#eitoku high

[peachducy]

the woods

[alto-tenure]

scenario/headcanon: after revealing her pregnancy to her parents, Manaka gets kicked out. she goes to Renju for a place to stay whose parents are okay with it because they're mildly uncomfortable with him being gay and him having a pregnant "girlfriend" means that he's straight. in my head this is largely silly but can absolutely be played as angst

[sinlizards]

Eitoku High, 1999

[stoicbreviary]

"The Human Seasons" 

John Keats (1795-1821) 

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;      There are four seasons in the mind of Man: He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear      Takes in all beauty with an easy span: He has his Summer, when luxuriously      Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves To ruminate, and by such dreaming high      Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings      He furleth close; contented so to look On mists in idleness—to let fair things      Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook. He has his Winter too of pale misfeature, Or else he would forego his mortal nature. 

IMAGE: Kano Eitoku, Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons (1566) 

[guster-animations]

Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 32 Production Blog

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

translated from this website

How were episodes 31 and 32? I think it’s also in the “Episode in Short” section, but the scaffolding for episode 32’s action was made within the filming studio, and the scene took several days to film. Eitoku can run so fast on high scaffolding…! And the artists rapidly climbed up! All of the staff members who finished shooting said that they’d filmed something interesting with a satisfied smile on their face, and that was striking. After filming the laboratory scene, Hino and Shoji both had a satisfied smile from having trust in each other and playing off each other well. These episodes were memorable, since they had a rare “Gavv” combination of Uchida and Director Kamihoriuchi. Thank you both so much!

And now, starting with the next episode… it’ll soon be May. A Granute treated to Dark Snacks by the Present, Magen, will be active. He seems like an influential friend of the President. Turbulent developments are on the horizon. And there’s a hint of a new form shown in the poster…! Episodes 33 and 34 will be directed by Takayuki Shibasaki. Please look forward to it!

(Written by Takayuki Shibasaki)

The Episode in Short

Thank you for watching Episode 32! Continuing from last time, Director Kamihoriuchi and Uchida’s script depicted the uneven partnership between Hanto and Rakia!

Last episode might have been heavy on the comedy elements, but this time, the two characters showed plenty of serious human drama and large-scale action!

Lizel and Shoma’s Post-battle Teatime

Hanto and Rakia’s story is the main focus of the episode, but Shoma’s solo plotline is also something you can’t take your eyes off of. After Shoma takes on a Butler, a familiar of the Jardak family, in battle, Lizel suddenly has a tea party with him.

Investigating Lizel was one theme of this Kamihoriuchi arc, and this scene seems to represent her character very well.

She says Jeebh, who has suffered greatly from the loss of his partner, is cute, and thinks the same of the pancake sauce that she sloppily spread around. Her points of her speech like those ones display an extremely aesthetically inclined flair.

It was Director Kamihoriuchi’s idea to have Lizel pick out the cafe’s flowers until only the poisonous-looking ones remain, and coupled with the tone of the color-corrected picture, it gives a very creepy impression.

While Lizel walks about the human realm due to her interest in humans, precarious political developments are afoot in the Granute world.

Within the Presidential Residence, Magen has become a complete slave to Dark Snacks. The new assets first appeared in episode 30, but actually, due to it being completed behind schedule, these Kamihoriuchi episodes were filmed at the same time as Morota’s episode 30.

Director Kamihoriuchi was also present for the filming of the Morota episodes, and thanks to the vigorous effort of Director Kamihoriuchi, who has a year of live composition experience from “Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger”, they were able to create an eye-opening image! The low-angle shot of the President’s throne seen in this episode took a lot of time to pull off, but it was worth the effort!

I digress, but the Dark Snacks that Jin Katagiri sculpted in episode 1 are still holding up, so we briefly got in trouble on the set because “You can’t cut it with a knife well!!”

But it was done easily when cut with a warm knife. We somehow found a solution to overcome this great challenge (Laugh).

The director warming a knife himself

Speaking of Director Kamihoriuchi’s unique aspects, “Dente’s cave” was actually filmed with the same live composition method in this episode.

Normally, we film Dente’s cave on a location set and decorate it with props, but we aimed to reduce costs and take less time for going to locations and having the art department decorate, so we challenged ourselves with live composition filming on a green-screen.

It might have been nearly impossible to film everything up to now with live composition, but this scene with Dente and Nyelv was comfortably shot without going to the location, with a filming technique that only the live composition pro, Director Kamihoriuchi, could pull off!

The Long-awaited Double Cup-on!

Director Kamihoriuchi was in charge of episodes 11 and 12, where Shoma and Hanto’s identities were revealed, and the long acting scenes from then were fairly impressive. Episode 32 also has a lengthy scene where Hanto and Rakia reveal their pasts and true intentions to each other, but in this episode, he also markedly shoots scenes that show their human drama over more time.

In order to not make the footage too dull, the director directed them to act with a lot of movement, but Hino and Shoji really got into it and did this difficult acting carefully. The director’s lighting direction sets the mood well, as expected.

This is a photo from the scene with the two of them… The distance between them in just this photo makes me a little nervous…

And now for the double-belt transformation with two people who have joined hands!

Valen and Vram begin a tough battle. After we considered safety, we decided to film the scene by creating an action set from steel frame inside a studio.

This was also a bold move from Director Kamihoriuchi that was adopted in episode 11’s action scene as well. He wanted to create a whole location set by remodeling one corner of the studio.

You might be thinking, “Why is it inside the filming studio?”. There are countless benefits to shooting inside a filming studio that’s your normal base of operations: It saves time with moving around, reduces location rental costs, and takes less time on setup and preparation.

