down inside the building. For any Translation related help, visit Translation Agency UK

[stedesparasol]

if you're still doing the prompts ask thing, stede & ed for the manny/single parent au pls!

I am still taking prompts!  And boy oh boy I did not expect to exceed 1500 words on any of these little fics but here we go I guess.

***

Well.  That wasn’t what Stede had been expecting.

Edward was a little bit of a stuffy, old fashioned name.  And Teach, well, that made Stede think of a professor.  And however silly that kind of assumption may be, when he had spotted this man’s name in the listings, he’d pictured a bespectacled man in a cardigan, not…  Well.

“Stede Bonnet?” the bearded, leather-clad man standing in his doorway asked him.

“Y- uh, yes,” Stede replied, apparently having forgotten his manners in his mild alarm.  Pulling himself together, he held out his hand.  “You must be Edward,” he said, hoping there wasn’t too much of a question in his tone as he spoke.

“Yeah, or Ed – whichever, I don’t mind.”

“Well.  Come in, Ed,” he said, stepping back and allowing this Hells Angels lookalike into his home, wondering how far into the interview process he would have to get before telling the man to his face that he was absolutely not what he was looking for.

For now, as they settled down on the sofa, he prepared to give Ed the usual spiel that he was interviewing a lot of nannies (which was true) and imply that there was therefore a lot of competition (which was false).  The fact of the matter was, not one of them had been the right fit.  Certainly, some of them had seemed to him to be perfectly acceptable, but ultimately, it was the children’s opinions that mattered, and both Alma and Louis managed to have complaints about every single one.  Part of him wondered if they were going to react this way to every nanny at first, and he should just select one himself and hope for the best.  But he knew in his heart that he wouldn’t be able to settle with anyone even slightly insufficient.  He spent enough time feeling woefully inadequate as a parent, and didn’t want to be responsible with lumping his children with an inferior version of himself.

At least that wouldn’t be a concern in this case.  No matter how the rest of this process went, Stede was sure that nobody think to compare him to Edward Teach, for better or for worse.  Although, admittedly, the man did look a little less intimidating now that he’d taken off the leather jacket and folded it across the arm of the sofa.  Aside from the tattoos, at least, but Stede had to remind himself that lots of people were covered in tattoos these days.  It didn’t make them a knife wielding criminal.  Plus, the purple t-shirt definitely took the edge off.  As a matter of fact, he was sure that was Alma’s favourite colour.

“So, it said you were looking for a part time nanny?”

Stede blinked back to reality.  He had almost forgotten he was supposed to be interviewing the man.  “Yes, that’s right,” he said.  “Just for the times I can’t be around, during the work week.  My ex-wife and her husband have the children most of the time, but they’re about to go away for an extended period, and Alma and Louis have to stay in school, so we decided it would be for the best if they lived with me for a while, but I can’t get away from work as often as I’d like and there’s nobody around to help me take care of them and–”

“Hey, hey,” Ed interrupted, which was a relief, because Stede had been beginning to feel like all of his concerns were about to tumble out of his mouth all at once.

“I’m sorry,” he said, hoping he didn’t look too flustered.  “It’s just… a stressful time, you understand.”

“’Course,” Ed nodded, and his voice was surprisingly reassuring.  “That’s why I’m here.”

Stede felt strangely relaxed at this, considering Ed hadn’t actually done anything to ease his tension beyond saying a few words.  But he seemed even less intimidating, now, which was definitely a good thing, so Stede offered him a grateful smile.

Ed leaned back in his seat.  “Carry on,” he said gently.

And so, Stede cleared his throat and tried to get back on track with his planned interview which had very much fallen by the wayside.  “You’ve been with this agency for a while,” he noted.

“Yeah,” Ed nodded.

“Can I ask… can I ask what drew you to this line of work?”  That had not exactly been on Stede’s interview cards, but sitting opposite this particular man, he couldn’t help but ask it.

“You’re thinking I don’t look the type?” Ed asked, practically reading his mind.

Stede nodded weakly.  “Yes, something like that.”

Ed grinned, and Stede got the feeling that he wasn’t unused to questions like that.  “I just like kids, y’know?” he shrugged.  “And I grew up in a pretty rough household, so I know how important those early influences can be.  Things really could have gone either way for me, and luckily I turned out alright.  So I wanna make sure the same’s true for the kids I look after.”

