#for shiki to even know joshua’s name means neku had to have talked about him b4 shinjuku. which is fun | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

olivemeister · 4 years ago

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OKAY NEO THOUGHTS NOW THAT I’VE BEATEN IT AND HAD TIME TO MARINATE. no spoilers for another day bc i haven’t finished it yet, but i did go “no, why shan’t i? i have the internet” and watched the secret endings on youtube so those and the secret reports will be discussed. yeah. so here’s some thoughts. i’m going to talk a lot about the more contentious things, i think. and again i haven’t finished another day so nothing to do with that, but of course major ending spoilers for the main scenario.

these are my opinions both as a writer and a media consumer, so there’s kinda two levels here. it is very freeform “as i think of it” structurally so my sincerest apologies if it’s all over the place. i am trying to keep specific topics confined rather than splattering the same plot point/whatever all through the post, but it’s not like i’m posting a peer-revied academic essay here. it’s also fucking enormous and i would say sorry but that would be a lie.

the majority of the game, i actually really enjoyed. the localization was excellent and i can’t praise it enough. i know people threw fits over the “horrible overstep” of... teenagers using slang. but did you know, in real life, teenagers use slang? even in japan, there’s slang? wild but true! the dialogue was great, and while i can’t say much re: the jp cast since i played in english, the newcomers for the english cast were spectacular. i actually think the newcomers were, in some cases, stronger than the returning cast. even in characters where i didn’t like the voice (nagi had to grow on me, i admit it), they were a fantastic match for the character’s personality.

the emotional beats re: character deaths, typically, landed the way i think the writers wanted; kanon’s death in week 3 had me devastated even though i could see it coming a mile away. i think that’s a testament to the best parts of the writing; as soon as i understood how the current game was being run, i knew it was fairly inevitable that every other team would eventually lose. odds would be that, barring something like someone changing teams or a team merger, the majority of the other teams would be completely wiped out. i knew far in advance that kanon would likely not make it to the end of the story, but it still fucked me up when it finally happened not just because i cared about kanon, but also because of how much the other characters cared about her. some character deaths affected me far less, of course. i think kanon was the epitome of “this hit exactly as hard as the writers wanted it to”, but i do feel they fell short with others. ayano’s lack of development really hurt my ability to be saddened by her death, especially when it was so clear that she set up her own possession as a trap for shoka. it undermined things for shoka in general, because while she was devastated to lose ayano, the game did a poor job at making their relationship tangible and meaningful. i felt worse (not necessarily sadder, just worse) about motoi’s death, and i didn’t like motoi. speaking of him...

the biggest issue i have with the game is a chronic square enix issue. kubo is the Man Pulling The Strings, whatever, this is fine. the problem is that he, minamimoto, motoi, and arguably susukichi are the only characters in the game with dark skin. they are all morally grey at best. i don’t think i need to elaborate on why this is an issue. we’re not going to pretend that racism and colorism don’t exist in japan. i’m just going to say that all of the dark-skinned characters are either totally evil, excessively violent, and/or morally dubious. this is my biggest qualm, but i don’t feel it needs more elaboration. yes, i know motoi turns it around in the end. yes, i know susukichi ultimately changes sides as well, and he’s ultimately portrayed as sympathetic. minamimoto is........ his own beast. but the fact remains that we don’t get a single major character who’s darker and unambiguously heroic.

second big issue is that while i understand the decision to keep shiki off camera until the very end for emotional impact, i feel like this was to the detriment of the story and to the detriment of said impact. she was mentioned, sure, and she was briefly seen from the shoulders down in a cutscene long before her introduction, but i feel that this was ultimately for the worse. her absence in the plot made her a borderline non-entity that can easily leave the audience going “why should i care about this?” on what’s supposed to be a huge emotional cathartic moment. yes, people should know this is a sequel and neku and shiki’s friendship was a crucial part of the original game, and much of the endgame of neo makes no sense if you’re unfamiliar with the original, but their interactions in the ending felt incredibly shallow. and i think this is because of how little shiki appears and how isolated she is from her other friends. eri is unseen and unmentioned. she doesn’t interact with rhyme. she hardly interacts with beat, using him as a translator at best. her other relationships are just... stagnant at best, ignored at worst, and despite having had just as vital of a role in the first game as beat did, she does nothing of import onscreen. her only narrative actions are “fix mr mew (mentioned but not seen)” and “be sad about neku”. so, functionally...

for some reason (we know why) the story decided that the only thing that was important to shiki was seeing neku. but by holding off on this reveal of her, we lost the impact that their meeting could have had. because the game refused to show her it didn’t show how much his absence was affecting her, which leaves their reunion feeling incredibly hollow. shiki was gone for upwards of 90% of the game. if not for the first game, this reunion would mean nothing; the narrative does a terrible job of reminding the audience that neku and shiki have a strong relationship and i don’t know if it’s that they expected the first game to have done the heavy lifting, or they thought that what neo gave us was good rather than “good enough”. imo this was an enormous failure and i wish we had gotten more for her both as part of the plot and as a character.

this was an issue present with rhyme as well imo, though to a lesser degree. i think they should have given up the ghost much sooner on confirming that the shadowed figure was rhyme; it was obvious by the time they showed us her silhouette, so i don’t know why the narrative held off on showing her. they didn’t have to introduce her to rindo (or give her the name splash screen) yet, but people who played the first game and are paying attention know it’s rhyme, so why bother hiding her? most of what rhyme accomplishes in this game is off-camera as well, but she has double the screen time that shiki gets.

the shiki thing is another symptom of a common squeenix problem these days, which is poorly-handled implied romantic interests. and i think that was also present with how the end of the game treated shoka. rindo and shoka as an implied romance in general did not bother me; more than a lot of squeenix protags, and perhaps primarily because of the excellent job the english cast did, i actually was unbothered by the suggestion of budding romantic feelings because it felt genuine. they actually felt like a pair of teenagers who were starting to be interested in each other, trying to play it cool and prioritize. this, and shoka’s characterization in general, is really helped by the reveal of swallow’s identity; it retroactively heightens her closeness to rindo specifically and offers enormous insight into her decision to help the team covertly. however, i think this budding implied romance was severely undermined by having other characters comment on it, especially because it felt so out of place timing-wise whenever someone commented. it was never warranted; there are times where they seem to be... not flirting, but not doing a good job of pretending there isn’t an interest. this is not when comments come. the comments come when they are having a totally normal interaction that does not suggest any non-platonic feelings whatsoever.

up until the final day, i had fairly ambivalent feelings about the idea of them as the designated hetero pairing. i felt it was a vast improvement from recent shoehorned romances in squeenix properties. the ending made things much more contentious to me, specifically how shoka is vanished by joshua. the audience should at least have the suspicion that he’s reviving her, but the circumstances surrounding it are the problem more than joshua being a deus ex machina. it’s not the first time joshua was a troll re: reviving someone, but the context of why shoka’s revival is necessary is, well... unnecessary.

they barely foreshadow the shinjuku rules re: reapers, and i will freely admit it’s not remotely ooc for shoka to hide something like that until she can’t any more. but they seem to be just a contrived excuse for shoka to be taken away... and from the framing of it, not from the player, but from rindo. which, i don’t know that i need elaborate on why i wasn’t fond of that. and i won’t lie - i know everybody beefed it in those cutscenes, including beat and neku. but when the dissonance noise grabbed shoka it gave me the exact same vibe as the demon tide grabbing kairi in kh3, and i don’t think i need to elaborate more on why that would put a bad taste in my mouth and make me fearful for shoka’s future treatment in the game. i was worried that the narrative was going to yank her away from rindo like a prize being snatched from him, and it did! while i do also think it’s ic for joshua to fuck around the way he did when reviving her, it also seems contrived and brings up a major question.

if shoka is still playing by shinjuku rules, why does shibuya’s composer have the ability to overturn her erasure? yes, i know, shinjuku is gone, but its composer is still active. surely joshua having the authority to do what he did indicates that on a cosmic bureaucracy level, shoka is a shibuya reaper. the secret reports offer a potential that joshua exploited a loophole by waiting until the second after the shinjuku rules resulted in shoka’s soul being dissolved in order to snatch it up, so perhaps the explanation is that her erasure meant she was technically no longer a shinjuku reaper and no longer beholden to its rules. but that doesn’t answer a different question that honestly bothers me more than the admittedly sorta insignificant question of whether or not joshua overstepped in reviving shoka.

shinjuku’s game has ended because shinjuku has ended; why are its rules still in play for former shinjuku reapers? i am aware that shiba is the conductor “legally” and he has made changes to shibuya’s game, but they’re careful to specify that the “ex-reapers are erased at the end of the game” rules are from shinjuku and do not apply to shibuya reapers. is she considered by the higher plane to be joshua’s underling and not hazuki’s? the secret reports confirm that the transfer of personnel from the destroyed shinjuku to shibuya was authorized by the acting conductor (uzuki) and this is standard procedure, everything was done properly. so “legally” the formerly-shinjuku reapers are shibuya reapers, right? hanekoma notes in particular that it’s a culture clash leading to the shinjuku reapers being designated as such and that they’re only nominally shinjuku reapers. why are a defunct game’s rules still active?

the biggest issue is that shoka’s threat of erasure was unnecessary from a narrative perspective, especially given how quickly it’s introduced and resolved. what was the point of putting this in the story if five minutes later the issue is just dealt with, no effort, minimal tension, by a (narratively speaking, don’t come after me joshua fans) minor character who doesn’t even appear until after the plot is resolved? i honestly wonder if it was just the writers deciding joshua needed to do something so that his appearance in the ending wasn’t just shallow fanservice for people who wanted to see the original gang. joshua’s lack of action is also presumably going to be contentious with fans; i’ve read the secret reports, and i don’t feel that they sufficiently justify why he doesn’t make any moves to protect his city despite being positioned both in his own dialogue and the secret reports as someone opposing shibuya’s purification. i will talk about this a little later re: kubo’s motivations though.

i also think it’s kind of stupid that joshua sets up “find her and you win” and then... rindo doesn’t do anything in that regard. he just bumps into her in the scramble. i know i already said i hate the idea of her being a prize to be won in a game but if they’re going to set it up, why make it pointless in that regard? it feels so unnecessary. joshua portrays shoka’s revival/return as something to be earned, and unlike the ending of twewy there’s no recognition that he was actually just fucking with them.

this is similar to my mixed feelings about kubo’s defeat. on one hand, i wanted to smash his face in personally, i have hated him the entire game. on the other hand, having him jesus beamed and rewritten out of existence without any warning or chance to resist was fucking hilarious and i actually laughed out loud. my speculation as to why he didn’t get a boss fight is that developers worried about people having trouble suspending disbelief over the party being able to defeat an angel. ultimately i think the only way this could have been done was to have it be a boss battle where your victory doesn’t matter, like the week 1 fight with susukichi, and have hazuki curbstomp kubo in the post-battle cutscenes. ultimately, i feel like this was a lesser of two evils; i don’t think the “you lose in the cutscene” approach would have necessarily been significantly better than what we got, i recognize that “the battle didn’t matter and you lose in the cutscene after” is a contentious game trope. and i would understand people struggling to accept the cast defeating a being from a higher plane without intervention from said higher plane. the only benefit would be the catharsis of getting to slap kubo around, which admittedly i kind of miss. having him as a secret boss was an option i guess but i think it would bring more questions than it was worth.

kubo’s motivation is also just bizarre; i understand that it’s given as him getting overzealous after carrying out his orders to purify shinjuku, but why? i feel like this could have easily been fixed/rationalized by “shinjuku’s surviving reapers fled to shibuya, leading kubo to consider shibuya to be an extension of shinjuku”, but that’s solely speculation. i do not know why kubo decided to also start an inversion in shibuya. they didn’t give me enough information. his conflict with joshua is inexplicable and almost entirely offscreen via the secret reports. i do not feel like i have a grasp on why the plot of the game even happened. hazuki’s involvement is iffy; i can’t say whether he initially approved of kubo’s overstep and changed his mind, or if he just took his time collecting his errant underling. the secret reports suggest the former, and hanekoma noting that the contentious nature of the previous game’s events gives a speculative explanation for why no action was taken if hazuki was actually making moves against shibuya rather than kubo being out of line. hazuki could damn well have been lying, there’s a precedent for composers being full of shit and telling bold-faced lies to protagonists, though in the previous game these lies were all eventually uncovered. this leaves me to believe that ultimately, hazuki’s statements regarding kubo acting outside of his given authority were mostly honest. but what i don’t understand is why joshua took such a hands-off approach.

yes, he says he figured the main cast had it under control and would have stepped in had things gotten worse, but this appearance and statement comes long after rindo fails and shibuya is destroyed in multiple timelines. why did he not step in in the first timeline? i can speculate, but the game and secret reports do not do a great job in explaining why the proxy vs. proxy game even happened in the first place. kubo is hazuki’s underling, which makes joshua higher in the pecking order than kubo. if hazuki was capable of exorcising kubo instantaneously, why didn’t joshua just flick him off the board like a flea before he even got started trying to cause an inversion in shibuya? in the epilogue of a new day joshua is seen in conversation with hanekoma, who’s taking shinjuku’s inversion seriously, which seems at odds with how easily his fellow composer ends the problem.

retroactively, i guess i could rationalize this as him realizing that either shinjuku’s composer must be responsible for said inversion or that potentially shinjuku’s composer has been compromised in some way. and i can rationalize him failing to immediately jesus beam kubo as well - it’s possible that, as kubo was initially acting under the orders of another composer (assuming hazuki is still technically “legally” one/at the bureaucratic level of one), joshua’s hands were somewhat tied re: what actions he could take without potential consequences. it could be that joshua would get in big trouble if he took disciplinary action against another composer’s underling, but 1. the legal transfer of personnel should mean kubo is joshua’s underling, not hazuki’s, see the shoka problem 2. hazuki’s status as a composer is questionable given that his territory is now purified and its game is defunct 3. given that kubo was acting outside of his original composer’s turf and outside of his initial orders (purify shinjuku) at this point i feel like that isn’t likely. it could be that he was trying to avoid a conflict with hazuki himself. it may be that he considered it hazuki’s responsibility to retrieve kubo, but that’s at odds with him choosing a proxy to combat kubo’s and his claims that he totally would have done something, really, he swears. they don’t give us much info at all as to why joshua entered a game with kubo in the first place. i have reason to believe that something’s fishy in the secret reports, and i would like to see the japanese text, which i’ll mention again in a few paragraphs.

i know the absence of shibuya’s composer is partially, and perhaps primarily, “there wouldn’t be a plot if joshua fixed it”. but it really feels like they just kinda tucked joshua in the corner and hoped fans wouldn’t be like “hey where is shibuya’s composer and why is no one mentioning them?” that part is probably for the same reason we don’t see shiki until the very ending, teasing the audience by holding off on revealing him until the last second, but it’s jarring to me that shiki is mentioned but neither neku, beat, nor any of the reapers (!) think “we should contact the composer”. even if just to say “we can’t contact the composer, he is unreachable”! i guess it’s to avoid people remembering how significant joshua is and thinking too hard about it, because joshua is simply too powerful of a character to be running around freely. the plot falls apart when you have a character who’s so strong and, in his own words, kind of omnipotent, who could trivialize the conflict in an instant if he took action.

i feel like they surely could have given a more explicit reason for him to not be involved in the story, even if it’s a reason like “he’s in trouble with the higher plane”. which could have easily been set up! hanekoma is clear in his reports that shibuya’s impurification is highly contentious in the higher plane; people are big mad about it, potentially people higher in the chain of command than a composer. this could have been easily utilized as an explanation for why joshua is hands-off; he’s on a shit list and needs to step carefully as a result. but it’s just not addressed. hanekoma is unreachable according to his reports, and he notes that people are trying to contact him for help. are we just to assume that people have looked for joshua to ask for help in the past but it was so long ago that it isn’t even worth mentioning now to the newcomers? according to other reports, the higher ups are pissed with joshua about his game with kitaniji and are turning a blind eye to what’s happening with kubo in shibuya as a result. but this doesn’t explain why the members of the shibuya UG never discuss the composer. hanekoma’s reports have him confused as to joshua’s lack of action as well; he knows the context of what’s going on in shibuya but doesn’t understand why joshua is staying silent.

that said! the fact that hazuki’s motive for the destruction of shinjuku is never stated does not bother me too much. he’s placed in a position very parallel to joshua in the first game, and he even says he felt like he was following in josh’s footsteps. when you add his seemingly-genuine inability to understand why people care about shibuya, i feel there’s enough evidence to... not dismiss, but nudge this aside as “He Too is a misanthropic bastard”; shinjuku’s destruction is a parallel to the intended destruction of shibuya in the first game. hazuki just carried on where joshua had a change of heart. the secret reports complicate this; it might be that someone fucked up in transcribing, but the reports i read online state that shibuya’s composer, i.e. joshua, was responsible for the destruction of shinjuku due to a game with kubo. this does not make sense given everything else, including hazuki’s own statements and later reports, so i’m setting that aside for the moment as either an uncaught mistake either in translation or transcription online (most likely) or hanekoma not knowing the actual truth until receiving the post-purification shinjuku reports. hanekoma also suggests that hazuki’s goal was also the purification of shibuya, but as he’s not shibuya’s composer this is certainly not his jurisdiction so i’m curious as to what exactly happened there.

EDIT: i’ve been informed by a helpful anon that this is not a mistranslation, the japanese secret reports do state that it was a game involving joshua that resulted in shinjuku’s inversion. with that in mind, i have figured out how to rationalize this and it solves a lot of problems: if it was a proxy game between joshua and kubo, then joshua must have been the opposition to shinjuku’s inversion. though you could argue that joshua is responsible for the end result, he didn’t destroy shinjuku; his proxy lost, probably because kubo’s had the support of shinjuku’s composer. kubo’s overconfidence in running rampant in shibuya is now explicable and he may have been trying to rub it in that joshua lost.

if hazuki was still backing kubo post-shinjuku, this could explain why hazuki felt he could make decisions about shibuya’s fate and wander around it; joshua had already overstepped onto his turf to meddle in purification, so he was returning the favor. at this point in time, i figure that joshua’s proxy was either tsugumi’s brother (shinjuku’s conductor) or coco (she’s noted to have inexplicable powers for a rank-and-file reaper, but joshua’s opposition to her killing of neku throws this into question), and if we truly had a scrapped “shinjuku’s final game” plot then joshua’s proxy could also have been neku. kubo’s proxy was presumably shiba. this actually answers a few questions that i couldn’t rationalize when i assumed joshua was uninvolved (why would shinjuku’s composer be running a game against kubo when they wanted the same thing?), so i’m gonna chalk it up as an absolute win.

i think hishima as a character was... sort of nothing. he was just there. yeah, it was kinda funny how he dressed shiba down, but i don’t know that the plot needed him. his role in the endgame could have easily been given to tsugumi without much fuss, and i feel tsugumi deserved a much bigger part in the narrative given how much she was hyped up by solo and final remix. she was so prominent and anticipated that the fans called her hype-chan for years before we had a name for her. this could also be folded into the problem with hiding shiki until the very end; it feels like we missed a whole sequence with both of these characters simply because the narrative refused to show us shiki. instead, we’re told that shiki showed up and fixed mr. mew, and somehow this freed tsugumi. i think the fact that they don’t even give a flashback of this crucial event after shiki’s proper introduction is just a questionable decision. the story tells us that tsugumi’s release from the plushie is of the utmost importance and shiba can’t be swayed without her, setting it up as a vital event, but it happens offscreen with no real interaction with the main cast. it also only happens after multiple failed loops, even though rindo’s interference is what prevents the meeting between coco and shiki to repair the plushie. i don’t understand this from a logistical standpoint; if coco isn’t pulled to escort rhyme, she must have met with shiki and released tsugumi in timely manner, but tsugumi does not appear until after you replay to get coco back to her original schedule. you could wave it off as “she didn’t get there fast enough”, but i can’t accept that as a reason given the circumstances; it’s not like she would have to look hard to find shiba. this one’s flawed writing; i know in a meta sense why she didn’t appear, it was to build tension etc etc, but in-universe it’s a plot hole.

coco being so absent from the plot is also somewhat conspicuous. i wonder what reception of her was like in japan and if that influenced her lack of presence in the story. i honestly don’t even know if she was received well by the english audience, all i know is that i did not like her at all in final remix. not from an “i don’t like the villain because they’re doing bad things” perspective, from an “i don’t find this character compelling and i think they’re annoying” perspective. also curious as to whether or not her speech patterns changed in the japanese dialogue since final remix; i found her far less jarring and obnoxious in neo and i think it’s enormously because she stopped talking verbally in internet shorthand. overall, coco’s retool was imo a change for the better, but she’s barely there for me to appreciate how much of an improvement she was. it feels like there’s an entire narrative we were set up for by a new day, yet it’s almost completely missing. the ending of a new day laid out this framework for neku and minamimoto to be forced allies in an unseen future game. i had mixed feelings about this conceptually, but the narrative setup was fairly transparent. not only does this not happen, coco’s motivation in a new day and what ultimately happened were so lacking to me.

i feel like something got lost and we were originally going to actually see and perhaps play the shinjuku game that ended in disaster instead of just getting a summation and brief flashbacks of the survivors fleeing. this kinda ties in with my complaints about how hyped tsugumi was by solo and final remix, and then she turned out to have a very small (albeit crucial, via her trailer ability) and mostly unseen role in neo’s story. retroactively we learn that rindo’s visions are from tsugumi, but this is something she does entirely off-screen. all of coco’s scheming was for nothing, because joshua was a deus ex machina and whisked neku away the second he died. this feels to me like cut content or rewrites; there’s a whole game’s worth of story that just happened off-camera and we got to hear a little bit about it. it wasn’t enough, imo. i think doing it as a midquel is still possible, but it’s a hard sell to create a video game with a downer ending and we know shinjuku’s fate is already set in stone... even though a new day ended on the tragic cliffhanger of neku’s death, it’s a little different since it’s coming as an optional postgame sequel hook after victory rather than the entire narrative you fought through ending in failure. i suppose it could be done with a Distant Epilogue now that we know shiba and most of his surviving reapers will return to rebuild shinjuku. ultimately i really think that if not for the concern about neku overshadowing the new cast, shinjuku’s purification could and should have been the prologue to neo. it would be a tough balancing act, but i do think it could have been done right and it would have done a lot for narrative tension with his absence if we had a prologue following him that ends in a cliffhanger re: shinjuku’s purification. neku’s role in the story was done decently i think re: how big said role was, but a lot of circumstances surrounding his absence, legendary status, and reappearance leave much to be desired.