The great thing about Director Kamihoriuchi is that he doesn’t make it feel like it’s a filming studio. If anything, it’s that he effectively makes use of its geographical features.

Due to the nature of action scenes requiring a very large space, they’re often set in flat spaces like prairies and flatlands, but the director and Action Director Fujita wanted to show action in a three-dimensional space for this episode, so these steel scaffolding structures were constructed.

Wonderfully carrying out that goal, they were able to create open, three-dimensional action that isn’t usually seen. The shots where Vram corners the Granute, Reaper, while destroying scaffolding was an incredible and breathtaking success!

The direction of the fight and its preparation took plenty of time, not to mention the full day of rehearsal. All of the staff and cast collectively wanted to make amazing footage, and I could feel their enthusiasm on the set.

Episodes 31 and 32 were made from new perspectives that wanted to resolve Hanto and Rakia’s discord, but it was not only the two’s bond, but also many charming facets that couldn’t have been done before, that were done here.

Please look forward to Hanto and Rakia’s activities in the next episode and onward.

(Written by Ryohei Takahashi)

[ryusaidate]

moving from twitter because yap yap yap

"iirc people say her voice acting makes her come off cartoonishly evil but as someone who spends far more time rereading the script than playing the game, the bar flashback is like... i don't know. human. i don't have anything smart to say about it.

"moms are just like this. and renju talking about his wife like a zoo animal and through it they are just people who made bad decisions it makes me want to lie down on the floor for a very long time

"i would say the eitoku high bitches and their horrible taste in partners* are one of my favourite parts of the game but i would then go down a list of related thematic points calling all them my favourite too. did you know i like this game?

"*the actual category for me is so, renju, and hitomi, and their narrative haunting dead wives. the third step down this line is "the narrative being haunted" (iris, mizuki, date) and all points on this chart run back to being about hitomi / saito parallels. Did You Know I Like Th"

something about shoko and saito being characterized as 'people who hurt their loved ones because they never learned the right way to love' against half the main cast either obfuscating the identity of a serial killer or Killing Someone for a loved one (and this being identified as a harmful act to both them and the people around them) is like. waves arms around violently!!!!

i am thinking about renju speaking so authoritatively about why shoko can't take care of mizuki then saying 'i can't do anything i'm too busy' to date who is so in his own shit about being horrible he still thinks the best thing he can do for mizuki is keep his distance from her despite the fact The Problem Was Emotional Neglect

god renju has so many Central Thesis Lines despite also sucking so bad he's incredible. "Mizuki is hungry for love" "But you can't think about revenge now. You and the baby can't lead a life like that." - guy who will not take care of his kid and watched old people get killed for money

i am thinking about the maid cafe, the guy who is never home making an artificial commercialised setting around it, i am thinking about his daughter spending most of her time there, i am thinking about his daughter finding his corpse there, and her mother's at the one place they made a happy memory, and her best friend's corpse in the same place she saw a dead body that looked identical to it a month ago. i am thinking about the completely fictional 'narrative dead girl' visual iris takes up (i swear by the fact iris route is peak if you look at it through this lens and the belief that you were meant to assume her eye is missing before she dies because the psync swapped her with annihilation route iris. swear to god.)

i am thinking about the boss - falco // so - saito isms.....

i am thinking about the fact the guilt has to go somewhere if you absolve yourself of blame, thinking about shoko blaming mizuki for being abnormal and mizuki blaming herself for her parents deaths because she couldn't be normal, thinking about so only taking the blame for what happened to saito far far far too late and manaka's death being the one 'awful thing' saito talks about like something he did that was his fault (when not deliberately playing it up to piss off date)

i am thinking about saito against hitomi letting revenge against 'the person who took away your love' become your only focus instead of building a new life i am thinking about saito digging his heels in to remain stuck in the past through every opportunity he's given trying to drag date back down with him despite the fact he's moved on and built a new life, hurling insults at a man who doesn't exist anymore because no, he has to still be falco because saito needs to kill falco to make it stop hurting, the way he killed his father, the way he killed manaka. i am thinking about the fact that the reason why what saito is doing is wrong, narratively speaking, is because he's fucking miserable every second of it.

i am thinking about 'someone you love' as a 12 or 6/30/40 year old roommate you talk about like a pet cat or a coworker or a coworker with amnesia in the body of a serial killer or an ai hamster, that's neither here nor there i just think it's good.

i think......................... the game is good.

[helenrourke]

This is the ask for you to talk about your Akira/Tsukushi headcanons!! :)

You can gush all you want, if you feel comfortable to! I assure you I’ll glady read it, however long it comes out!

Some questions to start:

Why have you chosen the name Mene?

Do you think their relationship would change depending on the source (K-drama, J-drama, C-drama, anime, manga)? If so, how/ how not?

Thank you so much for sending this. I'm so excited this is my first ask on this sideblog of mine.

Why did I decide to name my Akira x Tsukushi fic Mene?

That's a great question. When I first came up with this fic idea, I knew I wanted a name that involved the moon because Akira associates himself with the moon.  I also am a fan of Greek/Roman mythology (I blame Sailor Moon for this), so I figured I could incorporate that into the story title somehow.  Mene is another name for the goddess of the Moon Selene.  In addition, the word Mene means moon and the lunar month.  The plot of Mene takes place over the course of a lunar month.  So I was basically able to use some of my nerdiness to come up with hopefully a unique title.  I haven’t exactly checked if this name has been used on any other fics on AO3, but I honestly don’t care.

Do you think their relationship would change depending on the source?