Stede wondered if any of this should have been a red flag to him.  Right now, he had to admit that he was growing fonder of this man by the second.  “That’s… well, that’s very noble,” he finally managed to respond.

Ed shrugged.  “Plus, it’s one of the few careers where I get to blow people’s minds with my rubbish magic tricks,” he said.  At that, he immediately reached over and pulled a coin out from behind Stede’s ear.  “See, do that when you’re working in an office and I reckon they’d think you were nuts.  A seven year old thinks it’s the best thing ever.”

Stede couldn’t help but smile down at the coin in between Ed’s fingers, and briefly wondered if that meant he had the mind of a seven year old.

But now that the situation was more relaxed, he was able to actually conduct a proper interview with Ed, getting all of the important questions out of the way, as well as a few unimportant ones (although, sadly, Ed wouldn’t reveal how he did his magic tricks).  And while Stede knew that the children would have the final say, as he said goodbye to Ed with plans to introduce Alma and Louis to him at the weekend, he couldn’t help but feel that maybe things would be different this time.

***

A shout from the children’s playroom startled Stede from his book.

He had admittedly grown a little nervous in the build up to introducing his children to Ed.  Mostly, he was worried they would take one look at him and be convinced that their father had sold them to a gang leader.  He had even warned them in advance that the man they were about to meet was very little like the previous nannies he had introduced them to.  (Alma, in a tone wise beyond her years, had informed him that this could only be a good thing.)  But when Ed arrived at the door and greeted the children by producing a coin from behind each of their heads simultaneously, they both seemed perfectly happy to give him a chance – especially after he let them keep the coins, with a wink directed towards Stede who tried not to look too pleased.

Once proper introductions had taken place and Stede was satisfied that Alma and Louis were not going to run away in fear, he initiated the customary approach of letting Ed spend some time on his own with them, so that the children could suss him out and come to their own conclusions without their father breathing down their necks.  So he sent them off to the playroom for an hour or so, while he settled himself in the living room with a book and a cup of tea, keeping an ear out for any disturbances.

And he had been sure everything had been going swimmingly, until he heard the shout.

He leaped up from his seat at once, tossing his book aside in a manner that would usually be extremely unlike him, but this was a cause for alarm.  The shout had come from Ed, so at least he was fairly sure that his children weren’t in any kind of danger, which would have been his first concern – but he had to wonder what on earth had happened for Ed to be raising his voice so extremely.  So… aggressively?  Rushing down the corridor, Stede was halfway towards the room when he heard his daughter giving an almighty yell, which was enough for him to run the rest of the way and burst the door open, and…

Well.  That wasn’t what Stede had been expecting.

Ed was pressed against the wall, with Louis wrapping his arms around his legs so that he couldn’t walk, while Alma stood triumphantly in front of him with a wooden sword held at his throat.  All three of their heads swivelled round at Stede’s dramatic entrance, while he stood there in mildly stunned silence, not sure what he’d been planning on saying but knowing he couldn’t exactly say it now.

“Sorry, were we too loud?” Ed asked, as casually as if he had a toy sword held to his throat every day.

“Silence, dog!” Alma demanded viciously, and then turned back to her father.  “We’re playing pirates,” she explained matter-of-factly.

“I see,” Stede responded, looking back at the man held captive by two small children.  “Everything alright there, Ed?”

“Great,” Ed responded, nodding his head towards Alma.  “She’s about to make me walk the plank.”

“Any last words before we send you overboard?” Alma asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Ed replied, clearly thinking on his feet.  “If you kill me, there’ll be nobody to find all the coins hidden behind your ears.”

Alma looked as though she was considering this for a while, before finally heaving an almighty sigh.  “Fine,” she said, withdrawing the sword from Ed’s throat.  “We’ll let you live.  This time.”  And then she walked over to her father, sword down by her side.  She stopped in front of him and looked up at him, a serious expression on her face.  “We like this one,” she said sagely.

From his position on the floor, and still clinging to the man’s legs as if his life depended on it, Louis nodded enthusiastically.  “Can we keep him?”

Stede looked between his two children, and then back up at Ed.

Ed grinned at him.

“I… think that can be arranged.”

(Find this fic on ao3 where, against my better judgement, I am writing more chapters.)

[formenis]

Hi there! I can to request a one shot where the reader is jealous because BB has been looking at someone too much or something like that. Please and thank you!