frankly, i just don’t like how much they glossed over neku’s three year absence. we’re given a vague explanation of what he was doing, but it isn’t actually an explanation. definitely again feels like a plot rewrite situation; there’s this huge blank space of neku doing nothing because there used to be a story that we were going to play through and it got scrapped for whatever reason. overall i feel neku’s characterization was very odd and perhaps a little inconsistent in this game; he didn’t have much of a personality at all, which i struggle to reconcile with the original game. we don’t see how he reconciled with coco, it’s just dismissed entirely as “no we’re good now”. how are we good? why did you forgive her for playing murder games instead of just explaining shit? i know he forgave joshua for his gatekeep gaslight girlboss behavior in the first game, but we had context as to why he made that decision. also what the fuck was keeping him from coming back to shibuya, i don’t feel like that was sufficiently explained either? for someone who was so hyped up by the narrative, i was a little let down by how insignificant neku ended up being to the plot as a whole. and again, his personality seemed very watered down and neutral despite the seriousness of the situation. why was he so mellow? the circumstances of his return i did really like, because... well, we’ll talk about character relationships i guess.

i already summed up my feelings on rindo and shoka and i think i’ll leave them on the note of “unnecessary elements dampened my potential for overt enthusiasm, but overall i feel neutral-positive about the suggestion of romantic interest” which is a lot more than i can say about a lot of (semi-)official pairings. on a broader and more platonic scale? generally i have positive feelings about the new cast and their interactions; i feel like their development is more understated than neku’s in the first game, his character arc is very in your face and the neo cast is not nearly as overt, but you can see the difference in how the team interacts across the three weeks. rindo and fret’s established friendship, not to be dismissive of it, does exactly what it needs to. i mean this in a completely positive way. it’s an established friendship, they feel like friends, and they serve initially as anchors to one another in the beginning of the game as a “you’re the only person i know in this chaos” setup. this contrasts neku in the first game in an excellent way because of how it highlights their biggest character flaws, which i’ll talk about later; it’s important to rindo’s fatal flaw that he has someone to fall back and rely on in the beginning of the game in the same way that it’s crucial for neku’s development that he’s surrounded by strangers who he must learn to trust and rely on in order to survive. rindo and fret can lean on each other in the beginning of the game, and as people who have known each other for some time, are able to recognize and appreciate each others’ positive changes.

i do love the development of nagi’s friendship with fret, particularly how it’s sometimes but not always remarked on when she shelves her initial aloof attitude with him. i prefer when a narrative is more subtle on that kind of thing; pointing it out every once in a while is okay, but i don’t want it shoved down my throat via dialogue that characters are developing an emotional bond. we can see that nagi is slowly becoming more receptive to fret and less likely to dismiss or disparage him. it seems like their initial relationship is that of two people who have opposite struggles; nagi is notably closed off in the beginning, but fret immediately approaches her with an unearned and offputting level of familiarity. their slow and understated (more noticeable with nagi than fret) development towards accepting each other as friends is mutually beneficial to them even outside of the context of their personal relationship; nagi opens up a little with everyone, not just fret. placing two people with very different perspectives on how to interact with new people in close proximity helped both of them grow. i’m sure other people have different perspectives, but i do not feel like they were being teased as a pairing which i enormously appreciate, i am tired of “pair the spares” shit. (minor note: i also appreciate how while fret’s crush on kanon was very overt and strong, she was also fairly clear that she considered him a kid and his feelings were never going to be reciprocated because of that age gap. i know, the bar is low, but thank god.)

i love how, despite nagi now having been confirmed as older than beat, as soon as beat joins the narrative he takes this hard stance of “i’m the one who’s already been in this hellscape so it’s my responsibility to help the newbies”. he really embodies the big brother role so well in this game; he knows a little more about what’s going on, this isn’t his first rodeo even if it’s not exactly the same, so he considers himself to have an obligation to protect the others. he serves as sort of a physical and emotional rock for the team from the second he joins, becoming an excellent support for them both as a combatant and an older brother figure. he has experience in being both of these things, and i think beat’s writing is some of the best in the game.

despite his position as a former player who’s back in the UG, he meshes with the newbies perfectly. he doesn’t overshadow the rest of the team despite having more lived (ha) experience in the reaper’s game, he doesn’t feel like he’s on a different level from them or anything like that. he fits in while serving an important unique role that he can only fill because of his prior time in the UG. it’s completely understandable and reasonable why rindo remains the team leader despite beat’s presence. he’s had a three year gap since his last game and doesn’t even understand how he returned to the UG. he’s not a fish out of water, he knows the UG and the game. but he’s really truly gotta shake the dust off, and he’s trying to figure out what happened to him in the first place because he knows he shouldn’t be in the UG at all. he didn’t have a huge bump in intelligence since the first game, but it’s hard to dismiss him as a complete idiot. he has both large and small perceptive moments where another narrative might have chosen to keep him as the dumb muscle. in fact, his firm convictions serve an important role for the others - beat knows he didn’t die and can’t be convinced otherwise, and his confidence that he’s a living player is part of how rindo and gang realize they also aren’t dead. he’s clearly not simply a comic relief character. another story might have positioned him as more of a mentor figure, but he plays to his strengths and serves to ground the team instead. beat is honestly a highlight of this ensemble cast to me. i’m unsure as to how much of that is simply because he was one of my favorites from the first game, but i really truly love beat in this game.

shoka and neku’s late introductions to the team mean they have far less “we are now firmly allies and friends” interactions with the rest of the ensemble for unavoidable reasons. i will say that the excellent casting and localization for the english version, particularly shoka, has done a lot to mitigate that issue; yes, the plot doesn’t develop her relationships with the team as a whole as thoroughly as some of the others, but the combat interactions with her are so genuine that i found myself shocked when writing this because, well, those combat lines did so much legwork making her role in the party seem earned and cohesive. i had such a strong sense of her place in the team that just isn’t reflected in the cutscenes, and i find that very interesting but i’m unsure as to whether it’s good or bad; i think it’s incredible that the combat dialogue did such a good job fostering this air of “we are a unit” for these characters and it really is a testament to the skill of these actors, but i do wish it was more prevalent in the cutscenes itself. beat’s established relationship with neku and their relaxed nature with one another does a lot to ease neku’s entry into the group; he has an “in” with a firmly established member and a well-written dynamic with him that helps him out here.

as a nekubeat appreciator i feel very fed and i hope there’s an uptick in interest for the pairing following neo. i love how beat, who throughout the game is constantly forgetting who people from 3 years ago are (doesn’t recognize his former superior bc she’s wearing a suit now and can’t even remember her name), immediately recognizes coco despite her changing her entire aesthetic specifically because he’s so angry with her for killing neku. he’s ready to throw down the second he sees her, which gives this feeling of “he’s been waiting for this moment for 3 years”. because the narrative never addresses beat’s change in style, particularly that he wears his hair like neku now, i choose to believe it’s because the last time he saw neku was immediately after coco shot and killed him. it could be that this shit’s been haunting him ever since neku died. my city now, if you don’t talk about it in the game i make shit up. both their cutscene interactions and combat quotes do an excellent job of maintaining the sense that these two have been close friends for a long time and distance hasn’t changed that. they fall right back into old ways with one another immediately.

even outside of the context of me being a nekubeat shipper, their relationship and continued partnership (UG game context partnership) feels very genuine. neku and joshua call each other partner, but it rings hollow. i’m sure it’s partially the lack of screentime that makes it so they don’t feel like partners any more than neku and shiki do, but the game doesn’t even try to push closeness the way it does for shiki - more on that in a minute. beat is the only one of neku’s partners that seems to have retained the same strength in their bond with him despite the three years; shiki and joshua are super absent in the plot, which really undermines their relationships with neku. i’ve already talked about my problems with shiki’s lack of focus and how i feel it harms her relationship with neku, but as for neku’s relationship with joshua, i think neo has taken an interesting approach that i feel will have a mixed reception.

it actually feels like neku and joshua ended this game on worse terms than the first one even though joshua was a far more benevolent figure this time around. neku is very clear about wanting to return to the RG despite this meaning he will have no access to the UG (outside of potentially text-based communication since rhyme paved the way for RG residents to bust into the RNS and... however it was that shoka’s fanGO account worked, since she and rindo were fanGO friends long before his entry to the UG) and doesn’t show any hesitation or reluctance in stating this desire. he seems quite content with not having joshua be a part of his life, as opposed to the first game’s ending where he extends an open offer to joshua to join his friend group. i understand how this would (and will) let a lot of people down, but i actually think it’s for the best. i have no real opinion on neku’s capacity for forgiving joshua after the first game, good or bad, but i think putting distance between them in this game is the correct move.

i take this viewpoint especially given that after the first game, joshua did in fact choose this distance - neku invited him in, and he did not take the offer. it was his decision to not join neku’s group in the first game’s ending and he continued to remain separate from it in the three year gap; he may have masqueraded as a fellow player and peer in age, but joshua is not and has never been an actual peer to neku, shiki, and beat. his life experiences are so different from theirs that i would struggle to suspend disbelief that they have enough in common to maintain a close friendship. he intervened when neku was killed by coco and placed him in a safe area and gave moral support in the ending, and i think this is the most we should expect of a reforming (not reformed but in-progress) misanthrope like joshua. he’s an enigmatic figure sure and largely benevolent if inactive in this game, but he isn’t a good person and he clearly considers himself to be on a different level from neku and his peers. hanekoma notes that joshua’s somewhat reluctant to continue to remain separate from neku’s group, but i think the narrative places him both objectively and in his own mind as someone who is just... from a different world. joshua chose distance, he chose to cut contact, and this is the consequence of that decision. i think that’s a good lesson to teach; it may not be a given, but it’s natural that sometimes a friendship you ignore will fade. it doesn’t necessarily mean the time you spent didn’t matter, but you shouldn’t be shocked if a plant you don’t water wilts away.

i feel like that wasn’t the intended takeaway, that it was just questionable writing that i’m reading too deep into, but that’s how i feel about the situation.

i’m also incredibly grateful that hazuki was introduced as an age-appropriate option for joshua and i hope they’ll draw attention as a bastard boyfriends ship, both because i think it’s very funny and because i have opinions about shipping joshua with the teens. i know it’s contentious and i’m not going too deep into it, so what i’m going to say is this. the secret reports state in plain objective text that joshua downtuning his vibes aged him down and his true appearance is older. neither the narrative nor supplementary info state anything about how old josh was when he died or how long he’s been a reaper/the composer (reapers ageing is ??? as well, we don’t know if it’s not a thing or if it’s optional or what). however, it is firmly canon that he is older than 15. if that canon upsets you then that’s your problem to either work through or ignore indefinitely. suffice to say, joshua and hazuki do not have the schrodinger’s pedophile issue and i wholly support and strongly encourage that over the alternative for this reason and again because i find it funny and think they deserve each other. i hate to say hazuki is a healthy choice for joshua because i think both of them are just walking messes, but they are actual peers on the same tier of the higher plane pecking order and more importantly the disaster they could be as a couple has infinite potential.

on the girls side of things, i am still mad about eri’s absence not just because it’s a relationship shiki had that just got ignored. i know the story wants us to believe that neku and shiki have something but shiki and eri had more. i’m sorry writers you made a more compelling f/f ship by accident in the first game and i am not invested in the one you weakly suggested between neku and shiki here. if you made shiki have more of a role in neo maybe i’d feel differently, or maybe you would have screwed it up worse. we’ll never know. i think it’s a shame that they couldn’t make me care about neku and shiki as a pairing, but it is what it is.

i was briefly worried that the game would try to suggest something between kaie and rhyme because sometimes people lose their minds when a boy and girl stand next to each other, but i was quickly set at ease with that one. they felt like two people who are starting to straddle that line of acquaintance/friend in a believable way despite how little interaction between them we see, and i appreciate that. i was also briefly worried that fret would develop a crush on rhyme based on his initial reaction at being introduced to her, but again quickly dismissed. can you tell i’m a little gun shy about strangled “him boy her girl” romances in fiction these days? yeah. i’ve been let down too much recently by bad writing.

i think all of the party members could have benefited from more development with one another outside of combat lines - i would like to see more interaction between nagi and shoka, or neku and fret, etc - but that would come at the expense of the narrative’s pacing. i think it could have been done by tweaking certain details, but ultimately i can accept this as a sacrifice made in the interest of keeping the narrative from getting bloated.

i wanna talk briefly about the new main cast a little.

rindo’s ups and downs re: development are much more subtle than neku’s were, but with the secret reports in mind i feel his arc is actually pretty excellent. i think we could have done with a little less of fret pointing out rindo’s increased confidence and how he becomes more assertive, i think the audience is smart enough to notice that on their own. but i’m a huge fan of how the narrative quietly places rindo in this position of a leader who fears that responsibility, but nonetheless has to grow and accept it. hanekoma’s reports may spell it out in plain text postgame, but the narrative already told us in our own way that rindo’s development stalled when someone else entered the cast who could take over for him and this is demonstrative of a(n understandable) lack of maturity and failure to grow. neku’s fatal flaw was his rejection of others, and so he was forced by the narrative into a position where he had to learn to trust them; rindo’s is that he relies too much on them and the narrative forces him to stand on his own.

while i think this is a little muddled (he was right in some instances to not make hard solo decisions; thinking specifically of ayano, it was absolutely the right call to ease shoka into this inevitable loss rather than forcing her into the situation unilaterally) and i wish we saw more consequences of his initial waffling behavior, rindo’s indecisiveness is an actual flaw that i think a lot of people can relate to and i think it contrasts him wonderfully with neku without being heavy-handed. rindo working through it from “relying on others to make choices for him -> still valuing the input of others but not wholly dependent on them -> capable of making difficult calls without anyone else to support him” was subdued and while it had realistic hitches in the form of other characters who he could consider authority figures, it was steady and imo very good. he’s a teenager coming into his own, stepping out of this world where others in his life - motoi as an0ther, shoka as swallow, presumably his parents, teachers, etc - have made the big, scary decisions for him or guided him through them, and into a place where there aren’t these people to guide him. he’s surrounded by people who either don’t know anything more than he does, or don’t care about his best interests; he’s clashing and changing and it forces him to grasp and accept his own autonomy rather than falling back and relying on someone else to fix things when it’s too frightening or difficult.

we can talk cultural differences re: the level of autonomy and responsibility that’s right for teenagers but i’m not really interested in drawing hard lines there. this is a coming of age story; as he approaches maturity, rindo is learning how to be an adult. i think that’s a classic and important narrative concept and it’s done well here.

fret, interestingly, is imo a case where the subtlety didn’t work out. to me, there wasn’t a huge distinction between flippant “telling you what i think you want to hear” fret and “genuine” fret. his initial interactions with kanon don’t seem different from their last conversation; maybe he comes off as less initally honest in the jp version, or maybe this one was a writing fumble. maybe it’s just me, and other people don’t feel the same way! he seems to be a far more static character in a strange way; the narrative tells us that he’s developing via other characters’ dialogue, but it doesn’t seem to support that. to me it’s a failure of “show, don’t tell” - i don’t take a hard stance on “show, don’t tell” as some kind of holy rule of writing, there are plenty of situations in a narrative where telling is perfectly acceptable and i think rigid adherence to showing and not telling can result in a bloated narrative, but in this case i feel like that’s where the narrative failed. it failed to support fret’s development outside of other people telling him he’s changed. i like fret, but i feel like in this ensemble cast fret and nagi kinda serve more as nominal protagonists and are more strong supporting characters than true leads.

as for nagi, i love how, despite it being low-hanging fruit, not only are there no real digs at nagi for being a vocal fangirl of a visual novel dating sim, it actually ties perfectly into her character as someone who understands people. dating sims are about people and relationships. how people interact, the importance of conveying your feelings, the consequences of bad communication; that’s what nagi is obsessed with. and rather than this being a detriment and making her avoid others, it ends up priming her to have healthy friendships because her gaming taught her to value knowing other people. it takes her time to actually open up, but rather than the video games closing her off to others they actually set her up to be an excellent friend. elestra in general could have been a subject of enormous mockery, but instead it’s viewed in a very neutral way and is given the implication of universal appeal by fret picking it up in the epilogue. nagi’s not in the spotlight for most of the game, but the payoff of her monologue to fret about being human was immense and was one of the best bits of dialogue in the entire game to me. it’s not going to be as iconic as hanekoma’s “open up your world” and “enjoy the moment”, but i truly think it’s one of the only parts of neo’s dialogue that approaches its level.

shoka is a character that i think is better on the replay, and i say this as someone who was very fond of shoka the first time around. i thought she had a lot of personality in her mannerisms alone, and i firmly appreciate how she wasn’t a one-note tsundere character. she had some of those minor elements, but subdued and with a reasonable context - she’s hot and cold with rindo and his team because she’s supposed to be working this rigged game to erase them, but she’s already rindo’s friend in a different context and is struggling to reconcile these two parts of her life. knowing her motivation as swallow gives so much retroactive depth to her actions; she was circumventing the game itself not just because she was exhausted by it or unease with shiba like some of the other turncoat reapers, but because rindo was her friend from before the story even began.

i will say that i didn’t actually fully call swallow being shoka simply because at first i had the impression that it would be rhyme (before rhyme’s role in the story became clearer), and admittedly by the time the climax hit the mystery of who swallow was had kind of dropped out of my mind completely, but i think it does a lot to develop shoka. whether this development being retroactive is strictly good or bad as an issue is subjective; neo is a game that has a built-in chapter select, so replaying the game and rewatching the cutscenes with the full narrative context is incredibly easy. however, for a lot of players, if you’re replaying the game it’s with a specific goal of getting something you missed earlier in-game, so you’re rushing through those cutscenes trying to get to that completionist bit. i think a line could have been walked re: giving more of a hint that shoka was swallow before the very end without fully giving it away, but i definitely think the rewatch value is more subjective and based on how you specifically play the game. if you’re here looking to watch all the cutscenes again now that you know everything, shoka being swallow is a huge treat regarding changing the context of her behavior - if you’re fast-forwarding trying to find a pig, it’s totally wasted.

i would have liked to see more of shoka’s backstory and interaction with the other shinjuku reapers for sure, and i wonder if this is another thing along the lines of “we were supposed to see more of shinjuku’s final game than we did”; if we’d gotten more of shinjuku, we certainly would have seen more of its reapers. i talked briefly about how i feel like ayano’s death didn’t hit the way i think it was intended to, but if the game had let us see more of her as a shinjuku reaper i feel like the entire plot would have benefited. it would have benefited shiba as well honestly; they tried to have him as a repentant “now i shall fix what i destroyed” character at the very end, but i don’t feel like they did a good enough job portraying that he had changed and he was brainwashed so it fell flat. if we’d seen more of shiba as the compassionate leader who deserved the loyalty of his reapers that they say he was, the contrast would have done a lot to help define the tragedy of his backstory. overall i think this is another “we lost a chunk of the plot in rewrites or something” issue, which i admit is not based in anything like interviews. it’s just my speculation because it feels like something that was supposed to be here got left behind - i can’t say if i’m right, or why it happened if so. it just feels to me like the shinjuku reapers besides shoka went fairly undeveloped not because of writing/lack of screentime alone but because we lost big pieces of shinjuku content entirely. it’s insane that we only learn in the secret reports how tsugumi became trapped in the mr. mew plush to begin with; to me, this screams “we had to cut something”, and the more i think about it the more convinced i am that we were originally meant to see more of shinjuku’s inversion. hell, the secret reports just flippantly inform us that tsugumi’s brother was shinjuku’s conductor and he’s why she survived - but he goes unnamed and unseen, mentioned only in a piece of postgame content that many players may never unlock.

shinjuku’s final game is just left as this incredible story that was never told, with a cast who we barely see. again, it doesn’t bother me that they never explained to us why hazuki purified shinjuku. but i do wish we could have connected with its reapers to see how they reacted to its impending fate; who was on kubo’s side, who was trying to protect shinjuku? who knew what was happening, and who was just swept up in the chaos? how did the purification affect them emotionally after their escape to shibuya? just from the secret reports we see that tsugumi’s brother is this tragic hero of another story, the conductor opposing the executor and fighting to save his city before ultimately sacrificing himself to keep his sister alive. this is enough content that it could have easily been a standalone, but it wasn’t. i think that’s a damn shame. i’m sure there are people who are already chomping at the bit to write about shinjuku’s tragic final game and it’ll make a stunning fanfic in the right hands, but this is a big gap for fanfiction authors to be filling in.

this was mostly a narrative thoughts dump, but i wanna say just a couple of things about the combat: overall i liked it! i was significantly overleveled for the vast majority of the game partially because i was having fun with the combat, i feel gameplay was very intrinsically motivating. because of how the food system worked, being overleveled didn’t mean too much since it only affects HP, but i also was eating constantly so i was in fact just OP for much of the game. so i suppose, take my gameplay commentary with a grain of salt because i was busted quickly. if i hadn’t been such a powerhouse from early on, i expect my gameplay experience would have been much different.