I'm gonna start by saying I have not watched the Anime or Meteor Garden (2018). I'm sorry I'm such a fake fan lol Anyway my thoughts have always been that Mene takes place in the alternate universe of the manga where Tsukasa and Tsukushi never truly crossed paths. The story is from Akira's pov and it takes place during his first year of university. Meaning it's Tsukushi’s final year at Eitoku Academy’s high school department. One day Akira runs into Tsukushi kneeing someone in the groin (you bet I'm going to use that AO3 tag I made again) and Akira is intrigued why someone from his school who is filled with daughters of elite families would do that. Then they keep on bumping into each other at Eitoku Academy. That's how it begins anyway. I feel that's the main theme if I was to write this story for any other adaption. The key point is that Tsukasa never crosses paths with Tsukushi first. The J-Drama is similar to the manga universe where Tsukasa is in New York. The only difference is that Sakurako didn't use Tsukushi to get revenge, cause she liked Tsukushi too much to use her. Sakurako tries to act her revenge on her own and fails. Then suddenly Tsukushi finds out her friend transfered to a school in Australia without telling her. In the K-Drama Jandi never attended school with the F4. Because face it Jandi would have never stood for the bullying unlike Tsukushi who was trying to stay under the radar. Woobin would still witnesses Jandi kneeing someone in the groin, however they would keep bumping into each other in Seoul, instead of Eitoku like the manga and J-drama universes. As for the Thai adaption. That eludes me at this time. I'm not sure how MJ and Goyra would met. Also MJ has a love interest named Aum. So I think it would make things much more complicated.

Yeah these were honestly great questions. I never would had thought about the second one. What else can I say about Mene without spoiling much. I do plan on Akira's family having a bigger roles in the story. Be prepared for the twins to challenge Tsukushi for there brother's affection lol. I honestly love Emu and Memu and feel they are seriously underused side characters. Yoko Kamio give us a spin off about the twins please.

Also Soujirou notices Akira likes Tsukushi right away and acts as his wingman. He also forces Rui to help get them together.

This fic is also inspired by my belief that Tsukushi was destined to be intertwined with the F4 even without Tsukasa. Honestly, I believe that the two would actually compliment each other very nicely. Akira has the habit of putting others first which is why he never even had a chance in the orginal story. This one shot in a way is giving others readers a chance to see what I see in this rare pairing.

But if you have anymore questions anon, let me know. This goes for anyone who has questions bout Mene or any of my other fics that I have written on AO3.

[luxraydyne]

I am very invested in the idea of an eitoku high era prequel (<- biggest manaka fan I know) and am interested to know your ideas for it? Putting a question mark at the end of that sounds weird but. This is an ask I guess

me 'n anon right now

tbh i have less than ideas and more like a big globule of vaguely channeled feelings knocking around in my brain lmao. from what little we see of her manaka seems like such a charming, bright, optimistic young woman, and with the trio having such different backgrounds and approaches to their lives i so want to see the three of them in action and what experiences caused them to form such a powerful bond such that we see even just in the awful horrible (albeit wonderfully done) snippet we get in aitsf. like hitomi and renju's conversation about baby iris and 'a war is about to begin between you and the baby' is hilarious and sweet in a way that is so indicative of their dynamic i want to see all three putting their heads together over something. i guess something somewhere between aitsf's real-world investigation sequences, a very pared back persona 4, maybe a dash of ace attorney or even older point-and-click mystery-adventure type games, a serious, but very local (like, within the school sort of local), contained sort of plot they bring into their personal life out of a combined sense of curiosity, naivete, and frustration at a lack of agency in their own lives, that steadily spirals out of their control in some way without becoming, yknow, a literal apocalypse level disaster. branching end pathways could be tricky, for one, knowing from the jump there is one precise complicated scenario we have to end up with in at least one "canon", and for two, also having to weave in throughout some pretty major side-happenings with renju's entrapment by the kumakuras, hitomi as an only child dealing with the sudden death of her parents, manaka meeting so sejima and becoming his "mistress", however that happened (this is reminding me more and more of a more mature but equally nutty persona plot actually, minus the demon fighting, although that could also be a fun romp, and that draws me back to my psyncer!hitomi/renju revenge au. anyway.) like for a writer i am in fact shit at plotting out anything lol.

i suppose as a footnote to all this i should add that a dedicated prequel letting us see more of them would probably remove much of the vague, ghost-like presence that manaka and renju both have in aitsf, retroactively (retroactively?? would that be right??? for something made after but set before?? idk) making aitsf less interesting. but part of what makes characters like those two fun is the almost-not-quite-futile effort trying to reconstruct a sense of a whole complex living person out of the bitty unstable artifacts they left, allowing them to persist beyond death and intrude on the present in this fragile, timeless state (and that's real haunting the narrative baybeeee), which is kind of what we're doing with this exercise, dressed up as "imagining the fake eitoku gang prequel which would be way too grounded and non-meta, non-sci-fi to ever actually exist anyway"

[odaclan]

This hairstyle is not chasenmage, and Sengoku samurai rarely wear this

I’m talking about this hair: 

(screenshot from Kirin ga Kuru)

This is not specifically about Nobunaga or anything, but 90% of the Nobunaga I see in Taiga drama and movies usually has this hair style, and I want to talk about it. There were some drawing guides I’ve seen online that mistakenly label this hair as “chasenmage”, and it’s somewhat misleading.

Chasenmage 茶筅髷, literally meaning “tea whisk hair”, is one of the hairstyles commonly worn in the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama period aside from the folded topknot (orimage/chonmage). The hair is tied tightly with strings, leaving a small tuft at the end, making it resemble a tea whisk. However, even a high-angled chasenmage doesn’t go as far as stick straight up like seen above.