Yes, of course dear~ I love writing B ♥

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TITLE: SIGHT

pairing: Beyond Birthday x jealous!gn!reader

|| warning: major spoilers of the novel "The Los Angeles BB murder cases" / jealousy / slightly yandere behaviour / a not very healthy relationship ||

When B left the Wammy's House on May 2002 for the States he felt a bit out of place: he was alone in a foreign and far country. Luckily that feeling lasted less than five minutes once at the Los Angeles airport. He had only one goal in mind: to surpass L, the greatest detective in the world, as the "World's Greatest Criminal," giving him a case that B hoped he would be unable to solve.

June just started few days ago when B's life changed in a way he would never imagined. He was in a beauty store, he needed to buy a new foundation and few eye pencils in order to maintain his heavy mask of L's lookalike. B was waiting for his turn at the cash register and he was the only boy there.

All the girls (and women) were secretly looking at him trying to understand if those products were for him or for a female partner or relative. And maybe the oldest ones were mentally insulting him because "boys should not wear makeup". As if B read those thoughts he turned his head towards those women to glare at them: his dull black eyes always made people look away in fear. A voice, however, distracted him.

«Sir? It's your turn»

B looked in front of him once again and noticed the cashier was right so he walked closer to them, scattering the products on the conveyor belt. The cashier, someone with H/C hair and S/C skin, smiled kindly at him while doing whatever a cashier did, B didn’t care and looked away just to read people's names above their heads.

«Sir? If you're interested, we have a lighter shade of this foundation»

At those words B turned to look at the cashier one more time. Since L was really pale, lighter was better.

«Really? I saw nothing at the display cabinet» B replied with a raised eyebrow but the cashier couldn’t see it since his face was partially hidden by a cap.

«It's because we hadn’t the time to organise it but it is available. Do you want to see it?»

«Yes»

The E/C coloured cashier nodded at him and whispered something to a girl next to them. In few instants that girl opened the register next to them so the other clients could pay for their shopping there.

In the meantime, B thought about his plan: everything was perfectly set (the crime scene, the Wara Ningyo, the victim's name and his cover), nothing will go wrong. He smirked at the perfection of his project, he couldn’t be more satisfied.

«There it is, sir. Do you want to try it?» the cashier came back, in their hands a tiny bottle of foundation way lighter than the one B chose before. The once L's successor nodded and extended his right hand so the cashier could apply a small quantity of foundation on it, with circular motions.

«The ideal is to test the product on the side of your jaw but I believe this shade suits you well, sir. It's almost invisible on your hand»

B, however, wasn’t focused on the foundation in that moment. When the cashier's fingers touched his hand he felt a strange sensation. It was like…flames, as if he touched the fire with bare hands. He wanted…to feel it…once again…

«You're right, I think I'll take this» B masked his emotions with a fake smile and the cashier nodded at his reply. While they were busy with his products, B's eyes couldn’t look away from his right hand. The foundation was still there and he caressed it with the thumb. Something about that simple gesture upset him…in a positive way, maybe?

«It's $22.13, sir»

Without saying another word, B payed for his shopping and left the beauty shop. Before leading back home, he glanced inside the shop. He could read above the cashier's head two words: Y/N L/N. And then a date.

"Your death is so far from now, Y/N…you're lucky".

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It was August 2002 and Believe Bridesmaid was already dead. B was rather satisfied about his job, nobody interrupted him during the murderer. Not even when he re-dressed the victim after the post-mortem mutilation.

Something, however, didn’t go as he planned. This "something" was Y/N. A part of B's brain yelled things like "Don’t distract yourself!" or "Focus on L not them"; but the other half pushed him to know Y/N more. He went in that beauty shop as much as he could even though he didn’t buy anything.

Despite his unique personality, B and Y/N started to get along. Poor Y/N ignored the fact that more than once B followed them home and he even spied on them different times.

«Ryuzaki! Did you hear?» an afraid Y/N appeared from the service entrance of their beauty shop. It was a sort of habit for B (or Ryuzaki as he introduced to Y/N) to join them after work.

«Hear what, Y/N?» he asked while putting his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans. Even though he always walked hunched over he was still taller than Y/N.

«A famous writer died!» they put the shop's keys in their bag and started to walk back home with Ryuzaki beside them.

«Yes, I heard that. It happened few weeks ago, right?»