my biggest complaint: there were some significant issues in enemy design related to battles being timed and the timer having consequences. some enemies were a reasonable/intuitive pain, say, elephants being bullet sponges and chameleons having an invisibility mechanic. these things made them challenging, but in a sensible way. like, of course a big honkin’ elephant has a ton of HP. i think that chameleons in particular could have been tweaked; you have to be very close to them when they’re invisible in order to lock on, and i think this could distance could have been extended a bit to minimize frustration. likewise, it felt like party members that get grabbed by a t.rex were trapped for ages; i feel this could have been tweaked as well. i know a lot of people had issues with wolves for this same reason, but their comparative frailty and my pin choices meant that i quickly overcame wolves and they became a minor nuisance at best until endgame introduced a beefier wolf. even then, i found t.rex noise to be much more of an issue because of their sturdier nature and higher damage output. these are minor gripes; i didn’t like seeing these enemies, but i didn’t hate seeing them. no, here’s what i hate: rhinos and pufferfish.

to me, these are the most annoying enemies in the entire game outside of maybe a handful of bosses. i feel they were poorly thought out in general. the tendency for rhinos to put themselves against the arena walls and the delay on pufferfish exploding after their HP hits zero do not mesh well with that battle timer. i find myself very frustrated by these enemies because it feels like i’m being punished not for a lack of skill or bad decisions choosing weak pins, but simply bad luck. very few pins can circumvent the rhino’s front guard and the hitbox for their guard feels enormous, so i can’t imagine i’m the only player having difficulty herding them out of corners to actually damage them or get beat drops. there’s a postgame dive with a big noise rhino, and it was my worst experience with the entire game because it just kept backing into a corner. i quit that dive multiple times because of how much time i wasted with the rhino; i changed my pins like crazy trying to take advantage of elemental weaknesses or use pins that could circumvent the guard. but it wasn’t about what pins i was using, it was just bad luck with hitboxes. when i finally got the gold rank on that dive it wasn’t that i did anything significantly different, the rhino just didn’t park its ass in the corner that time.

as far as i know, and i hope i’m missing something that someone can enlighten me on, there is no way to prevent pufferfish from inflating and exploding outside of a killer remix. i have not discovered any way to make them explode faster. the amount of time it takes for them to blow up seems to vary not by species but by individual, i’m not sure if it’s being triggered by proximity to a party member or what but i know sometimes one of those little shits will inflate and chase me across the entire arena before finally exploding. in a chain battle, that wasted time adds up. the pufferfish issue could have been severely mitigated, if not entirely fixed, if the gap between HP hitting zero and explosion was just the time it took for them to inflate. that would have basically eliminated my needless frustration with them. but instead i just... don’t know how to make them pop faster.

in normal combat, your post-battle score is primarily just bragging rights/making yourself feel good to have gotten a good grade. but when it comes to dives, where the timer directly decides how many of the finite friendship points you get, the appearance of a rhino or pufferfish specifically is something i approached with dread and disappointment. i already mentioned the postgame dive giant rhino specifically being a nightmare, but this was a reoccurring element for me through the entire game with just normal rhinos. i know rhinos are a returning enemy and kept their front-guard schtick, but the shift to a 3D environment has made them a much more (imo needlessly) difficult opponent.

regarding the pin system itself, i was enormously disappointed to learn how the multi-pin input worked. it turns out that you can only have multiple pins using a single input no matter how many multi-pin wields you unlock; gone were my dreams of having 2 Y-input pins and two ZL input pins (i played on switch). the inability to multi-pin wield uber pins regardless of how many uber slots you have filled is also a huge bummer. i feel like in the postgame i should be able to be an absolute god of destruction, but this didn’t pan out.

this seems to be a switch issue, but autosave was the MVP of the game because i had a few cutscenes crash or freeze (the one with kubo’s reveal seems to be a common source of a crash on the switch version as it fails to load the 3D cutscene); this was annoying and needs fixing, but it was slightly mitigated by autosave kicking in immediately after boss battles. i was crushed thinking i was gonna have to go through the shiba fight again after kubo crashed my game, so the relief i felt upon loading up again and going right into the cutscene was immense. don’t get me wrong: cutscene freezes and particularly crashes are a big problem that a game like this shouldn’t have launched with, but at the very least i didn’t lose my progress on that crash. related, i appreciate the ability to speed through cutscenes you’ve already seen, but i do wish we had the option to skip them entirely because that would have saved me from the freezes that i had to manually close the game and lose progress for.

a more minor complaint that i admittedly am unsure as to how to fix (maybe utilizing the d-pad instead of having it be camera/target select alongside the right stick?) is that i do not seem to have much control over which character my camera centers on in combat. typically selecting the pin that’s equipped to them will focus the camera to them, but every once in a while i’ll be locked to someone whose pin is rebooting while my other party members are actively attacking on the complete opposite end of the arena. i have no idea why this happens. if i’m missing something please let me know. the static nature of the overworld camera took some adjusting to, at first i was offput but i got used to it quickly. if camera was fixed position in combat it would have been a nightmare, but it being fixed in the overworld isn’t the same beast.

this has gotten obscenely long, so props and condolences to everyone who has made it this far. i wanna end on a high note because i want to reiterate something: i have so many criticisms here and that’s actually praise. i enjoyed so much of this game that i’m critical of where it fell short specifically because it’s such a strong contrast to how much i felt it did right. the main story was pretty strong in general, though some character interactions were lacking. the plot itself i didn’t talk a lot about because i thought it was good. there wasn’t much to say, they did a good job! the dissonance noise being created from deleted timelines was great, i loved that. i don’t feel like predictability makes a narrative bad, so it’s not like i was upset when it turned out replay was (gasp) part of a dastardly scheme. for me, foreshadowing is an excellent thing even if sometimes i wish it was handled a little differently.

i vastly prefer this game’s vague sequel hook with minamimoto over how final remix ended a new day; that sequel hook i hated and it had me so worried about neo. thankfully a lot of my fears didn’t come true, and i am very happy overall with the game we got. if another game is greenlit, i would hope it progresses with a mostly new cast; as long as we stay in shibuya some supporting characters can and should be staples imo, like kariya and uzuki, and i hope to see more of what’s being set up with minamimoto even if not necessarily with him as a protagonist. but overall i think twewy’s worldbuilding lends itself much more to a rotating cast if it develops into a full franchise; that’s just the nature of the UG, and i would like to see further installments taking advantage of that and allowing characters to have a complete arc and then retire from the narrative naturally.

i’ve got some pigs to erase and some bosses to slap the pins out of, which i’m sure will take me some time. another day certainly has a secret boss and/or time trial boss rush, so i’ll take a look at that sucker soon as well. i’m looking forward to continuing my playthrough, and i expect to sink quite a few more hours into this game. i really truly enjoyed neo despite my qualms, and i’m leaving the main storyline behind for postgame stuff with almost entirely positive feelings and a hopeful stance on the potential future of the series. i know this was a long-ass post, which is why it’s beneath a readmore, but to anyone who cared enough about my thoughts to keep reading the whole thing... thanks for the time you spent, hope you got something positive out of it!

#neo twewy #neo twewy spoilers #this turned into a behemoth. im so sorry #I CHECKED AND IT'S OVER 11K WORDS #I'M SO FUCKING SORRY

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ichika27 · 4 years ago

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Random TWEWY Thoughts

I was gonna make specific posts for some of these but I realized each one is too short so I’ll just dump them all here.

Here are some thoughts regarding Neku, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Eri. I have so much thoughts about Joshua he’d need his own post and if I had enough motivation, I’ll write it all out.

Below are random stuff where you’d find my dumb thoughts, stuff that I ended up thinking too much about, and badly cropped images. Spoilers ahead!

Some Thoughts on Shiki Misaki:

First of all, they didn’t adapt the “Pants Off” scene in the anime. I get why as the anime was short on time and all. This was a funny little scene that probably won’t be missed but I thought it’d have been nice if they added this. It sort of shows what kind of person Shiki is. By that I mean this little scene is kinda a demonstration of the stuff Eri says about Shiki later in Week 1.

The above scene is what I’m talking about. Shiki is a nice girl and we could see that in her wanting to help others and being friendly and all (stuff Neku also got from her and sorta passed on to a certain someone else later lol). The stuff about her sewing though is sorta in the pants scene.

Neku didn’t notice the loose button on his own shorts but Shiki did (she picked up on stuff other people missed and has a sharp eye), she worked on it pretty fast as well (she has skilled hands), and she really wanted to fix that button lol (motivation, I guess?). She’s good at sewing and it’s her thing and she even has a sewing kit with her. Shiki said she enjoyed sewing and Eri said she’s good at it.

I thought it was kinda cool how a little funny scene showed all that.

Another thing: I thought it was kinda sad how they really never showed us what Shiki really looks like aside from this scene at the ending of both the game and anime when she attends their little reunion and the phone photo of her and Eri with her face blurred. Her story is about her learning to love and accept herself. She’s always been jealous of her best friend Eri cause she think that Eri is better and prettier than she was. Her entry fee is her real appearance and she has Eri’s appearance the entire game. She was happy at first but realized she really just wants to be herself. She found friends who would accept her for who she is and she also found it in herself to accept what she is.

But since that’s all a spoiler, every single TWEWY ad and merch (and many fanart) that has her is her with Eri’s appearance. It’s her name on it but it’s not her looks. When people think about “Shiki Misaki” they think of the redhead girl that is in the majority of the game/show and not always the short-haired girl with glasses. She’s finally learned to love and accept herself but she’s only allowed to be “Eri” out of the universe, outside of many fanarts (and fanfics) who uses her real appearance. Kind of a sad irony, I think.

Thoughts on Similarities:

Okay so, I just thought that some characters kind of have similarities when it comes to their stories. In a way.

Shiki and Beat’s similarity lies in that they both don’t think much of themselves. Shiki thinks she’s not that great and so she both looked up to and is jealous of Eri. Beat thinks he doesn’t have a future but his sister does (this isn’t helped by how their parents think the same way). Both of them died after having a little spat with the person that’s most important to them (Eri for Shiki and Rhyme for Beat). They weren’t in an okay mood at that time, too as Shiki had just been told that she isn’t meant to be a designer (and didn’t hear the rest of what Eri would’ve said) and Beat had just walked out of their house after getting into another argument with his parents. Eri wanted to explain stuff to Shiki but it was too late and Beat didn’t want to listen to what Rhyme had to tell him. Shiki and Beat also both died in accidents after those events.

They both are also worried about what the other person thought of them. Shiki was scared to know what Eri really thought about her and Beat feels responsible for Rhyme’s death and didn’t know if Rhyme still cared about him as Rhyme doesn’t recognize him as her brother (I was gonna write that she doesn’t remember but she clearly knows she has a brother but doesn’t connect that to Beat). As a result, Shiki was initially hesitant to listen to what Eri had to say while Konishi taunted Beat with the knowledge that Rhyme’s memory of her brother was Beat’s own entry fee and not hers (with player’s entry fees being their most important thing implying Beat wasn’t the most important to Rhyme as he initially thought).

It’s also them that their respective important people was gonna lose their dreams for. Eri was going to give up fashion design because Shiki died and Rhyme’s dreams were her entry fee (sorta hinted in the game, heavily implied in the anime by other characters) and since she lost, she’d never get them back. Secret Reports say she could gain new ones since she was brought back to life and she now has time to do so.

Thoughts on Rhyme:

Going off from some of the stuff above, this makes me wonder what Rhyme’s real condition is while playing the game. Beat’s entry fee is technically his relation to her as her brother. She knows she’s got an older brother she cares about as we hear her talk about him and even mention her necklace being something that was given to him by the guy. She hasn’t lost memories of having a brother but she lost recognition of Beat being that person.

Does she remember how she died? Did she think her brother survived the car accident they were in? Did it ever cross her mind that maybe her brother is also dead and is also playing the Reapers’ Game?

When it came to her memories of her brother, she doesn’t seem to have any problems. She doesn’t complain that she doesn’t remember his face or anything. My question is: is her memories of her brother’s appearance changed in her mind or does she just not see Beat’s face properly so she doesn’t recognize him?

Some Thoughts on Neku:

This is from Another Day but it was hinted in the main game that this may also be the main Neku’s backstory. Neku had a best friend - an only friend that he cared about. They never elaborated on this and these little scenes at Pork City is all we’d have to know this friend. He wasn’t even named.

Now if this alternate Neku share the same backstory as the real Neku, then this friend of theirs had a lot of influence on them. AD! Neku says it was his friend that got him to becoming a CAT fan in the first place (and in AD, was the one who introduced him to Mr. H as well). If it wasn’t for this person, Neku wouldn’t have always been around the CAT mural where, you know, everything began.

Main game Neku and AD! Neku have differences in personalities so they both kinda reacted to it differently. Main game Neku became a loner and didn’t want anymore friends that he could lose. AD! Neku seems to be protective of those he deem important as shown in this scene in Pork City where he wanted to run after Mr. H cause he was worried he’d lose someone else.

Unfortunately, another thing that happened is the boy’s death in an accident causes Neku to blame himself. This is kind of where he and Beat have similarities in. They both blame themselves for the death of someone important to them and to them, it’s as if they were the ones who killed those people.

If Beat didn’t fight with his parents and run off to be followed by Rhyme, they wouldn’t have gotten into an accident. If he were faster, he would’ve been able to save her.

If Neku didn’t invite his friend to meet with him at the CAT mural, his friend wouldn’t have gotten in an accident and would still be alive.

This makes me wonder what Neku’s reaction would’ve been if he’s had his memories since Week 1 since this is also almost the same with Eri and Shiki. Eri lost a friend to an accident and is sad she’d never see that best friend again which Neku would’ve related to (although he didn’t react about it hen he found out but had a reaction when Rhyme got erased). Neku also didn’t act like it when hearing Beat’s backstory with Beat blaming himself for it (same as what Neku felt). Still it’s an interesting thought.

Thoughts on ‘What if’?

What if Joshua didn’t think of erasing Shibuya or at least, thought about doing it another time? It would mean he wouldn’t kill Neku (or not yet if it happened sometime later). But then, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme, and Sota and Nao who all were living normal lives and had nothing to do with the idea, still dies cause it’s just what happens. Neku is pretty powerful and both Shiki and Beat were lucky to have met and partnered up with him in their respective game weeks. On the other hand, Joshua was in the game in Week 2 cause of Neku and that week is when Sota and Nao are playing and so they got to meet them.

If Neku wasn’t there, how high are the chances of Shiki and Beat+Rhyme surviving and winning the game had everything been normal? The entire game month wasn’t like any regular Reapers’ Game since Kitaniji and Joshua has their little bet with Kitaniji already acting on his plans after all (plus Mr. H doing stuff behind the scenes with Minamimoto). Would Mr. H still have helped Beat after Rhyme’s erasure and if he did, would he still have given Beat the Rhyme noise/pin? Would Sota and Nao have survived and won their own game if the taboo noise wasn’t a thing and it was all a regular game? Joshua probably wouldn’t have revived them if they lost since they’d just be random players and not people he and Neku knew.

Also same with 777 and his band. If Shibuya’s erasure was still a thing, they’d have had to go through dealing with the taboo noise and such. They were also brought back by Joshua cause he and Neku met the band in Week 2.

I just thought, Joshua’s decision to want to erase Shibuya was terrible and killing Neku to help him do it is also bad and yet these other people sorta got lucky that they just happen to be playing the Reapers’ Game at the same time as the Composer’s Proxy. Neku was lucky too in a way as this entire thing happened when these guys were playing the game. If Neku was killed later on instead, how big is the chance he’d have met anyone like Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, Sota, and Nao? These people were a big help in him learning to be a better person after all. And also, the stuff he learned and his on-going character development in Week 2 also influenced Joshua to having his own character development.

Well, that went on for too long. They’re all pretty short on their own though so it’s good that I placed them all here. I’d find that easier for me and my blog wouldn’t be too cluttered hehe. I hope I get enough motivation to do another since I have so many thoughts regarding Joshua, his week with Neku, and why I ship them (hehehe). That said, I mentioned earlier this would have no Joshua thoughts in it but he still snuck in on some things in Neku’s part. XD

If you read this far, thank you and I hope that was enjoyable.

#the world ends with you #twewy #Subarashiki Kono Sekai #subaseka #shiki misaki #daisukenojo bito #Neku Sakuraba #sana_post

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having-a-hyperfixate · 4 years ago

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Secret Reports

Gonna just edit this thing and put line breaks as I get more of them.

I’m also working on the rest of the completion, and will probably wander off in the middle of this to do Another Day, which will probably have its own post. I fully expect that to be sheer madness.

#1 So is it just me or is Mr H writing these reports to channel how extremely stressed he is. Cuz like. Mood. *gestures vaguely at blog* *gestures at this post specifically*

I. Hold up. Skeezy McFuckwad and Joshua did what resulting in which now. Excuse me. EXPLAIN!??! Joshua had a sneaky Game running with Skeezy that directly lead to Hazuki ordering Skeezy to destroy Shinjuku??? Is that what I am reading. Or possibly the order was already in the works, and then there was the Game, which ultimately just pushed that forward?? You can’t just say shit like that and not give details ffffffff.

#2 Mr H having about as much contempt for Shinjuku rules as I do I feel seen haha. Bogus indeed. I can’t remember if I said it in one of my other posts, of if it was in a group chat, but I made a comment somewhere how this ruleset doesn’t seem to work with the stated purpose of the whole Reaper’s Game system. Sweet validation.

#3 Not much to say except that if I had read this entire report when I actually got it, I would have been much more alarmed by all of the Replays Rindo has to do after that. I got it partway through week 3 but decided not to read it until I beat the game and then BAM it has this lovely tidbit about potentially being able to destroy the UG and RG.

#4 So, the business that the fandom refers to as the Long Game is known in universe by the higher-ups and Shibuya’s impurification, because it didn’t get ‘purified’ like Shinjuku (I object to that term but ok).

“The hierarchical freeze presumably stems from opposition to the impurification”

Skeezy wasn’t reprimanded when he arrived in Shibuya “possibly because most Higher Plane denizens still oppose Shibuya’s impurification”

ExcUSE ME. I. WHAT. In one of the secret reports for the first game, Mr H says something about the way things turned out be an ‘ideal parallel world’ according to the Angels. I guess he only meant the ones who didn’t want the city destroyed holy shit. That most of them didn’t want Joshua to change his mind and STILL DON’T is so massively fucked up I can’t. Dear Higher Plane, what the actual, ever loving fuck.

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#5 One hundred and four Games under Shiba. That’s… so. many. teams. Holy shit. And the teams we knew had seen at LEAST 30 teams go. And the three teams we saw weren’t small. So many people…

Also, “Minamimoto seems to be plotting something” is the funnies thing I’ve read in ages OF COURSE HE IS that’s what he DOES. XD That was some mood whiplash.

#6 I was so hung up on the lack of entry fee for so long you don’t even know. Like. Those were so important in the first one it was baffling to me that Shinjuku rules didn’t have anything similar. And then eventually I just decided that the whole Game wasn’t being run correctly and Shiba was clearly after something other than driving the improvement that’s supposed to be the point.

I would like more explanation on this ‘Rindo’s stagnation makes him perfect for time travel thing’. I kind of understand how his reactions being consistent would be helpful in being able to control where the timeline goes (also I just realized this further confirms that Angels remember the other timelines glad I wasn’t imagining that the Prime days are a blur), but what does he mean about being able to maintain abnormally high levels of imagination? (It might tell me later so don’t say anything lol)

“I can only hope I’m not overthinking things.” Oh, you aren’t. If I’m understanding everything correctly, Skeezy actually had two proxies. And poor Rindo managed to end up being proxy for both sides at the same time which is. A mess.

#7 Well, finally we know how Coco managed to get her hands on a taboo sigil. Plagiarism. Lmao. That at least makes sense and I can worry less about her being Something Else. I would like a word with whoever didn’t clean that up from Udagawa long enough for her to copy it though. That’s hilarious. Interesting that Mr H thinks it wasn’t a perfect recreation though, that something in him got changed. Once again, please elaborate. Please. *headdesk* What prompted Coco to just. Copy a taboo sigil though. Cuz that seems. Unusual.

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#8 Ok there’s a lot to unpack in this one. Namely, more Shinjuku rules. I would love to know if these are long standing rules or relatively recent. Cuz like. Did Shinjuku’s Game ever run in a way that would drive the kind of improvement that’s supposed to be the overall goal? Or has it always, or at least for a while now, been basically a meat grinder? The players that don’t clear that minimum bar probably just get erased outright, I would think. Actually, I’m confused. If normally, one team would get to leave and one team would be erased, wouldn’t that normally keep the average pretty level, so the Game would basically go on forever? Otherwise what do you do with all the other teams that are between first and last? I’m confused. It can’t be normal for teams to keep asking for more rounds. And what if the winning team says ‘everyone gets to go home’?

“The Conductor has yet to contact the Composer” and “it is possible he is unaware of the Higher Plane’s purification protocol.” I don’t know why, but I get the feeling these are important.

#9 These secret reports are really driving at the whole ‘Rindo just goes with it’ thing, aren’t they. Like, that was his thing, right? He has trouble making definitive decisions? So his arc culminates in that moment in Udagawa where he tells Hazuki that he’s going to take the risk and go back one more time, where he’s making that decision purely for his own sake. And here Mr H seems to be saying that prodding Rindo down the road to character growth is going to be a lot harder than it was with Neku back in the day. Which makes sense, I think. Confronting someone with the concept that other people have value is a lot less complicated than trying to get them to not only make a firm decision, but to choose something that is purely because it’s what they want and need, not because someone else thinks they should.

It’s a little alarming that this report implies that if the pin wasn’t absorbing the Dissonance caused by the Replays, the UG and RG would already be having a bad time. Yikes. This is the report for day 2 of the second week. We haven’t even gotten into the crazy time travel yet.

Aaaaand #10 is for completing the social network, so I have to actually go do Another Day. I want to read these in order; it is much less confusing that way.