That being said, I say they “rarely” wear the sticking-up style, not “never”, because this hairstyle is actually "real”. It’s not a made-up style invented by Kabuki or movies, it’s just... incorrectly applied. This hairstyle is called kanmuri-shita no motodori 冠下髻 or hitotsu motodori 一髻. It’s the hairstyle worn under the kanmuri (court cap):

(image from Kotobank dictionary)

So if you want to be "accurate”, it’s fine Nobunaga or some other daimyou wears this hairstyle sometimes, but only if you’re showing they’re in the process of getting dressed or undressed from courtly attires (for meeting with the shogun or other courtly business). 

It’s one thing if the character is the emperor or court nobles, as the caps are often part of the daily attire. It would make sense that they might keep their hair in kanmuri-shita style even in leisure. However, Sengoku daimyou wear their hair mostly in the folded topknot style, and there is no reason for them to constantly wear kanmuri-shita hair. And, once more, the kanmuri-shita is not the chasenmage that Sengoku samurai did frequently wear. 

(Emperor Seiwa, shown with his hair in the kanmuri-shita style. From the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba  伴大納言絵詞 picture scroll)

Picture from Teijou Zakki 貞丈雑記, written by Ise Sadatake around 1763-1784, also describing that this hairstyle is meant to be worn under a hat (either an eboshi or a kanmuri, as mentioned above)

I can’t trace where/how it began, but at some point it seems that Kabuki actors starts wearing that hairstyle in their performances:

Ukiyo-e of Kabuki actors then influence ukiyo-e depictions of “historical events” of the Sengoku. Then, when people start making movies about Sengoku samurai maybe in the 50s and 60s, ukiyo-e and Kabuki costumes are probably the easiest source of reference, resulting in this long-standing “trend” to give Sengoku samurai this hairdo. 

(Nobunaga wearing that now-“iconic” hairstyle in an ukiyo-e by Yōsai Nobukazu 楊斎延一)

Meta-wise speaking, it’s likely that studios maintain this “wrong” hairstyle to save on budget. It’s better to just reuse old wigs rather than spend more money to make a new batch of historically-accurate wigs. However, I don’t really see any reason for illustrated media maintaining this, other than “maybe the artist just didn’t know”. Unlike the image of Nobunaga wearing European armour, there is no real branding attached to this hairstyle, so there is no specific need to keep drawing this style. Far as I can tell, Sengoku enthusiasts are equally fine with seeing samurai wearing just a “normal ponytail”.

Or, if not, something like this:

The hairdo Koei likes to use for their Nobunaga’s Ambition portraits may not necessarily be an accurate chasenmage either, but it’s “less wrong” than the kanmuri-shita. 

We end with what a “correct” chasenmage looks like, as depicted by paintings from the 16th century:

Some attendants from Nanban Byoubu by Kanō Naizen 狩野内膳 were shown wearing chasenmage. 

Falconers from the Rakuchuu Rakugai screen, by Kanō Eitoku.  *) The third person behind them that I did not mark is angled oddly, so I wasn’t able to identify if that was a chasenmage (more stiff, secured with more strings) or just a “floppy ponytail”. 

Modern illustration for clarity, provided by Kotobank online dictionary.

[animefeminist]

Girls Over Flowers: My resonance with Makino Tsukushi’s burden of parenting

Content Warning: sexual violence, parental neglect, parentification, and bullying

Spoilers for the first ten volumes or so of Boys Over Flowers

I will always look back at the manga Boys Over Flowers with fondness in my heart. Heroine Makino Tsukushi attends Eitoku Academy, an elite private high school where a working class girl like her is stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. At the top is the “F4”, a quartet of handsome male students whose super-wealthy families make significant contributions to the school, imbuing them with influence over even the school’s faculty and administration. After an altercation in which Tsukushi stands up to the F4, she becomes a target of vicious bullying by her schoolmates and, eventually, the romantic advances of the F4 leader, Domyouji Tsukasa.

Tsukushi faces more than just bullying from her peers and the controlling grasp of Domyouji. She also must carry the additional burden of financial instability and the pressure from her parents to marry a rich man in order to resolve their money problems. This situation forces her through the psychological process of parentification, molding her into a spirited and resolute character that I  came to love.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[startagainaprologue]

ohhh eitoku high trio i miss them..

[thelovelyghostwriter]

Non-anime Asian TV Shows that I liked

This is just a short list of some Asian TV shows I liked, list is not exhaustive. Thank you  @cautionworksstuff​ for encouraging me to do this since you wanted to know more about other foreign TV shows other than anime. 

When I say non-anime, it means shows that are not Japanese animated series. 

1. Kingdom [Netflix] (South Korea)

This series hits HARD. It’s an original Korean Netflix series. Now, there’s a lot of shows/movies that are named “Kingdom”, so let me clear about this one: this is the one that is set with a Zombie apocalypse during the Joseon period. 

It follows the story of the Crown Prince who is being framed for treachery by his evil stepmom (the Empress) and her clan, as soon as his father died. In the midst of that, a disease outbreak happens that turns everyone into zombies, and the Prince struggles to avoid being defeated by the corrupted government officials as well as to save his people from the zombie apocalypse. 

What makes this one stand out from series/movies like The Walking Dead are two things: 1) the political setting - while there is a zombie outbreak, it’s also the battle for power, 2) the historical setting - the guns used here are very limited, and the science/medicine explained behind this outbreak is not like “oh due to biotech experiment gone wrong”, 3) unlike Walking Dead, they actually explained the cause of the illness, the cures and the weaknesses. 

They are going to come up with a new one-episode spin-off(?) this month. 

2. Girl from Nowhere (Thailand) 

This is also available on Netflix. This series follow a character named Nanno, who goes to various schools as the new girl. In the second episode, she’s revealed to be some sort of immortal entity that goes on to expose the sins and wrongful acts of parents, teachers and students. She then punishes them as some form of karma. Beware, some episodes are downright disturbing and only for mature audience. 