Y/N nodded, they seemed quite shocked. «I read all his books, I can't believe someone killed him»

«Yeah…Los Angeles is becoming a dangerous place»

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August 4th was close and B had to kill again. He managed to realise all the riddles and the three Wara Ningyo he had to leave on the scene. However, something was missing: the victim itself. He decided he would take advantage of a walk he wanted to take with Y/N. They needed a break from work and B suggested to spend some time at the park.

Once surrounded by peace and trees, however, Y/N noticed something strange on Ryuzaki. Something that made them…boil with jealousy.

Since the moment they met Ryuzaki at the beauty shop, Y/N felt something for that strange "un-private" detective. They didn’t care about his peculiar behaviour or particular taste about food: his deep black eyes, the way his thin lips curved in a smile each time he saw them and his intellect…he knew so many things, Y/N wondered where he studied all that.

Ah, poor Y/N. They were completely unaware of Ryuzaki's real self. They knew the pale, slouched "un-private" detective and not the bloodthirsty and ferocious serial killer.

They admitted they started to feel…attracted by the man. Y/N didn’t know it was simple friendship or…something else.

Back to the park, Y/N noticed a strange attitude of Ryuzaki. Since the two of them started to walk towards the park, the man was staring intensely at all women (and even men) that passed next to them. It looked like he was searching for someone in particular.

«Are you alright Ryuzaki?»

The un-private detective turned towards Y/N and smiled. «Yes Y/N» and then he came back at staring at people as nothing happened…as if Y/N wasn’t there with him.

He looked at people down on with such intensity that Y/N had the feeling he was imagining something in his head. He even smirked from time to time.

«I wish you would look at me in the same way…» Y/N said in a whisper.

«I don’t know what that was about, but I love seeing you all riled up» at that answer Y/N turned towards him. Did he hear them?

Ryuzaki was looking at them with curiosity, a thumb over his lips. The wind messed up his (already ruffled) hair and his weird sitting position - with his knees pulled up against his chest- made him bigger than usual.

Y/N's cheeks turned pink and looked away embarrassed. Geez, Ryuzaki heard them…

They were so focused on their gaffe that they didn’t notice the man moved an arm around their shoulder in a cute attempt to hug them. That gesture took Y/N aback but hugged him back almost immediately, sensing the intoxicating scent of strawberry jam of his clothes.

«I would never reserve that kind of look on you, Y/N. You're far too…» and B paused, trying to find the right word to not to make them suspicious about his behaviour. «…important for me»

Y/N silently sighed in relief and stood trapped in the hug for a while. They were unaware, however, that B found the person he was searching for: Quarter Queen, August 4th 2002. At that sight he grasped with force at Y/N's shoulder…finally, his second victim.

Y/N interpreted that grasp as a gesture of Ryuzaki to remark what he said before, that they were important to him so they didn’t notice the strange, dangerous look on his face.

«Trust me, Y/N…you don't wish to be looked like that by me»

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Where in the world is All For One?

A brief discussion about the building All For One is holed up in before Kamino.

So I know there’s already been plenty of discussion about the building that shows up in chapter 59 briefly, and its uncanny resemblance to the Chrysler building that currently exists IRL in Manhattan. It’s often cited a lot as part of the evidence for the ‘Dad For One’ theory (a fairly popular theory that All For One is Midoriya Hisashi, Izuku’s father) due to said building being in America, where Hisashi supposedly is during the course of the story. 

This is not a debate about the ‘Dad For One’ theory, just to be clear. I’m just trying to clarify the location of this building, as well as some Doylist and Watsonian theories for why it looks the way it does. 

Thanks in advance to the friends on discord who sparked and fleshed out this discussion: Clue, Pastel, and Aksee. I wouldn’t be making this post without them.

Anyways, onto the post.

The first thing to make note of is that the above image is not the only time we see the building over the course of the series - it shows up again at the very end of chapter 306, with Izuku standing on top of one of the decorations as he overlooks the destruction.

There’s no question that this is the same building, since the decorations are part of the unique look of the building, as seen here:

This led to a short bit of confusion as people wondered whether Izuku had gone to America, the way All Might had in his youth in order to get away from All For one and train himself up in relative safely. However, the destruction below and the following chapter clarified that Izuku - and thus this Chrysler building lookalike - are most definitely in Japan, probably somewhere near Kamino.