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#10 I really shouldn’t read these late at night with a possible migraine coming on, they’re already confusing enough. The bits that made sense: Uzuki was acting Conductor damn girl. (Did she have to deal with Joshua and was he in Dignified Mode or Being a Shit Mode because that’s possibly an oof.) I had assumed Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor and then just kinda took over after they moved in but apparently not? And RIP the actual Conductor, apparently. Weird that so many Reapers made it but the Conductor, who by all rights should have, didn’t.

I am slightly concerned by the fact that there’s standard procedure for obliterating a district. That’s. Alarming.

I don’t think page 4 is continuing the thought on page 3. Fucking. Stop that. Don’t just say a thing and then start talking about something else I would like EXPLANATIONS. UGH. “Almost” he says. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that almost is a big deal, so why don’t you tell me about it.

Four cases where a district got into trouble before a final decision on whether to reset or not was made. And one was the last game. I wonder if that means whatever was wrong that made Joshua want to destroy it, or if the ‘imbalance’ was all the madness that happened after he agreed to one final Game with Kitaniji and the left the UG. Cuz in one of the first set of secret reports, it says that with the Composer absent, the UG is starting to fall apart as the rules are no longer valid, or something like that. I would definitely call that an imbalance.

#11 All I care about in this report is that Mr H wants to have a digital art bonding party with Kaie and that is so random why are you writing this down you absolute goober. The first page of this report is like ‘everyone is getting depressed’ and then just a wild left turn into dork-town. Lmao what.

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#12 I don’t think Mr H knows at this point (you get this report for W2D5’s Boss Noise) that the Ruinbringers are all Reapers. He’s gonna be mad. He does know what Shoka is up to though. He’s worried. Aw.

#13 It didn’t occur to me until this report hit me in the face with it, but they’ve set up a fantastic contrast between the two people Rindo knows from online. One is. not great, let’s say, because I did not take the reveal of Motoi’s true self well. The other is Shoka, and she’s a real friend. I now see what you did there. One relationship that’s a farce and one that really, really isn’t.

#14 Me, out loud, at 1:30 in the damn a.m.: WAIT. HOLD THE FUCK UP.

If getting Tsugumi out of Mr Mew required an Angel, how in the hell did Shiki manage to…? What. I’m very confused.

Also damn, saving Tsugumi was so important that Shinjuku’s Conductor died for it. Did he know what she could do, the whole visions thing? Or maybe that something was wrong with Shiba and it would take someone like her to potentially stop him in the future?

I still would like to now how the hell Tsugumi got her hands on Mr Mew. Especially since its apparently the ORIGINAL Mr Mew and she seems to have had him during the inversion? What.

#15 So… Inversions don’t always happen when a region is purified. I’m trying to wrap my brain around what a ‘complete loss of character’ in and area that’s had an Inversion could mean. Like… I think I get it, but my brain won’t make words, let alone sentences. Like when you go into a hotel room, and it doesn’t feel like a home, as opposed to when you go to a friend or family’s house, and it does? Kinda like that but it’s the whole district that’s just… blank? That’s kinda creepy.

If there are so many who think a ‘regular purification’ isn’t enough, the a) what does that even look like, b) is that what Joshua was going to do to Shibuya and c) is there an intermediate step between ‘normal’ and Inversion? I have been staring at this report for literally 15 minutes now.

#16 “I wonder how [Shiba] will feel about all this after he is allowed to return to his former self.” Yuuuuuup. I still Do Not Like him, but dude was borderline mind controlled so like. Yeah. And I did get to kill him once, so. As long as he minds his business and isn’t a total dick from here on, whatever. It all just sucks.

*facepalm* Well at least we got to being suspicious of Replay eventually. Why did it take you this long Mr H. Though I do wonder what Rindo would have been able to do without the interference. He had to have some kind of latent skill for the pin to react to him, right? I’m now going in circles mentally trying to puzzle out if Replay is like, a leveled up version of whatever Rindo would have naturally had, and regardless, where exactly it came from. Because the only time I can think of when anyone had a chance to mess with the pin was when he didn’t catch it in the prologue. And I’m pretty sure it was Joshua who picked it up. Aaagh I’m giving myself a headache.

I find it hard to believe skeezy would just yeet a random time travel pin out into the world. That seems both dumb as fuck and inefficient.

#17 “Some of them who know what I am occasionally try to contact me.” Lol so Kariya DOES know who Mr H is, I take it. Alright.

I’m having some kind of emotion that Wildkat still exists in a way for the Reapers, and that some of them still go there.

I just imagined Uzuki texting him like ‘plz make the Composer fucking do something kthx’ and I’ve got the giggles now oh dear

#18 HA! I was right! Minamimoto WASN’T in control when he attacked us! ‘Distortions within himself’ though, that’s concerning. Does that have to do with how he’s come back from the dead twice now? And how Coco’s copy of the sigil was apparently imperfect?

#19 I was about to say ‘who would target him for his abilities?’ and then my brain turned back on because duh. Shiba and them were looking hard for Neku, to the point that they flooded the RG with Player Pins in the hopes that he would pick one up and get sucked into the Game. A thing that occurred to me last night at 3:30 in the morning because I am a disaster: Mr H says that Minamimoto ‘seems different’. Neku says much the same thing after he comes back. So… Neku’s ability to Scan all the way down to someone’s Soul is potentially close to as sensitive as Mr H’s long distance ability. Which is a little insane. On top of the fact that he can use basically every psych imaginable no problem, survived a pact with a Composer for a full week, while said Composer was using crazy light beams which probably should have melted Neku from the feedback, and then almost singlehandedly defeated the Conductor while somehow inventing four-way fusion attacks. Kid is mad powerful. And he’s just a human. Like, the OG secret reports say that people always become dramatically stronger when they become Reapers. Reaper!Neku would be unstoppable.

“This would be much simpler if I could sit down and talk with him.” Okay, I laughed out loud. Like, loudly.

So… Shinjuku’s Composer… basically had his Conductor assassinated by skeezy. And because skeezy was messing with Shiba’s head, he could prompt Shiba to take the Reapers to Shibuya afterwards, to start doing it there too? Hazuki ordered Shinjuku’s purification so… Oh dear. I might have a few bones to pick with him.

OH NO. OOOOOH. OH NOOOO. SHINJUKU’S CONDUCTOR. HE WAS TSUGUMI’S BROTHER OH MY GOD. That is fucking tragic what the fuck. What the FUCK. Okay several things make sense now but OH MY GOD FUCKING HELL I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT. Shiki fixing Mr Mew allowed Tsugumi to free herself because her brother had already done part of the work, I take it? Along with us getting the Noise out of there? No wonder the Conductor stayed, he had to go get his sister… Shit, man.

…… Did Coco steal Mr Mew and take him to Shinjuku?????

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#21 isn’t very interesting, just a rehash of stuff we already knew.

#22 Okay Haz IS Shinjuku’s Composer. What. Why? I’m. So confused. Why would he intercede on our behalf, and why NOW? He was happy to throw his own city away, but stepped in to stop skeezy in Shibuya? And then tried to put it back together, and when Rindo was miserable he came to try to understand why. And then cajoled Rindo into having a breakthrough in his Character Development to boot.

Mr H says he has an idea why Haz did all this. And then doesn’t fucking say it because OF COURSE. *headdesk* That gets really old really fast, game.

I’m now running through The Last Day’’ to get the final two reports and this entire section with Haz is somehow even more confusing with context. God damn it Nomura.

#23 Even after he said we were on our on this time, he forced the Soul Pulvis to reform as Pheonix Cantus to make it easier for us to fight? Bro. What. Are all Composers just… walking contradictions? Aiya.

Shoutout to emotional support Joshua at the end there lol. I remember half-hysterically thinking ‘what are you just here for moral support?’ but ok. And I mean, it did work, Neku did manage to do the thing, so. *sigh* Speaking of, it is ABSOLUTELY INSANE that Neku manage to sync with the entire city without his brain melting. Remember at the beginning of the first game when he scans for the first time and has a massive sensory overload? Look at my boy, all grown up.

#24 Holy shit world building on how exactly people come back to life without everyone freaking out. I never thought I would see the day.

I still have so many questions but that was always going to be the case. The first game had so many things it left open as well. Agh. Time to start wearing new holes in my brain overthinking things.

#let's liveblog: neo twewy #neo twewy spoilers #secret reports

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stillunpainted · 4 years ago

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There’s so much to unpack in that trailer I literally don’t know where to start. Just going to put my thoughts under the cut, this is all speculation and I am notoriously always wrong when it comes to speculation lol

- The fact that it shows Rindo and the other characters facing the destruction of Shibuya in multiple trailers makes me think that either a) Rindo had some kind of vision about it or b) there’s going to be some kind of Majora’s Mask situation going on where Rindo fails to prevent it on the first run (understandably, it’d be weird if he just knew what was going on from the beginning if he doesn’t have a vision.) and then starts the game completely over to try to prevent it from happening. I don’t know if this will be done linearly or if they’re going for multiple endings, which would be wild.

- Some people in a discord server I’m in were talking about how Rindo has an online friend named Swallow and the mysterious Guy we see at the end of the trailer has a bird on his shirt. Idk if it’s actually Rindo from the future or anything, but I’m willing to bet that the guy is Rindo’s online friend.

- The fact that Neku is both shown to be wearing one of Shiki’s hoodies and we get to see him take his hoodie down his making me think it’s more likely that it’s actually Neku, though why aren’t they showing his face at all? I feel like he’ll either have some kind of scar or there’s still the possibility of it being someone else, but I personally think it’s probably just Neku.

- Coco and Tsugumi being friends (or at least having some kind of alliance) is not something I would’ve considered but that kind of feels obvious now. I’m also wondering if Coco is a Shinjuku reaper since she appeared later than all of the Shibuya reapers and based on A New Day, clearly didn’t know them very well (making Joshua Like That, mixing up Kariya and Uzuki’s personalities.) Since the Shinjuku reapers are trying to destroy Shibuya for some reason it would line up. Then again, maybe she has plans that go against that idk.

- Shiki and Joshua being shown in the trailer makes me think that they’ll definitely play some kind of role, though Shiki’s will probably be more minor if we’re being real since I doubt she’s in the UG. I wonder how much Joshua knows about the situation. At the end of A New Day he seemed concerned by Shinjuku’s destruction but didn’t seem to know the cause. He could know more now, and I imagine since he decided he didn’t want Shibuya destroyed he’ll probably be trying to stop that this time around.

- Apparently Hanekoma’s cafe is gone. I’m sure he’ll be in the game, or at least mentioned, but I’m guessing the Higher Plane caught him.

- I’d have to go replay A New Day to double check Tsugumi’s dialogue to Neku but she states that she’s the only one left after Shinjuku’s destruction. She’s definitely not a Normal Person but this makes me think that she might’ve been a player in Shinjuku rather than being a reaper, or the composer of Shinjuku, as the reapers clearly survived. Then again maybe there were story changes between the release of Final Remix and Neo’s development, though I wouldn’t count on that I imagine they’re trying to be consistent.

- The Lizard Lady (sorry I don’t remember her name) having red eyes is extremely interesting. Red eyes was pretty established by the first game to mean mind control, so I’m wondering if the Shinjuku reapers are controlling each other and maybe there’s only a few orchestrating the destruction of various cities for some reason.

- Glad Uzuki and Kariya seem to be talking, even if they aren’t working together anymore. Lack of divorce pog.

- I noticed that the font and ui is different when fighting pig noise, it’s made to be cuter. I don’t think this means anything but I think it’s nice.

- The giant Mr. Mew might be a Tsugumi fight? I feel like it could also be a Shoka fight but meh.

- I noticed that a lot of the fights they showed have unique mechanics, like the one against the Marvelous Mañana guy having text boxes blocking the screen and the big guy with Tsugumi having some kind of board game mechanic (I think I know what board game it is referencing but I can’t for the life of me remember the name.) All I’m saying is that I hope that one of the boss fights has a rhythm game element solely because I think that would be cool.

#I'll add on more later i have to get breakfast #ntwewy #twewy

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oveliagirlhaditright · 4 years ago

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After the Game, Fret somewhat didn't like when someone other than canon had red hair and wore purple. Canon compliant. Oneshot. Neo spoilers. KH DDD is canon to TWEWY in this fic. Though you shouldn’t at all have to really know KH to understand this fic.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33469456

For the most part… Fret got on pretty well after Kanon’s death.

It was tough, it really was, but he soldiered on by becoming the more authentic version of himself she had wanted him to be… hoping that that would be enough. And that if her soul did somehow exist somewhere, she might see that and be able to find some happiness there.

And Fret had the Twisters, of course—and Neku’s old friends Shiki, Eri, and Rhyme (who was also Beat’s sister, of course), who had really integrated themselves into the group. There was also sometimes the aloof Joshua—who helped Fret keep his head where it belonged.

That, and all the school work he had to do now, as thoughts about college and careers were coming up, and he needed to try and focus on that, lest he be forgotten.

So, for the most part, while Fret still of course mourned Kanon, he had moved on and was in pretty good spirits, considering.

…The only thing that really got him down, oddly… was seeing redheads like she had been also wearing purple. And at first, meeting the legendary Neku right after Fret had lost the girl of his dreams had somewhat been a thorn in Fret’s side, because he’d just looked at Neku’s hair and the color he so clearly favored and thought “Kanon.”

But, thankfully, those feelings hadn’t lasted. They’d had Shibuya to save, after all. And Neku more than proved why he was great to have on a team and why he was the greatest friend, and why Fret should try and let his ghosts go.

But then, Fret had met Shiki’s best friend “Eri”… who was totally cool, by the way, and a co-creator of Gatto Nero with Shiki, and Fret couldn’t even begin to tell you how much he admired her. Especially since she was so pretty and on point… but not conceded at all, and down to earth.

As fate would have it, however, she’d been wearing purple the moment Fret had met her at Shiki’s birthday party. So, they hadn’t started out well, even though it had of course gotten better, and Fret had almost come undone (as ridiculous as it was for him to still be so hung-up on Kanon, he knew).

Thankfully, Shiki had right away seen his shaking form by the punch table and had come and given him a hug, as she’d whispered sweet nothings into his ear. She had guessed accurately what Fret’s problem was, and held him—not even seeming to feel like he was ruining her party at all—while she rubbed his back soothingly. “It’s okay not to get over a loved one quickly, you know? I was certainly that way about Neku. And you have it so much harder than I did. No one will judge you for your emotions, Fret. And if you need to talk, we’re all here for you. I’ll even go get Mr. Mew for you to hold, as he always cheers me right up.” Shiki had said that last part while winking at him, and Fret had had to laugh then.

He may have been afraid of Mr. Mew when Tsugumi had been controlling him and attacking them with the doll, but now that Fret had seen Shiki with her own one more often than not, Fret was thinking he was a sweet little guy again, and could definitely understand why Shiki would think he was good therapy.

“…And I may mention to Eri that it might be a good idea for her not to wear violet anymore.”

“What? You don’t have to do that? I got used to Neku, so I can with her, too!” Fret had wanted to tell her instantly, but Shiki had already been off to get Mr. Mew for him to cuddle.

And despite everything, Fret had watched Shiki walk across the dance hall with a smile on his face. It felt good to be appreciated. It did.

And after that, Eri did stop wearing that color, and everyone seemed to prefer it that way. Fret did, for his own reason, of course… Eri did, because she didn’t even like it that much, apparently, and Neku appreciated it, who jokingly thanked Eri for getting off his turf.

So, everything was more than good for Fret when it came to those colors for a while… but then some girl named Kairi came to Shibuya: a girl with darker red hair than Kanon, it was true, but wouldn’t you know that she was also wearing amethyst?

At first, Fret had been ready to write this stranger off—just another tourist in Shibuya, that he just happened to notice walking past him—but then she accidentally ran into Beat… and it seemed to startle the girl. And good Lord, then she summoned a magic key-shaped sword to her hands, without even seeming to think about it. And she wasn’t even in the UG! (Though when Fret saw this, his first concern was that they had landed back there.)

And the moment Neku and Beat (who were with Fret to go to Molco, to get him some Tin Pins, because that was becoming a thing again) saw the redhead summon the weapon, they had both exclaimed simultaneously, “You’re a Keyblade wielder!” “Yous a Key wielder!”

Fret had had no idea what they were talking about at that point. So, Neku had hastily explained that Shibuya had actually been destroyed before—a time that he, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme had only recently gotten their memories back of—and when it had, Joshua had taken their dream fragments (the only thing that had been left of them) to another world, to try and bring them back. And there, they’d taken bodily form once again and met a “Keyblade wielder” named “Sora”, and another one named “Riku,”

Beat had then gone to explain that they’d both helped them out, and that they were probably even bigger deals than him and Neku, and Fret couldn’t believe it. Hell! He could hardly even fathom it. What would that even look like? But he didn’t have much time to try and guess, because Neku began talking to the stranger almost instantly.

“Are you Sora’s girlfriend?” Neku had asked her then, bold as you please, as he’d pulled the redhead back out of the way of pedestrians going to and fro from all the different shopping areas. “He told me that he was great friends with a redhead, who liked art like Shiki does… I think he was insinuating then that I liked Shiki back then, and I wanted to kill him for all the hints he dropped her, while maybe not realizing that he had feelings for you yet, but I think it was still there… If you are that girl he mentioned, I mean.”

And then the poor girl had had a single tear slide down her eye—and Fret almost wanted to kick himself for only being able to think “you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon, you’re not Kanon. Why are you dressed like her?”, while he looked at her—and she explained to Beat, who was giving her a big old bear hug, but Neku too, that: “Yeah, I’m Sora’s girlfriend, Kairi… I’m looking for him, because he recently disappeared after he sacrificed himself to bring me back to life. I was thinking he might be here, or that there might be Heartless here that I needed to fight, but I don’t know.”

Neku had appeared to give much thought to all of that (crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes, Fret saw), before he finally met Kairi’s eyes with kind ones of his own. “Why don’t you come with me to meet Shiki? She’s another friend of Sora’s. And Keyblade wielders’ hearts can sometimes lead them to keys, right? Maybe there’s something there, if Sora used to tease me about us.”

And Kairi had gone with Neku and Beat to do that (while Fret had followed, aimlessly, feeling really curious, for sure, but also kind of despairing the whole way: he wasn’t going to lie). And then Kairi had found with Shiki’s help, the thing she needed that would help her lead to Sora, apparently.

It was a hockey puck, that Shiki said Neku had gotten her to help them remember old times together… And as soon as Kairi had come near it, her Keyblade had reacted—seeming almost to float over to the puck of its own free will, tugging Kairi along—and then an insanely crazy light show happened (where all of a sudden, the entire world around them had seemed to be nothing but darkness, with just a few pieces of light to speak of: coming from Kairi and the Keyhole that appeared in the sky, that she did acrobatics towards, in order to aim a laser from her Keyblade at it). Then, it was all over and the Buya returned to normal, but the girl was gone.

And Neku and Beat explained that that seemed to sometimes happen with Keyblade wielders—they’d both seen it with Sora and Riku—as they would sometimes get taken away to where they were meant to go next, before they really got to say goodbye. But they both assumed she was fine and gotten what she needed, and definitely seemed to be hoping it, too.

But Neku, Beat, and Shiki had definitely bonded with Kairi that day… and about a year later, she was back in Shibuya to visit them with Sora and Riku… and well, maybe a whole lot of other people. There was yet another girl with red hair, wearing amethyst…

And while Fret was kind of glad to see them—and was thrilled that Kairi had gotten her happy ending and she could just come her for funsies to see everyone now—he couldn’t help sitting in a park bench in Dogenzaka, sighing, as he watched the whole thing unfold.

“Hehehe. You’re in quite the mood. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were turning into Neku…” Someone else had come to sit by Fret… and one quick look let him know that it was none other than the Composer of Shibuya himself… and that he had better get it together, before the guy threw him into another Game to improve himself, like he originally had with Neku.

“Oh, uhh… Hi there, Joshua. It’s good to see you,” Fret said, putting a hand under his chin and regarding the other boy—god—with mixed feelings. “Did you see that ice is really in this season? And diamonds almost match your light blue shirts, right? I feel like if you started wearing some diamond necklaces, you’d be even more stylish than you already ar-”

But Joshua halted Fret’s attempt to somewhat butter him up, with a hand held high and a small smile on his face. “There’s no need for all of that, I assure you,” Joshua promised, violet eyes locking onto Fret’s and that, too, making the youth think of Kanon some. “If you want her back, why don’t you just ask me?” Joshua asked rather smug now.

And it was too much. All too much. Fret wanted to believe that Joshua could actually bring her back for him… but what if this was a trap? And what if Joshua meant it now… but Fret somehow made him changed his mind, when he begged him to do so and thanked him for it. What if he didn’t do everything to code?

Tripping over his words now, as he ran a hand through his hair, Fret asked, “I mean… I would love it. If you want to, and don’t think it’ll hurt Kanon to be back, I’m all for it. But can you really do that? Wouldn’t you maybe get in trouble?”

At that Joshua “hmmed”, and Fret panicked—feeling like he’d ruined his chances for real here—and he was about to kiss the Composer’s feet to try and be on his good side again…

But it seemed like Fret had started fretting over nothing, as Joshua giggled and flipped his hair once. “I’ve brought Players who didn’t win back after a corrupt Game before, so it wouldn’t be the first time. Kanon’s Soul did seem quite promising to me for a few reasons there, so I’d be interested to see how she would shape Shibuya…

“And as of now… I would not get in trouble, dear Fret. But thank you for your concern. Heh. I am the senior of a lot of angels on the Higher Plane. And right now, the ones above me are actually very much interested me and my methods, for halting Shibuya’s purification twice, but having it turn out better both times for it. So, I imagine they’d let this one slide.”

Fret was near tears at that point; of course he was… And okay, maybe he was actually crying now. It was just that this was all he had ever dreamed of after they’d gotten out of the Game, of course… Because despite what he told himself… Fret did still love Kanon. And wouldn’t it be great, to actually get back one of the friends that Fret had lost?

But now Fret had to wonder, as he scratched his neck awkwardly, “All those gingers I saw in purple… was that a hint from you to me that I could get Kanon back?” Had Fret been looking a gift horse in the mouth all this time?