I don’t have a confirmation of this, but according to Wikipedia and actress Chicha Amatayakul, the character Nanno draws inspiration from Junji Ito’s Tomie, and the similarities are very obvious. From the way the people react to her, the hairstyle and the even to the beauty mark near the eye, the similarities are very obvious. 

One difference though, I must say, is that Nanno is an extremely charming character as compared to Tomie. You will really root for her and can’t help but like her presence, even if she’s a little scary. When I read Tomie, I didn’t exactly felt the same magnetic pull as Nanno did for me. Season 1 was really good. Season 2 was more brutal but I think Season 1 was slightly better. 

3. Trese (Philippines)

This was actually based on a Filipino comic series, with the same name. I had actually waited for this series to be animated. This series features Filipino supernatural beings. I had always wondered how it’ll be like if there was a cool anime about Filipino mythological creatures, such as the manananngal, aswang, tikbalang etc. I think their designs and stories are interesting and not very talked about in the media. 

I had once complained about this. We have so many interesting Filipino mythological creatures, but why do we focus on mostly drama series on love and family, and not come up with a horror series featuring them? 

This one’s available on Netflix as well, and it’s in three audios: English, Filipino and Japanese. I do recommend the Filipino audio because the pronunciation of the creatures are better. But that might be just me listening to my native language. 

Although, just a tiny criticism - there are only six episodes so far. All in less than 30 minutes. This was an issue for me and also my family who had watched it because we felt the pacing was too fast. They didn’t explain what the creatures were, what they do, which can be confusing for people who are not familiar with the mythology. Yeah, I really think it’s because the pacing was fast due to the small number of episodes. If they slowed down, it would be great. Hopefully we get more episodes the next season. 

4. Meteor Garden (Taiwan) [2001] OR Boys over Flowers (South Korea) OR Hana Yori Dango (Japan) 

This was adapted from a manga called “Hana Yori Dango” (Boys over Flowers). It has been adapted in numerous shows, with Japan doing the first live action film in 1995. 

The one that I had watched is the Taiwanese drama version, Meteor Garden (2001 version). There was also a Korean drama adaptation called “Boys over Flowers”. I didn’t watch that one but quite a number of my friends did. There was also the Japanese adaptation, as well as Thai and Chinese adaptation of it. I can’t say for sure which one is the best because I only remember watching the Taiwanese (2001) version and it’s close to my heart. The Taiwanese (2001), South Korean and Japanese drama versions are often being compared. I’ll let you guys decide based on this information.  

I don’t remember much from the plot, although it was this drama was very hyped back then.

This was the summary on Wikipedia: 

It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle class family, whose mother enrolled her in an elite high school to compete with the families from her husband's company. While at Eitoku, she encounters the F4, a gang of four young men who are children of Japan's wealthiest families, and who bully anyone that gets in their way.

5. The Little Nyonya [2008] (Singapore)

Saving the last for the one that resides a special place in my heart, and perhaps for a lot of people in Singapore. 

Words cannot describe how much this was well-liked in Singapore. I remember everyone praising this. This was hands-down one of THE BEST drama ever produced in Singapore. I remember coming home, waiting at I think 8pm? Just to tune into local TV and then watch this show for a good 40minutes. I know they did a remake in China, which I didn’t watch, but I highly recommend the Singaporean version (since it’s the original and the setting is in Singapore/Malaysia anyway). 

This series really introduced the Peranakan culture to the Singaporean audience. I like to think this story has two parts where it follows the story of a Nyonya (Peranakan Chinese woman). 

The first part’s setting is during WW2. Huang Ju Xiang, a woman born into a Peranakan family and her mother was a 2nd wife. Because of her mother’s status, she’s been ostracised by her family and is tasked to do the household like a servant. She meets a Japanese man and yeah, since it’s in the midst of WW2, their love story was kinda “forbidden” too. The first part is actually my favourite. 

The second part follows the story of their daughter, Yue Niang Yamamoto. This story is longer and Yuening has to face the same type of ostracisation her mother had endured by the Huang family. 

[tsuki-sennin]

Hello, Tsuki here~! Things are certainly going ass over backwards in Revice Land because of [SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS EPISODES] and [SPOILERS FOR LAST EPISODE], but when you think about it, it really fits [SPOILERS] because we've known [SPOILERS], and that's why I'll never eat at Applebee's ever again. And neither should you. But enough about that~! It's time for America's favorite live blog/reaction video without the video part format...

Spoilers, I guess...

-Anyways yeah, I said that Hiromi's self-sacrifice is the perfect end to his character arc even if it did nothing to stop Olteca, but from a narrative standpoint, this opens up a lot of possibilities going forward. If a major character dies, they should leave an impact on your story. How do the heroes grapple with losing their friend? What kind of character will come to be focused on in their place? Is there opportunity for post-mortem development?

-Oh hi, Kagero~! I missed you for the past like... how many episodes? Shame, I really liked your stabby slashy moves.

-Guess Daiji's definitely still

-Oh, cool, Olteca has a creepy mannequin collection. Why focus on the hands?

-And meanwhile Aguilera's just vibing out here in the open. Gonna get ice cream?

-Oh, neat! I was right!

-Ohhh, don't do Tamaki like that, he's a... well, I'm kind of hesitating to call him a good boy, but he bought that for you! With his own money presumably! Y'know how much cash an (assumed) high school graduate has without any real job? It ain't a lot, and I know that for a fact! :(

-And of course, we have Ikki-nii, obessively cleaning because what else can he do?

-Fuck you George :<

-Don't drink the bath water!