If we’re in Japan, then why would Horikoshi bother use an American skyscraper, especially one as well-known as the Chrysler building? Why not use a famous skyscraper of Japanese origin instead?

Well, there’s a number of reasons he could have decided to do this, both for lore reasons and for art reasons. Let’s start on the Doylist reasons.

Doylist

The Chrysler building is located in Manhattan, a famous location and a centerpiece of American superhero comics, especially Marvel. We often get cover pages and spreads of heroes standing on similar decorations as they look out over the city, much as we saw Deku standing on them in chapter 306. 

In addition, a quick peek into the Marvel database reveals that, in Spiderman: The Animated Series, “a fortress resembling the Chrysler Building served as the Kingpin's base of operations.”

Seem familiar? It gets better. Kingpin is a major villain in the animated series, serving as head of the mob and often hiring others in order to take out his nemesis, Spiderman, without being obviously connected to the attacks. He also enjoys using criminal’s families as leverage against them, and isn’t above faking peoples’ deaths in order to manipulate others into doing what he wants.

Another possibility, and one that’s probably not the case but felt worth mentioning anyways, was that he was looking at various American buildings via google images and just happened to like the style of it. 

With that covered, let’s get to some in-universe possibilities for why a building that looks like the Chrysler building exists in future Japan. 

Watsonian

To start us off, we go back to the Dawn of Quirks, where society was experiencing great upheaval. While quirks weren’t as strong as they are during modern BNHA, I wouldn’t doubt that a lot of destruction was happening as tensions between quirked and non-quirked people heated up. These were likely exacerbated by people like All For One or the Meta Liberation Army doing their best to take control of Japan through whatever means necessary. 

As such, there would need to be a lot of rebuilding as things calmed down and society started to piece itself back together. Despending on how much was destroyed, that could mean a lot of work.

What that means for the Chrysler look-alike in particular? Well, there could be a few reasons.

One, someone liked the design of the Chrysler building and decided to construct their new building to look similar to it. Could have been a random Japanese person, could have been All For One. Hard to say there, and sort of does lean back towards Horikoshi being inspired by the building’s design. Depending on how much was destroyed globally and locally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see countries and wealthy private individuals building their own versions of famous locales. 

(This does also lead to the question as to how many priceless cultural heirlooms, art pieces, and artifacts were lost or destroyed because of looters and rioters. What historical sites were flattened in the fighting? What had to be reconstructed from archives years later, with obviously different techniques and flares? What was lost entirely because of the loss of said archives?

It’s actually kind of sad to think about how much was lost because of the rise of quirks and all the societal upheaval therein.)

Two, it could be the actual Chrysler building, just moved. It wouldn’t be the first time some architecture was bought and moved to a new location, as pointed out by Clue - a similar thing happened in 1968, when a bridge in London was brought over to Arizona piece by piece, and reassembled to look just as it did when it stood over the Thames. 

Three, it could just be an in-universe coincidence. If there was a lot of rebuilding happening, it genuinely could have just been chance that the building ended up looking so similar to the IRL Chrysler building. I don’t think this is all that likely, since the decorations for one would be hard to mistake for another, but anything’s possible.

So why is All For One there?

Well, there’s a few reasons. One, it could be like I mentioned above, and All For One’s building resembles the Chrysler building because it’s a reference to the Spiderman animated series. Two, it could be that, in-setting, AFO decided that he liked the look of the building and either had his own built, or had it brought over from America. Three, it could have been built by someone else and AFO just nabbed the penthouse for his own nefarious means. 

It’s really hard to say for sure, but there’s no question that it has to be close enough to Kamino that the Doctor can get around with the short-range sludge warp quirk of his nomu, Johnny, since he needs to look after AFO and his projects alike without being caught going in and out of the building. It would also make sense for AFO to be close to Kamino in case he needed to intervene with Shigaraki’s work, as with what happened with the Villain Hideout Raid and subsequent battle between him and All Might.

I wonder if he made use of it at all after his breakout from Tartarus, or if he considered it compromised and didn’t bother with it.

So yeah, those are some of the theories I and the others came up with. I know they’re not fancy or in-depth, but really, I don’t think there’s a lot of motivation on Hori’s end for the Chrysler building to exist in his future Japan (and be AFO’s hideaway) besides it looking cool and being a Spiderman reference.

Thanks for reading, even if this was a short and kind of silly post.