Joshua was laughing once more, as he urged Fret to get up and go make nice with the Keyblade wielders, who—if Fret was hearing it right—were telling all of Fret’s friends about urban legends they had heard of in a place called Twilight Town… and then Nagi chirped back about the ones they’d seen in the Game, and Rindo and Beat jumped in to help her out with that.

Huh… Perhaps Fret really was missing something over there. And was Joshua, too?

“Usually, I wouldn’t give an answer… I would say it’s above your pay grade, or that the world is whatever you want it to be… But, no. I was not prompting you to make this choice about Tachibana Kanon. Though things seemed to work out rather nicely for you, wouldn’t you say? So you’d find the strength to ask me about her?”

“I- I do,” Fret admitted, looking down at the pavement—and then all the buildings around him—and thinking that for a concrete jungle… Shibuya was actually a masterpiece, and might have actually been heaven, as far as he was concerned. “So, when will Kanon-"

But when Fret looked towards Joshua once more, the Composer was already gone.

And Fret… he didn’t see Kanon for a while after that. And he imagined it probably felt like what Rindo had gone through (and somewhat Fret himself; all the Twisters, really), when Josh had first brought Shokie to the RG.

About four months later, Fret was beginning to dread that Joshua had forgotten his promise, or that it was impossible to bring Kanon back, after all…

And he was at 104, checking out all the new selections there, when he heard a voice behind him, “So, Fret… do you mind telling me how you really feel? And no sugarcoating it! I was proud to see how you grew, after all. And you can’t disappoint a lady by covering it up some, if you went to all this trouble to bring her back, y’know?”

Fret dropped the black hat that he’d been about to purchase (that was maybe so light black, it was actually closer to purple), as he turned around to face that voice and ran towards her to embrace her.

“Kanon!"

Author’s Note: So, the other redhead who goes with Sora and the crew to Shibuya in this story is supposed to be Ariel—in a “The Worlds Are Starting to be Reconnected” idea—and it’s mainly because she wore purple seashells (though a shirt here, of course). Not even gonna lie. But if you don’t like that, you can imagine it’s an OC… that Sora and Kairi had a daughter… or just completely ignore that part. It’s up to you.

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pmiller1 · 4 years ago

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What If Neku Sakuraba Was In Smash

I have been watching BrawlFan1, Whom made video of what he (and other) if some character was in Super Smash Brother. Talking about Move Set what they would use in Smash. And wild they there some character may not be in Smash or less likly, it is fun to come up with what they move and skill would be in Smash. And for me, being Inspired by his work. I will give my own idea for Neku Sakuraba.

A anti social teenage who have got himself into a Game known as the Reaper Game, take to clear the mission in set of team they would face eraser. And with that he have the power of psychs come from each set of pins he have been given by him and the help of his partners who is the only mean to help him clear the mission and get out of this Reaper.

Neku is a well written Character who was able to open up and become a batter person in the ends, no thank to his Partners who beside one became part of his new friends. Now he facing into another Game known as Super Smash Brother. Using his psychs to make a good match for any enemy and helping his allie.

Neku would be a Light wirght class with Two Jump and Wall Jump (thank to flowmotion in KHDDD).

The A Attack.

Let get right of the bat, Neku move are all from his Pins. And in the game he can only up to Six Pins. It wouldn’t really be fair to have Neku only have Six Pins for any attack, so he will have more then Six Pins.

And starting with his Jab, witch will be 1st ever posited element attack, Shockwave, He will slase with one hand, then slace with his other hand then he down slase with his 1st hand with Stellar Flurry pin, that rapidly stab.

His Dash Attack will be using a Velocity Attack Pins, Making a Velocity speed, crashing his body in a blear.

His Side Tilt. He be using his Lance Lunge pin, dealing lance like attack with a high knockback

His Up Tilt will be using his Vulcan Uppercut pin, that as the name said, deal a uppercut attack, this will also give a higher jump in the end, but will end in a freefall.

His Down Tilt will be using one of the Earthquake Pin, facing Neku will have a small shockwave that deal little damage, but will trip opponent.

As for Side Smash, Neku will be using a Massive Hit pin, where he charged up, as Neku to jump slightly forward and swing a large blade.

His Up Smash, Will be using a Piercing Pillar pin, the slash one, Where he a ice pillar shot up wear from Neku, deal ice damage, freezing opponent on contact.

His Down Smash, It will be from his Street Jam pin. As two speaker appear when charged beside Neku facing away from him that deal a sound blasé, deal damage and could knockback opponent,

His Neutral Aerial, He using one of his Pin that use Discharge, As Neku deal electric damage, stunting opponent.

Forward Aerial, He will be using on of starter pin that he get in his 2nd day, Force Rounds, As Neku will fire a Projectiles of Force Rounds, on the angel of where it was tilt, being upper side or down wear side just to the side of him.

His Back Aerial, He will one of Apport Pin, where Neku would have a rock throw behind him that would spick opponent if they was hit bellowed the rock.

His Up Aerial, He'll use a Twister pin, that make a whirlwinds on top of Neku, that deal small multi hit damage that also push opponent up wear.

His Down Aerial will be one from Grave Marker pin, where he does inter fall damage to any that come into contact and a small shockwave when he landed.

The Grabs.

Grabs have long range grab thank to his Pyrokinesis pin, witch he use to keep opponent on hold with his Pyrokinesis.

The Pummel, he will use one of the Holy Light pin, where he deal a small light damage.

His Forward Throw, will push the opponent, knocking back, as if he use Slash version of Pyrokinesis .

His Back Throw, will use the Drag version of Pyrokinesis. where he Drag the opponent, throwing them behind him.

His Up Throw, He use one of the Explosion pin, As it deal explosion damage under the opponent sending them up wear.

And his Down Throw, he will use the Touch version of Pyrokinesis. Sending in the air and throwing them down to the ground that deal damage, if this was on the edge, it will make then go down until of land on a ground or the blasé zone.

The B Attacks.

His Neutral Special, he will use the very 1st pin he have use, Pyrokinesis, with this he will make a trial of fire that you can move with a cursor, the fire will fleam up that deal fire damage. However this leave Neku vulnerable and last for 3s and can't use it for 5s. If Neku in the Air in this Attack. He will use Splash Core instead, That make a Bubble of Water in fount of him that deal damage of a opponent made contact it, that bust it.

His Side Special, well it will be a charge attack as he use Thunderbolt when Uncharged, fire a thunder, locking to a opponent close to him, any opponent beside them will also be locked on, deal a chain attack with each chain deal less damage then he main one. If you release the move when charging, he will use one of Lightning Arrester pin. That make a Neku fire a Lightning bolt direction to wear witch direction of the left anglog with a small arrow slowing where he will fire at. He deal multi hit electric damage. But full charged, he will use Lightning Bolt pin. Where a longing bolt of lightning from blasé zone, pass Neku by the direction of the left anglog again. Like with Lightning Arrester it will deal multi hit electric damage.

His Up Special. He'll use one of the Teleport pin. Witch he Teleport. Yeah. I think you know how that work.

His Down Special... Well here the thing, Neku wouldn't be able to use anything of his pins, if he haven't partnered up with another Player, forming a Pack that bond him and his partnered, he be helpless alone, in fact, he need to Partnered to Survived the Reaper Game, it why he become a better person, he had his partnered, having no other option to work with there partnered, needing to trust his partnered to win the games. And sure, he in Smash for this, not the Reaper Game, He can play his Solo. But really, if he gonna win Smash, He gonna need his Partnered.

The Gimmicks.

That right, he wouldn't be alone, as Shiki, Joshua and Beat will also be joining Smash too. And really, if Neku gonna be in Smash, his Partners have to join too, Being then own fighter in there right. That the point of the game, is having that partnership, Neku became a better person thank to them. Truth you Partners and will take that partnership to the fullest.

For this, His Down Special, He will use a Smash Remix of the Partner Pins. As using will summon Shiki, his 1st partner along with with his stuff pig... I mean cat adding her with Neku, she'll and the rest of Neku's Partners will be a semi-controlled player, like with 2nd Ice Climbers. When Neku attack, she will attack, if Neku use a Special, she will use her own, she move with him.

Down Special, will switch with his Next Partner, Joshua, then Beat and back to Shiki. However, they will have a cooldown when you switch out and would be able to resummons them for a 10s.

However, they is a flaw, as whatever deal damage to his partner, Neku will take that damage, if they hit the blasé zone, Neku will lose a shock and will respawn with the partner. As in the DS game, Neku and Partner share one HP bar. But they will have they own HP bar they own, that also act as they time to being used, one that bar empty out, they will disband will have a longer cooldown, 30s.

You can select who your starting Partners will be by press Y, like with PT, the Echo fighter and The Aegis Girls.

You can also select Neku to go Solo having no Partners. In watch Neku will use Pin given by Rhyme, Beat 1st partner, Cure Drink. This will heal Neku down 30% of his damage, who 1/5 in Stamina. However you can only use four time and it will not cooldown, making Neku Down Special useless until he got KO. As it will refill the number.

And for the sake of it, Neku will only be Solo if the match is a 5-8 player. As having all those Partners, Will be hell for Match.

He will have have another Gimmicks, one that only effect in team battle, the Puck. Every time Neku deal damage, a orb of light move toward one of his teammate, the player with the orb deal more damage, passing the puck to another team or back to Neku, Getting more stronger for each time it passed, but will died out of no damage have been dealt for some time. As Neku need to deal again to restaring the Puck. This encouraged the team to being team combo and teamwork as part of the point of the game, teamwork and trusting your Partner. After all, you and Neku have toward together.

The FINAL SMASH!

For Neku's FINAL SMASH, It will be a cinematic Final Smash. As Neku will from a Black Hold from the Black Hole pin itself, pull all opponents up to three into the black hold. If at least one been suck in, it teleported them into Shibuya with the 104 building visible. As whichever Partners is out, they will there Level 3 Fusion Attacks. Shiki's will have Mew being as tall as the build as it fire laser into the trap opponents, deal a lot of damage as She and Neku stand on his shoulder, Joshua's having the Moon fall toward them as Neku and Joshua flow in Space, And Beat will have city been flood as the him and Neku surfing on the tidal wave. And if there no partners or playing Solo, Neku will instead use the Final Fusion, In watch Neku and his Partners join to bring a powerful light that well deal even higher damage. Each of those Fusion will KO when opponents is over 100%.

I will also say that Neku's Partners as they own Smash Fighter will have the same Final Smash with there repasted Level 3 Fusion Attacks.

The Other Stuff.

Neku will started out with his deflated outfit that we seen in The World Ends with You. I should note that I will not go over his Partners outfit in this, just know there be a theme around them. Yes outfit, As the game take place in Shibuya, faction is a thing and you gotter look fabulous, even in the Reaper Game.

His 2nd outfit that I call Favourite brand: He be wearing Dharma, Inazuma, Gekirin and Wadatsumi. It may seem like the are same as Neku own outfit, but this will be light blue. All of this are from Jupiter of the Monkey.

His 3rd outfit, The Punk: He'll be wearing Red Mohawk Set, Tiger Biker Vest, Bondage Half-pants and Purple Sneaks. All from Tigre Punks. His hair will be Red to match the Monark.

His 4th outfit, The Hip: He'll be wearing Dandy Hat, North Wind Concerto, Youth's March and Young American. All from Hip Snake.

His 5th outfit, The Top-class: He'll be wearing Regal Presence and Liberty Duke. Both from Pegaso, His hair will be brown, as he undyed his hair.

His 6th outfit, The Gothic: He'll be wearing Double-breasted Suit, Ribbon Mini-hat and Platform Shoes. All from Lapin Angelique.

His 7th outfit, The School: He'll be wearing a Boys' Uniform with Blazer.

His 8th outfit, The Gamemaster: He'll be wearing Pi-Face's Bandanna, Cap, Coat, and Jeans. All from his 2nd weak Gamemater, Sho Minamimoto, his hair will be gray as Sho. This will also have most of his attack have a black effect on them as if he using Six of Darklit Planets pins.

Enter will have him come out of a Beam of Light like with Mageman.

His Up Taunts will have him hand close to his headphone saying "Open up your Senses" His Side Taunts will said "You're good as gone!" wild posting like his angry Emoticon Sprite. And his Down Taunts will have him in his battle-ready post. Saying "Any last words?!"

Neku will have 9 victory, 6 of them with his Partners and 2 when he going Solo (and in team victory.) And one Up victory no matter if he solo or have any partners.

In fact is Up victory, will have Shiki, Joshua and Beat teleported in and then Neku will teleported in fount and all of those there pose in Cover Art in The World Ends with You. He will say "That's how it's done."

Neku Left victory with have and his certain Partners move join hand and then does the pose as they Level 3 Fusion attack. Wild Solo, he adjusted his headphone and those the same pose as he would over all. He will say "So, who's next?"

And his Right victory for his solo, he removed his headphone and those behind him wild looking away from the camera. With Shiki, he will be camera faceing back of Neku with a hand light thought him as he turn with the camera toward Shiki, who smashing holding Mr Mew, as the two give a fight five. Like with Ending with when Neku and Shiki met in the RG. With Joshua, Neku will listen to some music, only for Joshua to flow down beside Neku, making him jump, with Joshua gigging beside him, as Nkeu looking annoyed at him. With Beat, Neku and Rhyme will be talking, as Best jump in give the two a big hugged as the trying to keep they smile.

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And that is What If Neku Sakuraba Was In Smash, Really, I just want to do this myself, I like Neku as a Character and wild he have little changed to be in Smash, I still want to go along with this. And really, wild they could having Neku be in Smash alone, but would defeated the purpose of what the story all about, that Neku have to be in a Team, to open up with another person, he need his partner in order to even use his Pins.

But still, What do you think what Neku moveset would be? Do you like my ideal moveset for him?

And really, go watch BrawlFan1 on youtube, have made some character with really and ideal moveset for other character, some of witch fit with the theme of there games. He could even have Neku as a latter character his own, and really, I like to see what BrawlFan1 will have for Neku’s moveset himself. Over all, I hope you enjoyed this and thank for reading.

#the world ends with you #super smash bros ultimate #What If This Character Was In Smash #Neku Sakuraba

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izaswritings · 5 years ago

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all that’s left in the world | chapter two

Title: all that’s left in the world—

Synopsis: —is me.

Neku’s been shot and Shibuya is threatening to go the same way as Shinjuku, but just because the first Game is over doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten how to play.

Or: Neku deals with a nightmare city and his most annoying (and mathematical) partner yet; Shiki and Joshua commit an escalating number of illegal moves, Beat and Eri hunt down a stray Reaper, and Rhyme watches and waits for the counter-attack. Shibuya refuses to go down easy.

Fandom: The World Ends With You | TWEWY

Warnings: some cursing, implied/referenced character death a la Neku’s situation/Reaper’s game, references to canonical murder attempts (successful and failed), implied suicide mentions (nothing explicit, just… as a way to get into the Game), self-esteem issues abound, and Joshua. Just… Joshua.

AO3 Link is here!

Part One is here!

part two: shiki

She knows even before she gets the call, Beat inconsolable over the phone. She knows, in some way, from the moment she wakes up, that very morning. Mr. Mew’s stitching is ripped and Neku is late for their meeting; she and Eri go shopping alone. It’s not the first time it has happened, and Eri is fine, even more upbeat than usual when she hears it’s just them today—but Shiki, for a moment there at Ten-Four, stands looking in a shop window feeling like the floor has fallen out beneath her feet, like everything has tilted to just that one degree left to off and now no matter what she tries, it’s never going to be the same again.

So, yeah. She knows. She picks up the phone for the second time this morning with her fingers already going numb, her gut all tied up in knots, Mr. Mew strangled in her other hand. She answers the phone.

She says, “Beat, I— I don’t understand, I’m sorry, what happened? Beat, what happened? Where’s Neku? I just talked to him, I was just talking to him—is he with you? Beat?”

She listens. “Beat, where are you?”

She doesn’t move. She feels like she’s barely breathing. She talks into the phone, and she can’t even hear her own voice, the roaring in her ears is so loud.

Minutes later. Shiki hangs up the phone. She closes her eyes.

There’s a beat. Ten-Four is aflutter around her; the murmuring crowd and the click of shoes against the ground and the way the light warps and reflects, bouncing off the glass, twisting around each shadow. It’s midday on a Monday and Shibuya is awake and alive, and Shiki feels like a stranger.

Eri says, “Shiki?”

Shiki blinks. She swallows. She’s still holding the phone, she realizes, and it takes effort to click it closed, to put it away. Her hands are cold.

Eri’s standing in front of her, eyes wide. They’re in the middle of the walkway, the crowd rushing around them. She has shopping bags in one hand and a smile that’s fallen to worry. “Shiki! What’s wrong? Was that Neku?”

Shiki flinches, and then curls her hand. “N-no,” she says. She takes a breath. Then another. Something settles in her. “No, no, it was— Eri, um, I’m sorry, I have to go.”

“What? But—”

“Sorry. Sorry. I just— I have somewhere I need to be,” Shiki says, and she says this last bit very quietly, decided and cold to her core, a whisper to herself. “Eri— Eri, can I ask a favor?”

Eri has already put down her bags. She looks freaked. “Of course, Shiki, anything, but what—”

“My friend, Beat— h-he saw— he needs some help right now. He’s by the CAT mural in Udagawa. Can you go help him get home? Beat’s calling Rhyme, and I’m sure they’ll get him back safe but— I'd feel a lot better if you could help too.”

“Sure,” Eri whispers. They’re in their own little bubble in the crowd, and Eri has come close, shopping bags left on the floor and her bare hands taking Shiki’s wrists. “Sure, of course, whatever it is but—Shiki, what happened? Where are you going?"

Shiki stares down at the floor. She doesn’t answer, doesn’t know how to answer, and in the end she just stays silent. She tugs her wrists from Eri’s grip, and turns to pick up Mr. Mew with both hands, looking down at his face. There’s comfort in this—the stitching she knows by heart, that she did by hand; the reminder of the power, and the life she once breathed into him. Her hands tighten. Her fingers leave little dimples in his black fur. Because Mr. Mew is answer enough, isn't it? She feels so cold, but she isn't surprised, not really. She woke up this morning feeling like the world was off-kilter, and even though she hadn’t needed Mr. Mew with her for weeks, she'd brought him with her today.

“Shiki?”

Her eyes feel hot and wet. She presses her lips. “Eri,” she says. “Please just trust me. I—I have to—I have somewhere I need to go.”

Eri looks panicked. Her hands flutter by Shiki's shoulders. She laughs, bubbly and bright and all Eri, but it wavers at the edges. “I—”

Shiki meets her gaze. “Please,” she repeats. Her grip on Mr. Mew is very tight. “He’s by the CAT mural. He’s… he’s not doing okay.”

Eri bites her lip hard. “Okay,” she whispers. She swallows and looks around and makes as if to pick up her shopping bags, almost, before she seems to think better of it and pulls her hand back, fluttering in the air. “Okay, okay. I will.” She searches Shiki’s face. “You better call me, okay? Shiki, promise you’ll call me.”

If this goes right, Shiki won’t be able to call her. Shiki won’t be able to call anyone. But she can’t say that. Eri doesn’t know—not about the Game, not about anything. Even if she did, she still wouldn’t let Shiki go.

And Shiki has to do this.

Shiki exhales. “Okay.”

Eri’s face falls. She’s always known when Shiki lied to her. She reaches out and Shiki steps back. “Thanks, Eri,” Shiki says, voice tight, and then she turns on her heel and runs for it before she can think better of what she is about to do.

Neku told them all the whole story, in the end; Neku tells them everything. The missing gaps and the hollow pieces and who that pale-haired boy had really been, down there in the Shibuya River, on that final day. He told them, even though he wasn’t supposed to, and at the time Shiki had nodded and listened and tried not to feel sick, and she'd said all the things that needed to be said, like “Why do you still trust him?” and “Okay, Neku, but—” and “Even so. If—if he ever—you know I always have your back, right?”

And Neku had smiled at her. “I know,” he'd said.

But Shiki had taken something else from that truth too, in a way Beat and even Rhyme had not: she had understood. She understands what it’s like. Once, not as long ago as either of them would like, Neku had lifted Shiki into the air and strangled her with her own shirt collar. He tried to kill her. And afterwards he said sorry like it had to be pulled out from between his teeth, and Shiki had accepted that because Shiki accepted everything back then, especially terrible things, because Shiki had known she was an awful person and so bad things in return were just deserved.

Neku hadn’t really been sorry then; in her secret heart of hearts, Shiki hadn’t really forgiven him, either. She would, though. At the end of the sixth day, five minutes before the ad was set to air and they were waiting with bated breath to know the outcome, Shiki had apologized for slowing them down—and Neku, Neku had looked away and said, awkward and quiet and like he didn’t know the right way to be kind: “That's okay. It’s fine. We, um. We all have our bad days.”

She’d looked at him, then. She thought about everything he’d said to her, how she’d bared all her ugly secrets and he’d accepted it like it was fine. How he’d told her she was lucky to be jealous—to have something to strive for—to have a friend so wonderful you could be jealous of them—and how those words had sunk in where everything else had slipped off. The envy ate at her, sometimes, like a rot in her gut; in no world could Shiki ever imagine being able to leave it behind.

So to hear that? That this envy didn't have to be a bad thing? That she could be jealous and still love Eri, be jealous and still be herself—learn to love herself? That it was Neku who gave her that?

And that day, at the end, she said, “Neku? Thanks,” but what she really meant was I forgive you.

So she understands, a little, the thing between Neku and the boy named Joshua, even if she doesn’t like it. She understands. And when Neku told her the story, she took it and tucked it away, that Joshua was Composer and powerful and dangerous and sometimes cruel—but he was also someone Neku trusted.