-Future fossil? Oh, right, the movie! With Ichigou and that really cool looking Century guy! Yeah, the subs for that one aren't gonna be out for a while, but if I did do my usual format for that one, the run time'd be bumped up from your average DCOM to Ben-Hur, so...

-Man, shit's crazy.

-Oh frick, a threat!

-The funnymen are dangerous.

-Bodyguard!

-Go Ikki-nii!

-Yabai, Revice Manzai.

-Alright, I really like the set up to this episode. It seems like it'll be a breather, so that's good for me personally, since I'm definitely still reeling.

-Oh no! Cringe! (*C'mon! R-R-Rex!*)

-Funny Man!

-Katamari and Mogura. ..."Clump and Mole?" Is that Atmosphere Stairway? Or perhaps Kuuki Kaidan would be more appropriate, since that's the name of their actual duo.

-Celebrity cameos are always so surreal for me to see in a non-American thing. Like, of course they're a thing!

-WHY DID HE FALL ASLEEP IN THE DOGEZA

-Please teach us how to comedy, Mogura-san!

-Purikura? Oh, like the photo booths! I thought you just got robbed by the Delicious Party cast. I haven't seen either episode that came out yet, but that seems a bit out of character for them.

-Speaking of PreCure, I've been considering dusting off my fanfiction skills to try my hand at a fan-season! Like, y'know how Super Sentai loves them their cars, right? And how Showa Rider put special emphasis on racing before motorcycle and road laws changed? I think perhaps I could explore that idea through the kind of lens PreCure usually does, and uh... Oh, Sakura! You okay, girl? I uh... didn't mean to go off like that.

-Yeah, it's a lot to think about, huh.

-TAMAKI WHAT

-SHE DIDN'T EVEN TAKE THE FUCKING ICE CREAM

-Pavlov Dogs.

-Kashiwamochi. ...I personally prefer Sakuramochi myself, but I assume there's some Children's Day symbolism in your act.

-These Pavlov Dog guys have like the exact same energy as Ohsugi-sensei from Fourze. But like... half of it. No wonder they bombin'.

-Kashiwamochi guys seem like good fun though.

-Double up!

-Oh my god, Vice dabbed. Good on you for that Eitoku, that got a laugh out of me.

-Oh, I mention Fourze and they use the Kong stamp. Funny.

-Oh god, they're really using the Zero-One because comedians.

-Baisu ja... naito!

-Man, the lightning effects look great.

-Ohhhhh, that's a nice callback.

-STAMPING IMPACT!

-Jesus Christ, what is happening to this man?

-Them!

-HAS IKKI KEPT THAT DUCKY ON HIS SHOULDER THE WHOLE TIME

-Do you need to see a doctor, Vice? Perhaps lie down?

-Director Man.

-Ok, assistant lady, you're mad sus too.

-I hope Kagero comes out and fucks shit up soon.

-DON'T DRINK THE COFFEE

-Oh god, not the bees!

-Girl, don't do it.

-Guess we're fighting.

-Oh boy, Vice meds!

-You could punch somebody with that thing.

-Whaddup, sis?

-Orifu, huh?

-Keep them glasses on, Tamaki-san.

-Can you even feel that fist?

-"Busy", huh?

-These're a lot of... bizzarely effective

-SUDDENLY DEADMANS

-Thanks, god!

-BOKO BOKO!

-Let's gooooo!

-Help us out, Dai-chan!

-My man really likes this Manzai thing. Good for him :)

-Let's stampin'!

-OOOOOH. Nice punch!

-Ohhh, it's a paint roller! That's so cool!

-VICE UP!

-Hey look! It's Revice! Vice! Vice! Vice!

-WAIT

-Ikki...?

-GODDAMN

-So, the paint splotches on the Rolling Vistamp. They look an awful lot like Evil's airbrushed paint. And that raises a lot of implications.

-Inky.

-You rolled the shit out of those motherfuckers.

-Oh God, Vice, bro, don't do that.

-He's free now. Lock your doors, latch your windows, and bust out the big guns.

[guster-animations]

Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 24 Production Blog

toei spell things correctly challenge (impossible)

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

taken from this page

Looking at the Next Episode

Hanto… being covered in ink gave him trouble! Director Morota doesn’t go easy on him. He’s a good guy for making sure to save Kataro even after he’d sold him out. I wonder if the real bad guy here was the Granute or the human. And Sachika truly is the Sun. The ice cream form’s 3-D action was innovative. Please try re-watching it with winter ice cream in hand.

Next episode will be directed by Takayuki Shibasaki! Director Shibasaki last did Vram’s debut episode. Now Rakia is working at the Hapipare. He sure is popular. When he goes to work, he’s constantly hearing the voices of girls saying “Rakia ♡”, “Rakia ♡”, and “Vram is also lovely ♡”. We worried that his character would be a little too difficult to discern the thoughts of, but I think that everyone will like the show and the characters. It’s thanks to Shoji’s ability to construct characters and Eitoku’s gift of masterful attacks and action. He’ll continue to be active, so look forward to that!

A VTuber will appear in this story, which the screenwriter Nobuhiro Mouri wrote. What jobs will Rakia work? The dark chocolate Gochizo, Chocold, is a little bit concerning. It’s really strong when Hanto transforms with it. The next episode will have many things worth seeing, so don’t miss it!

(Written by Naomi Takebe)

The Episode in Short

Thank you for watching episode 24!

It’s a special episode where the ice cream form finally debuted! Ice cream might be better suited for summertime, but the ice cream snowscape for the winter were also stylish.

Like the previous episode, this one was also directed by Satoshi Morota. Tasked with the second power-up episode (the first one being CaKing), Director Morota put in even more energy than normal! He made rich footage worthy of this new Gavv’s sudden appearance. The director came in wearing clothes with colors that match the Blizzard Sorbet form 👇

He wore it while demonstrating the movement of Sachika’s saw!