And she’s thinking of that, still—remembering the story, and the way Neku told it; remembering forgiving Neku. And she’s thinking of the Reapers, and the Game, and of that last day in the rain, facing the Game Master head-on, standing up and standing strong and saying: I'm coming back to Eri, and you aren’t stopping me.

She looks up into the entrance of the Shibuya River. She curls her fingers to fists. Mr. Mew dangles from one hand.

She walks inside with her head held high, and refuses to let herself shake.

The door lets her through. She’s not sure why—if it's because she’s in the RG or if it’s because there are so few higher-ranking Reapers left to challenge him that Joshua honestly doesn’t see a reason to block her or anyone else out—but Shiki’s not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, as Rhyme would say, so she sets her jaw and pulls back her shoulders, and marches right on in.

It’s... as creepy as it was the first time around, she thinks, and cold, too, even with her sweater. She shivers a little and draws the green cardigan higher up her shoulders, taking strength from it. Mr. Mew is a comforting weight in her hands, but the deeper she walks in the more Shiki has to double-check: the warmth of her green sweater, the darker tan of her hands compared to Eri’s, the bobbed cut of her darker hair and the thin weight of her glasses on her nose. She’s Shiki. She’s herself. No matter what she remembers of this place, she’s here now stronger and better than before. She’s walking these halls with her own two feet.

Despite her conviction, though: it really is creepy. The quiet drip of the water from above, the slow trickle of the deadened river, the long, empty hall stretching on and on. She exhales hard and isn’t surprised when her breath fogs.

“Hello?” Shiki tries, and no, nope—the silence is somehow worse when nothing answers. She exhales harder, angry at her own fear, and draws herself tall. Her footsteps click quiet down the hallway. She’s dressed well for this. She likes these boots. Comfortable, cute, and good for running. “Helloooo?”

Nothing.

She thinks of the phone call, of Beat babbling over the speaker. “It happened again, yo, I saw—I wasn’t fast enough—I wasn’t enough, Shiki, I—I'm sorry, Phones—oh, fuck, Phones—”

When she speaks again, she feels very cold. “I know you can hear me. Or, I guess—you should. You probably already know I’m here. Maybe you even let me in... I don’t know.” She hugs Mr. Mew to her chest. “Beat mentioned you. You saw what happened, right? You know what’s going on?” She stares into the darkness. Nothing. “I know we don't know each other very well, but I— Neku trusts you. Despite everything. So I’m going to try too.”

Still nothing. Shiki rubs one of Mr. Mew’s paws between her fingers and draws strength from the stitching. The remembered pride of creating this little stuffed cat, the dedication, her fingers bloody from needle-pricks and the way she’d smiled for days once she’d finished. “I need to talk to you,” she says, louder now. “I need to— I need your help! You’re the Composer, right? You brought us back, right? Joshua—”

“I didn’t say you could call me that.”

The voice is young, boyish, chiding… and utterly unexpected. Shiki startles so bad she almost falls over, and turns around so quick she almost gets whiplash. Mr. Mew is squeezed in a death grip. She splutters. “Y-You—that was—give some warning!”

The boy who had definitely not been there a second ago just smiles at her. Shiki’s heart abruptly lodges in her throat. She feels cold again. Oh, she thinks. She recognizes him. Only barely, only briefly, but... the pale hair, the bright eyes. The way he’s smiling. She knows him. Joshua—the Composer. Or something.

“Um,” Shiki starts, and then forgets everything she’d planned to say.

The boy waits, and when the silence stretches, he smiles. “What,” he says. His eyes are bright. “Nothing to say? And after you came all this way.”

That kickstarts her brain. Shiki takes a breath and sets her feet. It’s fine. She’s fine! Reapers and Noise and even a dragon... and maybe the Composer is stronger than all those things, but Shiki knew this going in. She knew the moment she answered the phone—the moment she walked up to the door.

“I need your help,” she says, and Joshua raises an eyebrow.

“Wow,” he says. “So forward. And demanding. And I should help you... or even listen to you, I might add... why, exactly?”

She stares at him. “Because Neku's—hurt,” she says, stumbling over the words. The boy's smile widens. She kind of hates it. “He needs our help!”

“Mm-hm.” Joshua tilts his head. “Okay. That doesn't answer my question, you realize.”

Okay. Okay. All-powerful being who could smite her or not, Shiki’s starting to get a little angry here. She takes a deep breath. “Neku… he’s in the Game again, right? I wanted to ask if you could—”

His eyes are suddenly cold. “Neku's dead,” Joshua says, blunt. Shiki falters, the words dying on her tongue. “I won’t stop the Game for him, or for anyone. Even if he was in my Game, I’m afraid that just isn’t done.” He smiles again, but his demeanor has visibly chilled. “Well, this was fun. See you—”

But Shiki isn't listening anymore. “That’s not what I was going to say!” she snaps, hotly. “I wasn’t going to ask you to—” Her mind derails. She stops. “Wait, w-what? What do you mean if he was—Neku’s not in the Reaper’s Game?”

Joshua’s tilted his head, though; he looks curious. “Oh?” He blinks. “Don’t tell me you want to join him in the Game. Trust me, you don't need my help for that.”

Yeah, Shiki knows. But she also knows she couldn’t. She couldn’t hurt Eri like that, couldn’t hurt Neku or Beat or her parents… couldn’t do that to herself. Maybe this body won’t ever be what Shiki wants it to be, maybe her reflection won’t ever quite match who Shiki knows she is… but it’s hers. She is Shiki Misaki, and she’s worth something all on her own, and she won’t forget that again. She’s not who she used to be.

But Joshua isn’t wrong, either: he just hasn’t figured it out yet, why out of all people Shiki needs his help, because the only way this works is if he agrees. “Maybe not,” she says, voice small. “But you’re the only one who could let me in as an illegal Player.”

Because Neku told her everything—even the lie, even what he’d thought was the truth. And this time when Joshua looks her over, reading her mind or just her face or whatever it is Composers do, she knows he gets it, because he finally stops smiling.

“...Huh,” he says, but he doesn’t sound much pleased. He crosses his arms, one hand lifting to twirl a strand of hair. “Hm. Well. An interesting idea.” He stops mid-motion. “Though you do realize that just because I break my own rules doesn’t mean I’m going to let you do the same, don’t you?”

“I—I get that,” she admits. “I do. But I'm not—I get it, I know Neku has to win the Game to come back, that’s the major rule, but—but the risk’s the same, right? If I get erased in the UG, I’ll die in the RG too, I’m just... skipping a step to the entry? The Game itself—I’m still playing with the same stakes! Um. R-right?” She thinks.

Joshua doesn’t say anything. His eyes are narrow. “It’s an entertaining idea, I’ll give you that. Unfortunately...” He trails off, hands rising in an open shrug, and sighs heavily, falsely regretful. “I’m afraid I just don’t have any more use for Neku, really. He’s done his duty, and very well, too... and now it’s time for him to retire. I advise you just accept it and move on.”

There’s static in her ears. Shiki is frozen still. She gapes at him. Joshua smiles back, and it doesn’t reach his eyes. He flicks his fingers at her. “Ta. You can leave now.”

“What are you saying?” She sounds so quiet, even to herself. Strangled. Cold all the way to her bones.

He sighs again. “Look—”

“How can you say that!?” Something’s buzzing in her ears, burning in her blood. She can’t breathe. “You can’t—how could you—I thought he was your partner too!”

Joshua’s smile flickers. Shiki barrels on before he can speak. “He'd do it for you!” she snaps, feeling something angry and hot climb up behind her eyes. When she'd died… it had mattered. Her parents had left flowers by the spot, and even Eri—Eri, who Shiki had been so afraid to see—she'd cared so much she'd almost given up her whole dream just because Shiki wasn't there with her. And it had hurt, to hear that—to know she was so loved, and how much she had left to lose by failing the Game—but it mattered. To hear that. To know.

So she can't imagine this—can't imagine if someone spoke about her the way this boy is speaking about Neku, like he's nothing, like he doesn't matter, like the only reason to save someone is because they're useful. It makes something coil in her gut. It makes her throat close up tight.

“He'd do it for you!” she repeats, scandalized, and Joshua isn't smiling at all now and she should really watch that—but she’s too angry, suddenly, too mad to think. Her arms are ramrod-straight by her side, Mr. Mew swinging from one shaking fist; she stomps her foot against the ground and it doesn't feel like enough. “He— he didn't shoot you in your stupid duel and he never hated you even when he was mad at you and he always invites you to our meetups and—and even I know that, he didn't even tell me that, I just know! Because you’re his partner! He—and you—”

She’s losing her words. She wants to scream. “Never mind! Never mind! I don't get why Neku cares about you at all! You clearly don't deserve it! I'll save Neku myself, you—you—argh!”

She wants to strangle him, but she’s not that far gone. Shiki stamps her foot again instead of hitting Joshua in the face like he deserves, and marches down the hall, shoving past him, heading for the exit. Fine, fine, fine. She'll figure something out. She will.

“Neku is a special brand of stupid.”

Shiki takes it back. She's going to hit him. She turns around, livid, words rising on her tongue, and then she sees Joshua fully and stops. He has one strand twisted around his finger; he's staring off into nothing, into the darkness of the sewer, looking something like thoughtful, or maybe tired, or maybe just blank. “He is,” he adds, when Shiki doesn't say anything. “Anyone else would have taken the shot. Should have...”

He trails off, then sighs again. “It doesn’t matter. Like I said before: he’s not in my Game. Someone’s trying to jack Shibuya, and frankly, she's annoyingly good at covering her tracks. If Neku’s in a Game, it’s not one I'm running.” He makes a face, briefly. “And fine, yes, I can guess where he is, but your idea only works if there’s other Players to pact with. If he’s where I think he is… and if she’s running it… well, I doubt there’s anything left in that city at all, Player or person. Even if I was so inclined to sneak you in, you’d be less than useless. No partner…”

He stops there, the words unsaid but understood. No partner, no power. Shiki would be nothing but more food for the Noise.

Shiki stares at him. She turns her eyes away. His admission has pulled the rug out on her anger; she’s not sure how to feel at all. “...Oh.”

“Mm.” He's silent, for a moment. Shiki stares at the ground. In the distance, water drips.

“Could...” Her voice falters. Shiki swallows. “Could you get me in,” she says, haltingly, “as an illegal Player... if I was already in a pact?”

He tilts his head, giggling a little at the thought. “Wow. You’re just full of ideas, aren’t you? Let me guess. Daisukenojo Bito? His sibling? Or what about your friend… Eri, was it?”

This time, though, Shiki’s ready for him. “What about you?"

He seems, for a moment, to be at a loss for words. Then he smiles again. “No.”

“But—”

“It's a grand idea, really. But you aren't really suited to be around, well, me—for a long period of time. And I can't exactly leave Shibuya unguarded.”

What? That’s news to Shiki. “But Neku was fine,” she says, bewildered, and Joshua smiles, a little sideways.

“Well, he was fighting for you.”

Oh, Shiki thinks, and for a moment it just kind of hurts, to be reminded of that. To remember how much she'd come to mean to Neku. Like Eri almost giving up their dream—something painful, but not all bad. It’s never a bad thing, Shiki thinks, to know you’re loved. She draws herself taller. “Then it's fine,” she says stubbornly, and when Joshua raises an eyebrow at her, she says, “I'm playing for Neku. So it's fine.”

He snickers. “That's not at all how it works, but I'll give you points for tenacity.”

“I don't care,” Shiki says, more firmly. “If it's what we have to do, then I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes.”

They finally got back. They were all finally together. And Shiki could look Eri in the eyes again and not hate herself while doing it, and Beat smiled all the time now and Rhyme, Rhyme was dreamless but happy and, they said, willing to try and find a dream again. Rhyme was alive.

Neku was happy.

Joshua’s smiles fades, a little. He considers her. Shiki stands still and tall and tries her best not to fidget.

Joshua takes a moment to think about it. He twirls one section of hair around his finger, tugging at the strand. And then he is smiling again, and that brightness is back in his eyes. “Well,” he says. “All right then, Shiki Misaki. You have yourself a deal.” His smile flashes to a grin. He giggles. “I guess you can call me Joshua after all... partner.”

Shiki meets his gaze and smiles back. He’s rude. He is, she realizes, a little cruel. When she can do so without getting immediately smited, she’s going to break his nose for ever talking like he was going to leave Neku to die. But maybe he does care about Neku, maybe it does mean something to him too, because she can't see any other reason why he'd agree.

And Neku trusts him.

Shiki isn’t sure if she feels the same, but she knows how the Game is played.

“Call me Shiki,” she agrees, and the last thing she hears before the pale flicker of the binding pact blinds her, and the world flickers around her like bad static, is Joshua, laughing again.

The pact snaps into place—

—and then Shiki is somewhere else.

#twewy #the world ends with you #joshua kiryu #yoshiya kiryu #shiki misaki #eri #neku sakuraba #twewy fic #fic: all that's left in the world #iza fanfic

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composereggwrites · 5 years ago

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Imprint Zine: New Creators’ Spotlight

This is my full article for the twewy @imprintzine!!! There’s still digital copies available of the full zine, and some merch left too!!! It was a blast to write and work with the other participants!

If you like this and wanna chat with me about it hit me up here or in my twewy discord!!!

Ao3

NEW CREATORS SPOTLIGHT

Hello again readers, and welcome to this month’s New Creator Spotlight! We find up-and-coming artists of all types to highlight! From fashion, music, and art, we know how to find the hidden talent in Shibuya and illuminate them all for you to see!

Mr. Mew Creations

First up is Mr. Mew Creations, a new fashion brand led by the fabulous Eri and Shiki Misaki. This duo has taken the fashion scene by storm with their innovative ideas and inspiring designs. From dresses to bright three-piece suits, these two push the boundaries of how we define outfits.

The star of their debut collection is a marvelous dress suit! It’s a dress, and a suit, combined into one! The top half is styled as a silken tuxedo jacket in bold fuchsia, with a pale lavender undershirt and iridescent pearl buttons. The bottom half, however, is a skirt designed to evoke the image of an elegant ball gown. The slip is comfortable enough to wear all day, while providing a backing to the outermost layer, which is a cascade of feathers dyed a stunning cobalt blue.

They have a myriad of other pieces in this lineup, going beyond the binary while staying fashionable and comfortable. From a simple purple shirt with embroidered orange foxes along the hem, to a yellow sweater with a detailed pink squirrel on the front, there’s a wide variety to choose from!

We sat down with the girls for an interview in their studio to talk about their threads, and they had a lot to say!

Thank you for interviewing with us. Could you both introduce yourselves for our readers?

Eri: Yeah sure! Thank you for interviewing us! I’m Eri, the lead designer of our two-person team, Mr. Mew Creations! I do most of the conceptual work, putting ideas down on paper and seeing where that gets us. Shiki definitely helps with that, but her talent shines in, well-- She can tell you!

Shiki: Hah, yeah! I’m Shiki Misaki! I’m the seamstress, so I made all the outfits you can see here in our workspace! Taking what Eri gives me, I bring our ideas to life! We’re both good in each other’s field, but together it feels like we’re unstoppable. She’s handed me some amazing designs to work with, and some I never thought I’d be able to turn into reality. The star of our show, the dress, was one of those. It almost ended up in the trash on more than one occasion, actually. We had to completely redesign it multiple times because we’re both perfectionists, and because someone sees the laws of physics as a challenge to beat. Eri likes to see how far we can push things past their limits, but we work best together because I can reel her back in if it goes too far.

We’re glad you two make such a good team! What led you to make the half-dress, half-suit outfit?

Eri: We wanted to design something that ignored gender norms. Something that defied them, without defaulting to a vaguely-masculine, androgynous look. The fact that clothing is gendered is ridiculous, and there’s this idea that men’s clothing is the default when you want a “gender neutral” item. We decided to go in the opposite direction, and add as much gender as we could, without being limited to one gender.

Shiki: It, like most of our line, is inspired by one of our friends. This dress was originally designed for him, before we decided to use it as part of our lineup. Gender is weird, and the society we live in makes navigating it more confusing than it needs to be. To be able to wear what you want, without worrying about the perception others have of you, without worrying about the way you’ll be labeled? That’s the ideal we strive for, and we hope our work can make a difference.

You said your friends inspired your line. What can you tell us about your creative choices?

Eri: Our friends are unique individuals, and we are too, so we know how to take a look at what people want, and what they need. Not everyone has the perfect model body. Not everyone wants to wear the high-fashion bling, or keep up with all the latest trends. The trick is to find what people want to wear, and design that, instead of chasing what’s trendy. If it’s stylish, people will want it, but it has to look nice and fit right.

Shiki: Just because something is comfortable, doesn’t mean it can’t have style. People are going to notice if you’re not at ease in the clothes you wear, and that unease ruins otherwise perfect appearances. We custom make everything here, and as the seamstress it’s my job to take what Eri gives me for the design and bring it to life. Doing that, while taking sensory issues into account, and ensuring nothing irritates the person who will be wearing it, is of the utmost importance.

Can you tell us a bit about yourselves and your brand? How you got started, or where your mascot came from?

Shiki: Oh! Our mascot, Mr. Mew, was the first thing I ever made. I still have the original, and I carry him around with me. My quality of work has improved a lot, but he’s a big comfort item. He helps me face all the big scary monsters of the world, and I want him to be there to help others too.

Eri: We met when we were younger, back in middle school. I’ve always been good at making friends, but Shiki was a lot more shy then. Actually, we got in an argument, once when we were 15. I was so worried, I thought I was going to lose my best friend forever over a misunderstanding. Thankfully, we worked it all out, and here we are now! She’s a wonderful seamstress, and all of our friends are so supportive, so it’s nice. I don’t think we’d be where we are today without each other, and the help of everyone in our lives.

It’s clear that these girls put lots of effort and dedication into what they do!

These girls offer more than some great threads! The namesake of their brand, Mr. Mew, is an adorable cat, and you can get merchandise of him too! Show off your love by picking up one of their plushies, cat ear headbands, and more!

Check out their full line at https://MrMewCreations.Com

Neku Sakuraba

The artist of the month is none other than Neku Sakuraba! If you’ve taken a walk around Shibuya, you’ve already seen his stuff! This graffiti expert has been gaining a name for himself with stunning displays of color and intricate designs. If you frequent 104 or Molco, you’ll have seen his stylish bold lines on ads for some of the stores!

He first started making waves in the art world last December, when he put up a mural in the Miyashita Park Underpass. Dubbed Hachiko’s Guardian Angel by the public, it features a glowing figure standing over Hachiko, with white feathery wings stretched out over Shibuya’s night-time skyline. There are people at the base of the statue, and musical notes fill the outer space. We reached out to Sakuraba himself for commentary, and managed to secure an interview in his studio!

The space was big, half-finished paintings and sketches scattered across the room. Cans of spray-paint, colored pencils, and charcoal were everywhere. Interestingly, we also spotted a couple Mr. Mew plushies laying around. A second guest, a friend of Sakuraba’s who insisted on being called Joshua, was also in the studio.

But without further ado, the interview:

Thanks for welcoming us to your studio! Can you give us an introduction?

Neku: Right, hi, thanks for interviewing me. I’m Neku Sakuraba. Music geek, CAT fanboy, unwilling follower of fashion trends. That one over there [he gestures toward his friend] is Joshua. Please ignore everything he says. He decided to be here for “moral support,” but I think he just wants to tease me.

[Joshua, at this, gasped, and said, “I would never!” but as requested, his further commentary has been cut from the interview.]

Got it! What inspired you to start making art?

Neku: I’ve always been a doodler. My mom has artwork from back when I was six. The big moment of inspiration for me, when I went, I want to do this, was when I saw CATs art. Looking up at the mural in Udagawa for the first time, back when I was ten, I felt a spark, and I haven’t let go of that feeling since. It’s been rough, I’ve struggled with mental health issues, but art has always been a solace in the dark. I never thought I’d make it this far, or get as much recognition as I have. It’s amazing, and wonderful, and terrifying all at once.

You first got popular because of the mural you put up last December, in the Miyashita Park Underpass. Can you tell us anything about it?

Neku: Oh, yeah! It was the first mural I’d ever done, and I drew a lot of inspiration from Shibuya. In my head, I’ve nicknamed it Shibuya’s Composition. The piece is loosely based off a dream, if I’m being honest. The glowing white figure in the center, with the wings, is meant to be a guardian of Shibuya. Someone who helps the city grow. Meanwhile, the people at Hachiko are waiting for their friend to show, but he can’t, because he’s watching from above, protecting them from afar.

Fascinating! Do you feel like there’s a story you can make from that, one you might tell in the future?

Neku: I don’t think this is ever going to be a story or comic, unfortunately. It’s more of a personal piece. A few years ago, I only had one friend, my first friend, but I lost him. When he died, I isolated myself, and it took a lot from some special people to draw me out of that shell. Even now, I wish I could see him again, and the idea of him still being out there, watching over me and my new friends, comforts me when I miss him the most. I guess I’m like Hachiko, waiting for a dead person to come home.

I’m sorry for your loss. Can you tell us anything about your other artwork?

Neku: I do a lot of graffiti-style works. There’s no other big murals out there by me yet, but I’m working on a few designs right now. People have commissioned me to do stuff ranging from tattoo designs to album covers and store promotions. One of my favorite things to do when I make art, though, is to take the mundane and re-imagine it as something mystical. Why can’t you make foxes purple? Who says there isn’t danger lurking in the shadows? What’s stopping me from adding fire and lightning as weapons, from creating fantastical fights?

Another big source of inspiration is Shibuya. I’ve grown up in this city, it’s my home. If I can look around and see things others don’t? Then I can put that down on paper. Whether it’s as simple as catching the neon lights illuminating the Scramble, or the leaves falling around Hachiko, I can see that, pull it apart, and let my imagination run wild.

That’s pretty cool. You mentioned doing album artwork earlier, so can you tell us what it was like to design the cover for the latest album by The Albatross?

Neku: It was fun! I can’t tell you anything about them, obviously, but it came as a shock when they asked me if I could take on this project. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense. But what I can say, without getting myself vaporized on the spot, is that it was enjoyable, and they’re fun to work with. Even if they’re kinda a priss. The amount of artistic freedom I had was nice, and I think we collaborate well together. So there might be more partnership between us in the future, but nothing’s certain yet.

Wonderful! With that, one last question: what motivates you to create?

Neku: Art has always been an escape for me. It can be pretty, or loud. It can shout your thoughts from the rooftops or disguise them under the rustling of leaves in the wind. You can influence others with it, if you’re lucky. I create art for myself, first and foremost. But if I can provide a glimpse into my own secret garden, and let others see pieces of who I am in my work? Then I’m glad. I want to share it. I want to make my mark on the world, and provide others with the escape I once sought.

This up-and-coming young artist is going to be a big name someday! With his talent, dedication, and heart, Neku Sakuraba might just be the next CAT!

If you want to support him, you can find information about him, his store, and his commission prices at https://nekusakuraba.com

The Albatross

Our final creator of the month, someone a bit less new, but never interviewed, is The Albatross! Their first album, Noise, featured CAT artwork on the cover: an albatross in flight, with TV static cutting through the image. These two are a mysterious duo, but The Albatross takes the title of most elusive. Despite gaining fame from fans latching onto CAT art, The Albatross has never given the public a single word.

Until now, that is! With their second album, Pulse, set to release in a couple of weeks, they have consented to an interview for the first time!

The album artwork was done by Neku Sakuraba, and it features a feathered white wing, sprouting from the right-hand side of the image. Some of the lower feathers have been replaced with graffiti-like designs.

As for the music itself, their first album featured orchestral tracks, heavy on the violin, alongside electro-punk tunes! Some were instrumental, while others had lyrics. Pulse is looking to be the same style, but rather than the dark themes of Noise, it contains brighter, more hopeful songs.

We went through a lot of paperwork, involving multiple non-disclosure agreements, and the interview took place over a call while they utilized a voice changer, but it was worth it! And we’re happy to share what we’ve learned with you!

Thank you for choosing to have your first interview ever be with us! Can you give us an introduction? Nothing too personal is required!

Albatross: You were the only ones I felt were trustworthy, and the only ones completely willing to honor my anonymity. Also, a friend may have bribed me into it with promises of ramen. As for introductions… I am The Albatross, composer of music, avid Tin Pin fan, and a nerd when it comes to all things Shibuyan. History, culture, the trends. I thrive off her, it’s like the city’s got a pulse that matches my heartbeat.

Shibuya is amazing, we agree. Can you tell us why you chose your alias?

Albatross: There’s a lot of symbolism in the albatross. The bird can be a sign of good luck for sailors, historically. In the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, though, one of the sailors kills an albatross, and thus it becomes a curse. He bears the burden as the other sailors hang the bird around his neck, reminding him of how he’s doomed them all. I’ll let fans keep speculating on why I picked it, though. I can’t give away all my secrets here.

Of course. We wouldn’t want you to spoil all the fun! How do you make your music?

Albatross: It’s amazing what you can do with technology! I know how to play the violin and piano, so any parts in my songs with those are actually me playing, but for the rest I use a few different music programs! For vocals, I outsource it to Shibuyan singers, but all lyrics are still written by me. In the end, I weave everything together, and finagle it so it fits.

Sounds like a lot of work. Where do you get your inspiration for it all?

Albatross: From Shibuya! This city has a life of her own. Feet tapping against pavement, voices reaching through the air, all the beeps and honks and the myriad of noises that resound in every corner; it all creates a rhythm, it creates music. Sometimes I’ll sit and let it all wash over me. The city holds so much, a million stories fighting for attention. They echo in my head, begging to be told, so I write them. I turn them into music in the hopes of expressing their messages for everyone to hear.

The tone between your first and second album has changed a lot, from what the previews are showing. Is there a reason for this?

Albatross: Yeah. I’m going to be blunt. When I wrote and released my first album, I was suicidal. Completely isolated from the rest of humanity, with no friends or good experiences to fall back on for comfort. My only outlet was music, and because I was so depressed and misanthropic, my work reflected this. I saw the world as poisoned, felt like people would never change, and thought my existence contributed to the negativity.

But now? I have friends. Someone entered my life, not quite of their own free will, but they stuck around. They dragged me into the sun, undoing all my self-sabotaging attempts, and they helped me grow. Helped me learn to see the good in humanity again. Shibuya is full of life, full of creativity, of people trying to do their best and help others. I wasn’t able to see it before, vision clouded with my own preconceived notions, but they… Removed the tinted glasses from my face, so to speak. And this is why my new album is more hopeful and lighthearted.

You mentioned mental health, just now. Are you able to elaborate on any of that?

Albatross: Mhm, I can. It’s not pleasant, but… Mental health isn’t talked about enough, even though it impacts so many people. I’ve had depression for years now. I still do. Some friends and a few bonding experiences doesn’t magically cure everything. There is no magic cure. What helps is finding people you can rely on when things get tough. If I lock myself in my apartment, I used to hide away for weeks. Now, though? One of them comes knocking after a few days, with ramen and orders to shower. Sometimes it can feel like you’re going to shatter into a million pieces. But instead of falling apart in secret and cutting myself on the shards of glass, I have people who hold me as I break, minimize the damage, and help me piece myself back together.

Recovery is not a straight line, and there’s no end to the winding trail you take. What’s important is having friends there with you. People who help you stand up when you stumble, who help you make camp when you need to rest. Find someone who makes you feel safe enough to fall apart. Someone who can be there to pick up the broken shards, and help you create something new and beautiful with the pieces.

The Albatross is still a mystery to us all, but hopefully their words and music have reached those of you who need to hear them!

They don’t have an official website, but you can find The Albatross on your preferred music streaming service, or head to a local music shop to pick up their stuff! Don’t forget to pre-order their newest album, Pulse, and if you haven’t grabbed Noise yet, be sure to snag that too!

And that’s all for our New Creators Spotlight this month! Be sure to get next month’s issue for all our latest stories, and to discover the up-and-coming talents of Shibuya!

#twewy #the world ends with you #Subarashiki Kono Sekai #Joshua Kiryu #Neku Sakuraba #shiki misaki #eri #eri twewy #yoshiya kiryu #imprint zine

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pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer · 4 years ago

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I beat NEOTWEWY! That was the most JRPG-ass final boss I’ve fought in years, love to see it. Need to dig into the post-game content before I try to compare it overall to the first game, but the ending at least...I’d probably say that’s better than the first game’s, and being able to say that just makes me giddy. A long list of other, super spoilery thoughts below the cut.

-It’s pretty cool that every family of Noise has its own symbol this time! Makes it a lot more clear when you’re hunting a specific Noise.

-Pachy Noise seem a little less annoying? Maybe? I still dread them but not the most.

-Puffers take a bit too long to explode and that’s annoying, but in the grand scheme of things that’s pretty minor.

-Those fucking Chameleons, though. The vanish and snipe routine I could tolerate, but combined with that counter blast every time you hit ‘em...yikes.

-I still think Rex Noise are cool af, but the Maximazaurus kicked my shit in and it didn’t feel entirely fair. How was I supposed to know that roar attack covered the entire battlefield? Can it even be dodged, or are you just supposed to kill it before it can use it?

-Fuck Plague Noise

-RIP Drake Noise and Progfox :(

-I do find it a little weird that some Noise have a regular and boss version that use the exact same name. Makes me wonder why they didn’t just recolor and rename the boss version. Meh, it’s not that important.

-So it seems “mutating” a Pin just means evolving it but it requires certain conditions, and those conditions seem to be which character it’s equipped to when it finishes leveling. Very glad there’s a skill on the social network that makes their conditions clear.

-RIP Shutdown PP :(

-Music still slaps. I really like that one, “Breaking Free” I think? It embodies that early 2000s angst, plus the final lyrics are “the world ends with me” and I’m a sucker for that shit.

-The direction they went with Kanon didn’t quite land with me personally. Like it was still pretty good, I did feel a bit sad to see her go, but her introduction just really rubbed me the wrong way I guess.

-I was unsure about the VIP system at first, but shopkeepers do still warm up to you even if it isn’t as trackable. And...I never did a whole lot with the brand chart anyway, I guess. The VIP level being a permanent thing rather than resetting every time you leave the area is a strong point in its favor.

-I really like the social network! Gives you even more info about the background characters and helps drive home the themes of connection, and it’s heavily incentivized by the wide variety of rewards you get from it. Five of my six pins can be Uber now.

-There was a minute there I thought I wouldn’t be able to progress without grinding Style, but then I realized it only restricts abilities, not what you can and can’t even equip like Bravery did. Yeah that’s a step up.

-OH, and Pin Mastery! Mastered pins counting even if you evolve or sell them! That’s good. That’s very, very good.

-I like how most of the playable characters have their own unique Psych used in the overworld to make up for their interchangeability in battle. Do sort of wish Minamimoto and Neku had their own, but it’s not a sticking point by any means.

-Also how fucking hype was fighting Leo Cantus Armo and then seeing Neku bust in with Twister playing, that was so fucking cool.

-Speaking of Hype...was kind of expecting Tsugumi to do more? In and of itself I don’t think there’s really an issue, I 100% think it’s a matter of her being central to the sequel buildup in both Solo and Final Remix. She’s super sweet, though. ^_^

-As for Tsugumi’s Noise form...well, lolz told me to bring Stone pins and those really trivialize the fight. The first time, at least.

-Someone I do think was underutilized is Ayano. We didn’t get enough from her prior to her infection and that limited the impact. The flashbacks offered during that scenario definitely helped, and I really liked Rindo going through the day trying to talk with Shoka and mentally prepare her, but...they definitely could’ve done more with her, and her being one of the characters who actually dies doesn’t help.

-Neku’s so happy in this game!!

-SHIKI FACE REVEAL!!!!

-I lost my shit when Beat took off his mask, adding him relatively early was a Good Move.

-HACKER RHYME

-I feel like Joshua showing up right out of nowhere would be confusing to new players, but obviously I can’t say that with certainty. Plus, there’s still the Secret Reports, those might explain quite a few things.

-Right, Secret Reports! I actually got one before even beating the game (Report 3), it was after my social network got to 70% completion so I think that was the unlock. I am...nervous about not having a checklist of the unlock requirements this time, but it seems they might be easier to get overall (I got Report 2 just from fighting Go-Go Beringei’s symbol on Easy) so we’ll see.

-Don’t think I see game time anywhere so that sucks, especially since the Switch’s gameplay records are so damn vague.

-Still a tiny bit salty the game didn’t tell me about what the “-” button does right away.

-All the books seem to be in one shop and I quite like that, as well as the whole organization/aesthetic of the Collection menu. I really want to see if I can 100% this game.

-The Graffiti wall is also a cool spin on achievements, even moreso since you can actually see the wall in Udagawa.

-Susukichi’s completed Noise form is tough. You really need to time your dodges when he punches, took me a minute to get that, and taking cover from that massive lightning attack is a pretty cool gimmick. I got massive Ovis Cantus vibes.

-Can we talk about how fucking packed with spoilers that last trailer was? I am of the opinion spoilers don’t necessarily ruin things but that’s a personal choice and holy shit Square.

-Really like how they subtly mislead you in regards to Swallow’s identity. The way scenes cut made me think for the longest time that they’d be the leader of the Ruinbringers, helped by the fact that Susukichi and Tsugumi start just a bit out from Rindo on the social network, leaving just enough space for one character to link them. Then they start making you think it’s Rhyme. Then you get surprised by the final reveal, but it’s a surprise that makes sense looking back. Love it.

-The whole bit with Rindo meeting anOther is also a really interesting juxtaposition with Neku meeting CAT. Both of their character flaws can be traced back to their idols, but in Neku’s case it’s down to his own misinterpretation, while Rindo is just the type of follower Motoi wanted to create. Meeting his idol is a positive experience for Neku, but a negative one for Rindo, yet they both grow as a direct result of the encounter. Super cool.

-In fact, it’s actually Fret whose backstory ends up being closest to Neku’s, despite their wildly different dispositions, that’s nuts and I love it.

-After her speech in Week 3, Nagi might just be the best character.

-They did a hell of a lot with Shoka and I love all of it.

-I said it before but I was not expecting to love Kaie as much as I do. Definitely in the running for favorite Shinjuku Reaper.

-I didn’t expect much from Hishima due to his nondescript character design, but he’s actually pretty cool.

-For Susukichi and Shiba both, they’re complete assholes in different and entertaining ways, but both manage to have a healthy amount of depth as well, I really like that.

-And fucking Kubo! Hated him from the start, but he managed to grow on me as things went, and his final reveal left a hell of an impression. I do sort of wish we got to fight him ourselves, but he got a brutal death and that’s what really matters. Xander Mobus sounds like he’s having fun.

-Haz was a very interesting addition. We’ve been wondering who he is since that final trailer (where they showed the last scene he, a Walking Spoiler, was a part of, what the hell) and I still wasn’t sure what to expect once we did get his name. He definitely gave off the same vibes as Joshua so I thought he might be a Composer (either replacing Joshua in Shibuya or maybe coming from Shinjuku), but the reveal of what he really is was pretty cool.

-Uzuki mellowed out just the right amount, I like her a lot more now.

-Kariya’s pretty much the exact same character and I love that for him.

-Would’ve liked to see Hanekoma but oh well, it sounds like he’s still writing the Secret Reports so that’s cool.

-Oh yeah, Coco. Mmm...I mean I still don’t trust her? It is a little weird that Neku does, but not to a jarring extent? I dunno, I feel like she’s still got a scheme going on...

-Again, fantastic ending, last scene very similar to the last scene of Steins;Gate so that’s a plus in my book.

-And it’s got its own Another Day!! The mention of Tin Pin makes me wonder if it’s the same timeline as the first game’s Another Day, but not sure. All three of the checkpoint bosses kicked my ass so I left to go hunt Secret Reports and fill out my Noisepedia, but eventually I hope to get further into it.

-I wasn’t super diligent with Pig Noise but there’s only one variety missing in my Noisepedia, plus I missed the second level Rex Noise. Other than that and the spots past Phoenix Cantus I just need to try to fill in drops.

-Blond kid spending one of his seven days hunting for seven urban legends really took me back to the KHII prologue, and I’m one of the folks who liked that so I mean that as a good thing.

-”The pigs’ll come sniffing!” Beat knows what’s up.

-The Chapters menu seems to count Scramble Slam rewards towards completion...I am quite nervous about that, seeing as I only got like halfway to the lowest prize every time…

-Commentator Reaper has my whole heart though

-There was one sidequest...W3D1, I think? It said someone in Udagawa needed help, but I ran up and down Udagawa like 5 times and couldn’t see anyone. Did I miss it? Is it post-game? Is the game bugged? Hm.

-But I have done almost all of the sidequests, and I...usually did well on Dive missions. There’s a decent chunk of stuff for me to do in revisits but not too much.

-Where I am right now, I still have some unanswered questions, but a lot of that comes down to specific details I might not mind if they don’t clarify. Still hope they do, of course. I crave knowledge. Time to get back to finding those Reports...

#Pahrak plays NEOTWEWY #NEOTWEWY spoilers

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ichika27 · 4 years ago

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The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well.

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

#Subarashiki Kono Sekai #subaseka #the world ends with you #twewy #sana_post

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having-a-hyperfixate · 4 years ago

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The Final Day’‘

This is absolutely going to be long and rambley af so I’mma just put a cut here. This is just one massive post for the entire rest of the game.

Rindo is back in the RG somehow. Which makes less than no sense. What was that crazy beam. Shibuya is GONE there isn’t an RG to send him back to, even if someone did want to send him back?

That beam reminded me of the Jesus beams not gonna lie.

But… Fret. Presumably Nagi and Beat too. They’re. Gone. Poor Rindo… That’s the worst kind of gaslighting. Reality itself is gaslighting this poor kid. ‘Your best friend in the world is gone, so gone that no one remembers him. You don’t even get to mourn properly because there is no one TO mourn.’ I am also not okay.

I assume this random talking to us at Hachiko is the dude I saw a brief glimpse of in a screenshot from the final trailer. Hazuki Mikagi, okay. Everything about this is supremely weird.

Leading this weirdo around and he asked how we feel about emotions? Um, what?

Was he responsible for that beam of light?

This whole thing is extremely unsettling, I don’t think I like it. The music is all… serene, this guy keeps asking existential questions, who even comes up to some kid clearly having a bad day and demands a tour of the city.

He knows Rindo’s name even though we never told him. Not sure if that was a slip or an intentional nudge that Something is going on but there we go.

‘I should take this chance to apologize for Kubo. He’s a real piece of work.’ WHAT. YOU SEND HIM TO SHINJUKU?!?! IS THIS KID GOD!? WHAT!??!

‘Exorcised’. Like a demon. Which is a psychic rank you can get in the first game, and probably this game, ergo, a thing that exists in this universe.

Okay. So this Hazuki guy is Something Else. I dunno if he’s an Angel or higher or WHAT. He’s something. And he “exorcised” what Fuckwad had Fallen to when he decided not to stop at Shinjuku and continue on to Shibuya. But he only did this after Rindo faught so hard to stop it. And then he gave Rindo what he thought Rindo wanted. And now he’s here trying to understand why Rindo is miserable. Which to us, as humans, is obvious: the people he loved, the connections and family he had made through the game are all gone and worse, no one remembers they ever existed.

And now he’s being offered the chance to try again. This feels like a double edged sword. And I don’t care.

Okay I actually kind of appreciate the thing Hazuki is pulling here. He knows what it is that Rindo wants, I’m pretty sure he’s listening to his thoughts, actually, and in order to make Rindo own up to it he’s arguing the ‘no’ position. Giving Rindo someone to argue against so he can convince himself.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN AT UDAGAWA.

Bruh some of these clips were in the announcement trailer.

(I can’t wait to read the secret reports. That’s gonna be a wild ride.)

Oooooh that’s what ‘exorcised’ means. That is hardcore. He definitely deserved it but that is uh. Slightly inconvenient.

Can we actually contact Rhyme this time PLEASE. Oooh Rindo worked out Kaie is waiting for Rhyme. :O I’M FINALLY GONNA GET MY MASSIVE COUNTER OFFENSIVE FUCK YES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I’M PUMPED LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!

Who’s gonna protect them. Beat. Really. Just give them the damn pins at this point. They both know their ways around a fight and Kaie might need the backup. If we lose, we’re all toast regardless, and if we win everyone gets put back where they belong.

AAAAAAAAAAAH SHE’S HERE!!! RHYME!!!! Aw… She can’t see Neku and Shoka cuz they’re actually dead. That’s really depressing. Makes sense but like. Oof. Especially for Neku.

I love that Rhyme still has a saying for everything.

This timeline is going to be a mess by the time I get everything positioned correctly lmao

Beat’s ‘How do you know about my sister?! Right, future.’ is never going to NOT be funny. It’s very refreshing to have a time travel plot where people just listen when he tells them shit needs to happen.

Is it acutaly Shiki time ohh my god. I might cry. Please tell me she has a face now. If her face is still illegal I will actually scream.

I’m offended. We didn’t get to go see Shiki. The betrayal. OH but now we might be? Stop playing with me, game. GIVE. ME. SHIKI.

Rindo was freaking out that we weren’t gonna be able to get rid of all the Noise around the café and I definitely threw my hands up and yelled when I saw the word ‘zeptogram’. And I read it before he said it, cuz I read v. fast. Nice to see you again, idiot. Please don’t go berserk again.

I am. Very impressed that Minamimoto managed to work out where the Dissonance Noise are coming from, down to the exact energy source that creates them. He nailed it. Well done sir.

I think… he’s proposing we awaken the city and use the energy generated by the thoughts and emotions of the living people to neutralize some of the Dissonance Noise that are waiting in the pin. Erode some of its power.

“How about this: I’ll talk, you type.” Lmao.

I got denied Shiki again. Part of me is annoyed. The other part of me is like ‘are they saving her entrance for when she can see Neku again properly because I can live with that’.

OH the Hishima cutscene is voiced now OKAY. Guess that means this is the one. Rhyme is voiced too. This is gonna be it.

And she speaks Minamioto. Coo.

Huh. Neku’s power is to sync with people. Which he learned to do in the first game. From Mr H, with the harmonizer pin. (Twister is playing and I have Emotions help) And now he’s gonna do it on an absolutely MASSIVE scale. This is insane. I am 1,000% here for it. Sync, Dive, Remind. And if I had to guess, we’re doing this atop 104.

Alright Shiba. ‘Mere. Tsugumi’s eyes aren’t all freaky anymore yay. Oh snap. He’s gonna unleash the Plague Noise against the Dissonance ones. Nice. Turnabout is fair play. I’m kinda sad Fuckwad isn’t here to witness that.

Alright. Change. Our. Fate.

SHIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I gave myself a headache ow.

“07734.” “Ew. Hey! Don’t just spout off numbers and walk away, you jerk!” That was amazing.

FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. NO. NO WAY. I DIDN’T THINK THERE WAS ANY WAY. OH. MY. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. This is the first time Neku’s seen him since Joshua failed to stop Coco from killing him. I’m. A puddle. Help. Neku looked so happy. My cat is slightly concerned haha.

Neku still holds his hands like he’s got the headphones. The same pose as in the first game when you scan. This gives me all the feels.

“They’re just mindless thoughts” Okay so I’m mentally exhausted at this point and I processed that as ‘thots’ and it was hilarious. BEGONE THOTS.

Okay this thing right here? This is a final boss. And it is cool as fuck. Too bad it’s trying to END ME. So cool. SO. COOL. Here comes phase 2 lol. I died and had to redo it. FML.

That. Was awesome. A worthy successor to the epic final strike of the first game. 999% eh?

I continue to not like Shinjuku rules. Once you’re a Reaper, leaving means you get erased once the game ends? Disrespectfully, fuck that. Oh don’t you dare, Shoka. Don’t. You. Dare.