Big High-speed Drive! A Bitter Candy Chase!

Episode 24 starts at full speed. VRCan Buggy Spicy has different coloring from Gavv’s VRCan Buggy. 🍬 Our eyes are drawn to the poisonous-looking colors.

A Granute that made a big impression in a single episode, and a CG scene reminiscent of a candy bike battle! We don’t have room in the CG budget for an action scene like this every episode, but this episode had a series of extravagant shots that used a generous amount of CG from the outset.

Umasho [Delisho, for GeoSubs viewers] is overwhelmed by Bitter Gavv and still feeling unwell. He was rescued by Sachika, but he’s in very poor condition and confined to his bed.

Shoma works at the Hapipare as a live-in employee, but he’s always sleeping here…

The truth is that Hanto secretly told Sachika about Bitter Gavv. Sachika has caught onto the fact that Hanto’s a Kamen Rider.

“You’re a Kamen Rider too, Hanty, right? The chocolate guy.”

She says it straightforwardly, but this is an important scene where the heroine realizes the identity of the secondary Rider!! This scene is one where you can feel Sachika’s kindness in sympathizing with many different situations and worrying about her clients, maybe a skill gained as the manager of her company.

The direction of the flashback, which Director Morota made good use of contrast in, was striking. And Komura’s writing skill in showing the event so plainly is amazing…!

Scramble Over an Immoral Friend

Hanto falls into the yakiniku restaurant manager’s trap by coming to save Kataro.

The manager, who was wearing a shirt with an octopus on it despite working at a yakiniku restaurant, was a bad guy after all.

Kataro is fairly bad for betraying his friend for 30,000 yen, but the manager is an utter villain for turning Kataro into a Human Press two seconds after he’d played his part. Pink Machiura, who played the manager amazingly, has an evil expression just like in old gokudo movies. Although the scene was short, it left a strong impression.

By the way, there was a small incident where Pink sat on a chair on the filming set and it broke (Laugh). Thank you for playing this character, Pink Machiura!

The Granute Smear uses an octopus motif. (Strangely enough, it’s mainly pink colored…) He was actually a friend of Otake, who Hanto killed… Both the mushroom and the octopus were bad people, but it’s kind of sweet to imagine them being friends.

The octopus has an octopus pot, and octopus ink. The ink here is used as a trap. Everyone covered Hino in it. The day this was filmed was actually a very hot one, and I think it must have been difficult for him to act for about four hours straight while covered in hot ink… He did a good job.

The first shot with the ink is one that was difficult to retake. The filming didn’t allow for mistakes, and as a result, all of the assistant directors prepared for it carefully, and it was a complete success.

Suga gave the Chocold Gochizo as a Valentine gift last episode. Now its power is being demonstrated for the first time. Valen’s Chocold form garnered attention when it was first shown in the visual which was revealed at the time of Vram’s appearance. The white chocolate parts are bordered with black, and the design seems somehow ominous… it looks neat.

According to Fujita, the action director, he made this fight scene while conscious of the weight of each bullet fired. With the swift and rough movements, you can feel that, for some reason, he’s stronger than the regular Valen and has unparalleled power. However, with that suspicious Suga shot at the end of episode 24, it smells like there’s some kind of dark side to this power.

Eating Revitalizing Ice Cream

Sachika also played a big part in this episode. She rushed in when Shoma was in bad health, and surprisingly tried to join the battle with a saw. She said, “I can’t just go up and punch the Stomachs, I guess~”, but she has an absurd amount of courage. The president is strong, after all. Sachika’s clothes this episode are also a refreshing sky-blue color, matching the new form! Very appropriate. (Director Morota is too)

Sachika did this, but she also played the vital role of giving Shoma the “ice cream”, the key factor in his comeback! In CaKing’s case, Shoma awakened the new power with a snack that he has memories of his mother Michiru with, but this time, ice cream appears as a sweet solution to “feeling sick”! Did you all know that ice cream is good for your health? It’s true, it makes you feel better after swimming in the summer or when you’re tired!

We borrowed an ice cream truck to use as the supply of the ice cream during filming. Furthermore, the art department added a sign saying “BLIZZARD SOLBET”.

Here is the “Blizzard Sorbet form” which Shoma transformed into with the “Sorbet Gochizo”! Everyone at the meeting unanimously decided on this incredible design, which combines the popularity and coolness of the snack. The ice cream on the arm parts makes it look like Gavv really is licking up ice cream. The action was created from Nawata’s proposal to “create licking attacks”.

It’s not only Gavv; the Gochizo is a special one as well! The “Sorbet Gochizo” is the next special Gochizo after CaKing. It was discussed how to show that it’s special from the other Gochizos, and since it’s ice cream, we ended up adding in the special trait of it “melting” after it’s used. In order to make it an even more lovable character, we made it a Gochizo that uniquely says “bay” at the end of its sentences, in a “young general style”. [???] (This came from its name being “sorbet”) By the way, the Gochizo’s line when it goes to heaven (us in the staff call it “ascension”) after use is “I’m happy…” (Laugh).

The voice actors for the other Gochizos are Shoji and Sakurai, but we had auditions for a new one for this episode, and Kazuki Kyan was chosen! As the owner of a deep voice that sounds like it could reverberate in the deep ocean, he was a perfect fit for the image of Sorbet.

…Well, I’ve talked about the secrets behind Sorbet’s origin, but you should definitely get the Sorbet Gochizo toy and play with it. (Surprisingly, he also has lines that are still yet to be heard in-show!) Sorbet looks like it really is being eaten when Gavv sets it in his belt, so taste-test it for yourself (Laughs).

Now, regarding the action! The action department definitely put their heart and soul into making this episode. The action where they used ice as scaffolding was filmed using scaffolding on a green screen off-set. It seems like filming was also very difficult, trying to precisely calculate every location while imagining the finished image. Additionally, it’s packed full of ideas from Fujita and everyone else, such as the “hit direction” unique to ice cream and the ice-covered Gavvgablade.

The inside stories behind episode 24’s action will be talked about at length in its audio commentary, which is available for streaming on Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club starting today, so please give it a listen!

Shoma has returned with the power of ice cream, but there’s still a rift between him and Hanto… Next episode is a story with Rakia, a boy, and a virtual streamer?! It’s also interesting to wonder how Shoma and Hanto’s relationship will turn out, but a new side of Rakia’s character might be seen. Please look forward to it!

(Written by Ryohei Takahashi)

[daeva-agas]

Interesting tidbits on the Kanou Eitoku “Scenes around Kyoto” painting. I specify Eitoku, because there’s multiple paintings referred to with the same name/title, done by different artists in different eras. Kanou Eitoku’s one is the one that’s era-appropriate. He made this by commission of the shogun Yoshiteru, but the shogun died before the job is done. Eitoku finished the painting anyway, and Nobu bought it(?) to send to Kenshin as a “please don’t invade me” present.

Worked for a while, but Kenshin still got pissed off anyway later on and Tedorigawa happened. 

There’s a bunch of falconers here, with the ponytail. Not entirely sure what’s up with these falconers. They have horses, so they’re not peasants, but I don’t see any rank signifier.

At any rate, the common people seem to prefer ponytails as well. Like the regular people and peddlers and stuff. Same hairdo as above.

These are the folks I call “attendants”, because I see them wearing hats that are part of samurai formal wear, but their hakama are rolled up. They also seem to be doing menial work, like carrying objects or escorting palanquins on foot.

^ Curious if these are high-born vassals, or “middle tier” attendants that may come from humbler backgrounds. Because quite a while ago, I theorized that if these people don’t have to be high born vassals, then this can be a reasonable entry level job that Hideyoshi did for whatever reason.

Also, those short rolled-up hakama are not just a weird way of drawing hakama because the hakama worn correctly looks like this: 

Possible proof that a Sengoku era nagabakama is long, but not as long as an Edo era one:

The fabric clearly goes longer than where his feet are, but it’s not that long. Also you can see the various pages and attendants carrying swords, but they all look like they only have one. 

Also, some samurai vassals who are wearing their hair in the folded style, and not a ponytail:

So pages and middle-rank vassals wear ponytails, but higher-class vassals wear their hair folded? Maybe? 

Also, there’s this boat being paraded for what looks like a festival in Gion. Note the flower crest decorating the drapery. The Yasaka-jinja of Gion has a crest that is identical to the Oda mokkou. It’s the symbol of Susanoo, actually.

It’s kind of partially why I think that Nobu made the weird Dairokuten Maou claim partially as reference to Shinto lore. He seems to be somewhat conscious and/or careful about Shinto gods in his early-ish years. Then he eventually goes “Woops, I don’t care” later on. 

[retroyousei]

Boys Over Flowers and Marmalade Boy; the ultimate 90s slice of life romance anime

The 1990s was a great era for shojo anime. It was the decade when the genre became internationally popular, especially thanks to the queen of shojo, Sailor Moon.

But despite of the magical girl genre, which was (and still is) the most popular shojo anime genre, there was also the slice of life, romantic comedy and/or drama genre. Some of the most important are: Boys Over Flowers, Marmalade Boy, Kodocha, Neighborhood Story and His And Hers Cirmcountances.

In my opinion, those who stand out the most are Boys Over Flowers and Marmalade Boy.

Boys Over Flowers

Boys over flowers manga by Yoko Kamio, run from 1992 to 2008 and the series was released in 1996 by Toei Animation. It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle-class family, who was enrolled in “Eitoku Academy”, an Elite high school.

There, she encounters the F4, a clique of four boys who are the children of the wealthiest families of Japan. Seeing the environment that the F4 have created in school, she decides to keep a low profile, to avoid getting into trouble. But when she stands up to them to defend a friend, a declaration of war between her and the F4 starts.

Immediately, she gets involved in a love triangle between the hot-headed leader of the F4, Tsukasa Domyoji and his best friend, Hanazawa Rui, an introverted musician. Eventually she comes closer to the F4, especially to Tsukasa and after many misunderstandings, she ends up with him.

Marmalade Boy

Marmalade Boy manga by Wataru Yoshizumi, run from 1992 to 1995 and the series was released in 1994 by Toei Animation . It tells the story of a sophomore girl named Miki Koishikawa, whose normal life turns upside down when her parents suddenly announce to her their divorce, in order to swap partners with a couple that they met in Hawaii.

After the decision for the two families to live together in a large house, she meets Yuu Matsura, the son of the couple, who is about her age. At first she is annoyed by him, as he seems not bothered with their families’ situation. What’s more, he always teases her and he seems distant with his feelings, having a poker face most of the time. Little by little she finds out that he is a warm and gentle person and she falls in love with him.

Eventually they develop a relationship which is tried many times and is influenced with a series of love triangles, old and new encounters and their families’ complicated situation. Meanwhile, there are many subplots of their friends’ and classmates’ relationships and lives as well.

Overall:

Boys Over Flowers is a classical love story, with many remakes and adaptations and some may say that it strongly resembles “Pride And Prejudice” and a great example of using cliche tropes correctly, and Marmalade Boy does a great job of exploring the ups and downs in a relationship and is a great example of letting supporting characters having their own life and problems as well and emphasize on them too.