Oh, Joshua is here. PLEASE. Lmao Shoka’s reaction. I’m sure he appreciates that, the drama queen.

*facepalms* Joshua strikes again. I’ve missed you, you little shit. You are terrible, but I missed you. Rindo, I’m pretty sure she’s fine. I think captain helpful over here reincarnated her for you. Since you saved him and his city. I guess I’ll see though.

Uzuki and Kariya continue to be adorable. I love them. And yeah, good luck calling in that debt from Minamimoto, Coco. Gooooood luck.

I’m having a lot of Joshua centered emotions right now there is too much Joshua all at once help. “I should have known I could trust you.” You are killing me dude. You really, really should have. I’m going to turn that line over in my head for way too long, I just know it, but let’s try to get through this before my brain turns off completely. “Let’s not keep her waiting.” OKAY THANKS I’M GONNA CRY AGAIN.

What Hazuki was saying about ‘purifying’ as opposed to ‘destroying’ Shinjuku makes me think that restarting it in some form was always part of the plan, so hopefully they’ll have luck with that. It’s still profoundly fucked up that any of that happened, and even more so that it was sanctioned. I’m. Going to be hung up on that for a while once it sinks in.

This poor idiot hitting on Rhyme is about to get got oh no XD

Shiki is breaking my heart. Aaaaaaaah!!! Reunioooooon.

Ooof it’s been a month since Rindo saw Shoka. Big oof. Joshuaaaaaa.

And then they almost got hit by a car lmao. OMG HE MISSED HER FRIEND REQUESTS AHAHAHAHAH YOU GOOBER. Neku really should have warned them that Joshua is Like That lol. Even when he’s being helpful it’s in the must backhanded way possible.

I would very much like to know why on earth Shinjuku needed to be obliterated though. Like. Does that… Happen often? Maybe the secret reports say.

Speaking of, time to get those, along with the rest of the trophies.

!!!! The title screen updated, NICE. Can’t let anyone who hasn’t beaten it see that but NICE.

There’s another Another Day. Oh boy. I am not ready for that madness yet.

Random thought as I was moving this from word, where I typed it: I’m really, really fucking glad they didn’t decide to deal with Mr H the way they dealt with sleezy mcfuckwad. That would have been… I don’t have a word.

#let's liveblog: neo twewy #w3d7''#neo twewy spoilers

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atomic-taco-muffin · 4 years ago

Text

The Lost Princess Chapter 58

warnings: do i even need to say it

rating: SFW

“WHAT THE HELL?!” the twins shouted.

“Eek!” Rumi yelped.

“How did she go missing?! You were the one with her!” Roxy said.

“I don’t know. We passed out and the next thing I knew, she was gone,” Sora said.

“Grr...She should’ve stayed with us. That way, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped!” Yui said.

“Did you see who kidnapped her?” Xemnas said.

“No. Both of us were knocked out cold,” Sora said.

“Well, I know that you’ll find her. You always have. Now we must get back to the task at hand,” Yen Sid said.

“But--” Roxy said.

“Roxy,” Xemnas warned. Roxy scoffed and listened to what Yen Sid, Xemnas, and Ansem had to say.

“Long ago, in the age of fairy tales, the World was filled with light--a gift, many believed, from an unseen power known as "Kingdom Hearts." You see, Kingdom Hearts was protected by its counterpart, the "Chi-blade," so that none could ever lay hands on its mysteries. But in time, the World was overrun by legions who wanted the light all for themselves, and the first shadows were cast upon the land. These warriors crafted ‘Keyblades’ in the image of the original Chi-blade, and waged a great war over Kingdom Hearts. We call this the ‘Keyblade War.’ But though the war extinguished all light from the World, the darkness could not reach the brightness inside every child's heart. With that light, the World was remade as we know it today, with countless smaller worlds shining like stars in the sky. As for the real Chi-blade, it did not survive the battle. The two elements that created it, one of darkness and one of light, shattered into twenty pieces--seven of light; thirteen of darkness. And as for the source of all light--the one true Kingdom Hearts--it was swallowed by the darkness, never to be seen again. As long as it remains there, even the brightest world will have its dark corners. After all, light begets darkness, and darkness is drawn to light. For this reason, some decided to use the Keyblade-- a weapon designed to conquer the light--to defend the light instead. These were the first heroes of the Keyblade,” Yen Sid said.

~~~~

Sora awoke in Traverse Town with a jolt.

“Where is he?” he asked. He looked over and saw that Rumi and Yui were with him.

“Rumi! Yui!” he said.

“Wh-why am I back here?” Rumi asked, nervously.

“It’s okay, Rumi. Sora and I are gonna protect you. Right, Sora?” Yui said.

“R-right,” Sora said.

“Hey Sora. Who were you talking about?” Rumi said.

“Before I fell asleep, Neku said that he and that creep in the coat had a ‘deal.’ But what was the deal? Are the two of them in league? That can't be right... We never even found Neku's partner. I guess we should just take a look around,” Sora said.

“Agreed,” Yui said. The three of them made their way to the First District and found a hidden entrance to the Post Office beneath the tall mailbox in the square. Through there, they traveled to the Fourth District.

“Wow! Never been this way before!” Sora said.

“Neither have I!” Rumi said. The three of them spotted a large stadium with balloons.

“Ooh! What's that?” Rumi said. The three of them saw a young kid talking to a Moogle.

“Hey, um...any chance you're Neku's partner?” Yui asked.

“Huh?” the kid asked. They turned to face him, the Moogle flapping his tiny wings. “Umm...I'm not really sure. All I know is that my name is Rhyme.”

“You mean...you've lost your memory?” Sora asked.

“Yep.”

“Oh. Sorry...”

“Aw, it's no big deal. You know what they always say--’Sometimes memories just need a little help getting out.’”

“Yeah...that's true. Huh, ‘a little help’... I know! Maybe Neku can jog your memory! Come on, Rhyme. Let's go find him!” Rumi said.

“Right!” They walked into the Fifth District, which housed a large multilevel garden. Rumi looked up and saw Neku standing on the roof. They soon reached his level.

“Neku!” Rumi said.

“What? Rumi? You’re back? Sora...You actually still trust me?” Neku asked.

“Of course I do,” Sora said.

“But you know that I tricked you, right? That guy in the black coat, he said he could send me home--me and my partner--but I had to bring you to him first. He was also with two women. They wanted (Y/N). I’m sorry.” Neku hung his head down.

“Wait, black coat? Oh no,” Yui said.

“W-what is it?” Rumi asked.

“The Organization. They want (Y/N) for something. And I don’t even want to say it,” Sora said.

“Well, it’ll be no big deal. You’ve taken care of them before. I’m sure you can do it again. Now then, Neku--this here is Rhyme. Is she your Game partner?” Rumi said.

“No. Sorry. I'm teamed up with somebody else,” Neku said. Suddenly, Rhyme vanished. “Huh?”

“What? Rhyme!” Yui said. The cloaked figure appeared in the center of the rooftop along with two cloaked women. Sora readied his Keyblade while Yui and Rumi summoned their guardians and Neku ran toward the cloaked people, who knocked him away with ease.

“Neku!” Rumi said. The man raised his arms as a large Hockomonkey Nightmare appears, floating in the air above them and the two women summoned a group of Negaverse’s. A corridor of darkness appeared behind them, and began to walk inside it.

“Huh? Hey, wait!” Sora said. Him and the girls ran forward, but the corridor closed and the Nightmare and Negaverse’s blocked their path.

“Out of our way!” Yui said. After a tough battle, Sora and the girls defeated the Hockomonkey and the Negaverse’s. Meanwhile, Riku woke up in the Second District, Roxy right next to him.

“What happened? Did I fall asleep?” he asked.

“How should I know?” Roxy asked. Riku got up and walked around, Roxy following close behind.

“Where are Joshua and Beat?” he asked.

“Who?” Roxy asked.

“Uh, nevermind.”

“Hey, do you mind?” someone asked. Riku and Roxy turned and saw a girl running away from some Dream Eaters and Negaverse’s. Him and Roxy chased them to the First District, finding them surrounding her at a closed-off door. He summoned his Keyblade while Roxy summoned her guardian.

“Stay back,” Riku said. Him and Roxy took out all the Dream Eaters and Negaverse’s and faced the girl with pink hair. She held a cute cat doll in her hands.

“Seriously, thanks. I'm Shiki, how 'bout you?” she said.

“Riku.”

“The name’s Roxy.”

“Thanks, Riku and Roxy.”

“Sure,” Riku said. Him and Roxy started to leave.

“Hey! That's it? You chat up a girl and then just say, ‘Sure,’ and walk off?” Shiki said.

“Look sweetcheeks. I’m here to find my sister and my best friend, okay? I don’t have time to talk to people like you,” Roxy said. Riku stopped and looked at Shiki.

“Sorry about her. She doesn’t know how to control her anger sometimes,” Riku said.

“I HEARD THAT!” Roxy yelled.

“Look, it's not safe here. You should go home.”

“If it's dangerous, how can you just leave me here? Aren't you my knight in shining armor?” Shiki asked. She played with her doll while talking and winked at him. “Well?”

“Kn-knight? You've got the wrong idea,” Riku said.

“Omigosh, I was so just kidding. You get out much?”

“He doesn’t!” Roxy said. Riku crossed his arms, unable to form words.

“You remind me of this guy I know. Well, good thing we met,” Shiki said.

“Yeah, great,” Riku said. Him, Roxy, and Shiki walked to the Fifth District. At that moment, Sora, Rumi, and Yui and Neku reached ground level, seeing an image of Riku, Roxy, and Shiki, who held her cat doll.

“Riku!” Sora said.

“Roxy!” Rumi and Yui said.

“Over there!” Shiki said. Sora, Rumi, and Yui saw the girl's image ran off toward a staircase and they started to run over to Riku and Roxy.

“Hold on, guys,” someone said.

“Hey! We should stick together!” Riku said. Shiki cried out in alarm.

“Perfect,” Roxy said. A Portal appeared behind Sora, Rumi, and Yui, who watched the image of Riku and Roxy run after the girl. Joshua appeared before Sora, Rumi, Yui, and Neku.

“Joshua,” Neku said.

“Hello, Neku. How long the days without you have felt,” Joshua said. Suddenly, Rhyme reappeared.

“Rhyme! I'm glad you're okay,” Sora said. Rhyme smiled.

“Neku, do you know this guy?” Rumi asked.

“Yeah. Joshua. He's my...friend,” Neku said.

“Okay... Are you the one who took Rhyme away? And...why do you know our names?” Yui asked.

“If you'd like to settle down for a sec, I'll field your questions one at a time. Let's start with Rhyme. I'm hanging on to her dreams for her. They're my Portal,” Joshua said. Yui and Sora crossed their arms, looking confused.

“Let's just say, her dreams are a gateway between worlds. Next question--how could I possibly know your name--right? This town has a little secret. It only appears when someone out there has need of shelter. I'll spare you the details, but right now it's made up of my dreams. So of course I know you--I dreamed you up. I know your best friend, Riku, too,” Joshua said.

“Really? You know Riku?” Sora asked.

“What about Roxy? And (Y/N)?” Rumi asked.

“Hmm, nothing on them. But I can always find a way. I'm kind of omniscient.”

“Where’s Riku?” Sora asked. Riku and Roxy stopped running as they turned the corner at the staircase.

“You can't expect me to--” Riku said. They saw three cloaked figures, Shiki's doll at the man’s feet.

“Shiki! No way...” Roxy said. The man stepped on the doll and kicked it away.

“How did you get here?” he asked.

“Who are you?” Riku asked. The doll hit him in the chest.

“By choice or chance? You cannot control what you're not aware of,” the first woman said. The figures began to walk down the stairs towards Riku and Roxy, who backed away slowly. Joshua turned toward the staircase, where Sora, Rumi, and Yui saw Roxy and Riku's image.

“Him and Roxy right inside this projection, in another imagining of this world. I don’t know where this (Y/N) person is though,” Joshua said.

“You mean...another Traverse Town? Can we get there with your Portal thing?” Sora asked.

“Sad to say, it won't work for you. My ‘Portal thing’ only opens for the one with Rhyme's dreams. In this projection, you're seeing another chain of events, in another world trapped by the Dream Eaters. As for how the world got split in two...I have a feeling you'll need to ask them.” Sora and the girls saw the cloaked figures walk down the stairs in pursuit of Riku and Roxy.

“Them again,” Rumi said.

“This wakeless sleep will be your prison...to wander forever,” the second woman said. Riku and Roxy reached the edge of the fountain and stopped.

“What do you mean?” Riku asked.

“Riku, don'chu listen to that punk!” Beat said. Neku and Rhyme sensed something behind them and saw an image of Shiki and Beat, who was yelling across the water.

“Shiki's gonna be fine! She told me whassup. Hoodies here set this whole thing up, yo. They promised to send Shiki back to our world, and you two was the cost of travel,” Beat said. He looks over to the cloaked figures. “Yo, this is seriously one half-baked excuse for a mission. Betchu ain't even a Reaper.” The figures takes off their hood, the revealing yellow eyes and long silver hair, the first woman revealing black hair and red eyes, and the second woman revealing blonde hair and having red eyes as well.

“No...” Roxy, Yui, and Rumi said.

“All right. Who are you?” Riku asked.

“Who's...that?” Sora asked. The image's form flickered and vanished. On Riku and Roxy's side, the young man and the two women raised their arms and summoned a Hockomonkey Dream Eater, which flies inside the garden building and summoned a group of Negaverse’s. They escaped through a corridor of darkness.

“Wait!” Riku and Roxy said.

“I'm really sorry,” Shiki said. Riku tossed the doll back to her.

“It's all right. Beat, watch her,” he said.

“I gots this, yo! Hey lady! I’m free if you want some fun!” Beat said.

“First of all, my name’s Roxy and second of all, I’m not interested,” Roxy said. Riku and Roxy entered the building and defeated the Hockomonkey and the Negaverse’s. They joined the others outside, where they saw images of Sora, Rumi, Yui, Neku, Joshua, and Rhyme.

“Hey, what is this?” Shiki asked. Riku and Roxy walked up to Sora and the girls.

“What are we...seeing?” Riku asked.

“No idea,” Roxy said. She moved his hand into the image.

“This is so messed up, man!” Beat said as he knelt down to Rhyme’s height. “She's right here in front of me and...I can't reach her!” He tried to grab Rhyme, but his hand went right through the mirage.

“If your hearts are connected, you'll reach her,” Riku said.

“Beat...” Rhyme said.

“Rhyme...” Beat said.

“Shiki...” Neku said.

“Neku...” Shiki said.

“Girls...” Roxy said.

“Roxy...” Rumi and Yui said.

“Riku...” Sora said.

“Sora...” Riku said. There was a flash and Sora, Rumi, the twins, and Riku stood alone with Joshua, each in their own version of Traverse Town.

“In their world, something happened that brought their existence to an end. To keep them from fading altogether, I gathered up the very last remnants of their dreams and looked for a place to give them refuge. It was then this world appeared to answer my call, and Rhyme's dreams allowed us to reach it. Here, I thought they might have a chance--that the pieces of their dreams could make them whole again. Imagine my surprise when I realized dreams take bodily form in this world. It struck me--by linking their dream pieces back together, maybe I could make them exist again. Maybe I could give them another chance,” Joshua said.

“It can't be that simple,” Roxy said.

“Well, why can't it? By ourselves, we're no one. It's when other people look at us and see someone--that's the moment we each start to exist. All they needed was for someone to see them, connect with them. And the two of you were a big part of making it happen.”

“Joshua, just...who are you?” Sora, Rumi, the twins, and Riku asked.

“Let's say...a friend.” Two large angel wings sprouted from his back and he flew up into the sky. A Keyhole appeared on the building in front of them. They nodded to each other and sealed it.

~~~~

You woke up and saw that you were in a dungeon. But not just any dungeon. The dungeon from when you were kidnapped by the Organization. You got up and ran to the door.

“Hello?!” you asked but no one answered. “Yui?! Roxy?! Rumi?! Anybody?!”

“That won’t work.” You turned around and spotted...

“Vani!” You ran up to him and engulfed him into a hug. He hugged you back and buried his face in your shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” you asked as you pulled away.

“I can’t tell you,” he said.

“What do you mean you can’t tel--No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?! Do you realize what he wants with me?!”

“I do know that and that’s why I’m in here with you.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“I’m here to break you out. We all are.” Vani summoned some of his Unversed and you smiled.

“What’s your plan of action then?” you asked.

to be continued...

#kingdom hearts #kingdomhearts #kingdom hearts imagine #kingdom hearts imagines #kingdom hearts x reader #kingdomhearts x reader #kingdomhearts imagines #kingdomhearts imagine

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ichika27 · 4 years ago

Text

TWEWY 12

Grande Finale already!

I felt the same nervousness and excitement I felt when I watched the first episode while watching the last one. I’m excited, half knowing what I’d see but not knowing what else to expect.

Can’t believe we finally got to this point. I took so many screenshots... I had to limit myself cause they’re not all gonna fit in one tumblr post.

Also I don’t have to give a spoiler warning anymore. Length warning though cause this is super long!(longer than the usual posts I made for this series at least).

Kitaniji transforms into a three-headed monster and unlike in the game, he doesn’t capture any of Neku’s partners nor use Josh’s power to do so. I’m not sure what explanation there is as to how he got more than one noise form but I guess he’s the Conductor so maybe it’s part of his powers here.

Shiki and Beat awaken in the middle of Neku’s fight and help out. The trio then forms some kind of three-way pact (four if Rhyme actually counted although now completely sure?) and continue battling Kitaniji. The fight scene was pretty cool especially Beat’s attack with the chains. It just sucks the fight ended too fast. I guess all of TWEWY anime’s boss fights end kinda fast even though they’re uh, boss fights.

Final attack beam like in the game! It was too fast and I couldn’t get a good shot of the white version this transforms into (which looks like the one in the game). They have an explanation later as to why it looks different at first but they’ll talk about it later.

It’s sad Joshua isn’t part of this. This is supposed to be the four-way fusion attack. (;-;)

They defeat Kitaniji who disappears, sad that he was unable to protect Shibuya. Joshua never showed up in this boss battle so Kitaniji never got to talk to Joshua for the last time. In the game he at least dies happy in a way - he lost but he gave it his all and his Composer praised his efforts. He was also able to tell Neku that the rest is up to him now. Here in the anime, he just... he lost and felt bad. I wish they had Josh show up here but they had other ideas.

A new door opens and Neku braced himself as he knows the fight isn’t over cause there’s still one last guy on top.

They find themselves in this room/hallway (is this supposed to be the Trail of the Judged?) filled with CAT murals. This somewhat confirms the “CAT = Composer” theory and Neku has now accepted it, calling out Mr. Hanekoma to show himself.

And yeah, the last episode’s title is the show’s title as well “It’s a Wonderful World”.

Someone else showed up instead. Joshua finally makes his reappearance!

Boy, have I been waiting for you! I wish you were with them in the final battle earlier so you guys could be a team (and you could be one of Neku’s partners) one last time.

Neku is surprised but happy to see Joshua again. He thanks Joshua for saving him before and is glad that he’s okay.

In the game, this never happened cause Josh appears in the middle of a fight. Things were too hectic and when the battle with Kitaniji finally ended, he and Josh talked about their own game and so after Kitaniji disappears, what’s left is questioning what was happening. Since Josh didn’t show up earlier, they were able to reunite in a more peaceful way and Neku had no suspicion until Joshua himself brought it up.

And I guess that’s why I was so nervous when I watched this. It’s a bit too peaceful. I know what’s gonna happen next but not exactly how they’d adapt it.

Joshua finally explains the truth to Neku and his friends.

This felt more... awful to watch. Like we had both Joshua and Kitaniji giving bits and pieces of the truth in the game via their conversation so there’s two people to focus on. Here it’s just Joshua. But in a way, I guess this works cause there’s no one else there to soften the blow and Joshua could make the revelation hurt more if he wishes so. It also kinda feels worse cause you see Neku happy to see Joshua earlier before the reveal happens. Kinda heartbreaking.

“I’m the Composer of Shibuya.”

He finally says it clearly to a confused and surprised Neku.

We get a flashback of Joshua and Kitaniji talking about Shibuya’s impending destruction, why it must happen, and Kitaniji making a deal to try and save it. He has a month to change things for the better and if it works out, he wins. If not, Joshua continues the destruction plan.

Joshua’s Composer form is more vague here. It’s human shaped but you don’t see his face and the outline glows like this so you don’t properly see the shape. I think this is better cause there’s no way you can tell who the Composer is like this and he looks less human.

Beat gets angry at the revelation and tries to attack Joshua which he couldn’t do because of Joshua’s powers. I wasn’t able to get a screenshot of this but Josh is twirling his hair after this while Beat struggles to try and punch him. He’s cute and I know this is kind of inappropriate to say in this situation given he legitimately made someone mad and he deserves that punch to his pretty face.

Joshua uses his powers to freeze the others (and later renders them unconscious to keep them quiet). Neku is worried about his friends and is mad.

Joshua tells him he won’t hurt Neku’s friends. He then explains about how he found his proxy. Which is Neku much to his horror at what this meant.

I just had to get this with the subtitles on. I replayed the scene several times to hear if there was no error. Joshua says “Daiji na Neku-kun no tomodachi...” and I google translated it. It says “daiji” means “important”. So yeah, he definitely called Neku “important” to him. It’s surprising although this wouldn’t be out of place in the original game since they had more moments to just talk on there.

Yeah, I know I focused on this a little but I’m a nekujosh/joshneku shipper so forgive me for latching onto this.

Neku slowly sees the bigger picture as Joshua continues to explain himself. As a reward for getting this far, Joshua returns Neku’s memories.

He really had to get that close while saying Neku’s name, didn’t he?

Neku’s death flashback. The scene plays almost similar to the game right down to the censored guns (is this a creative decision to make it faithful to the game or are they really just not allowed to draw actual guns?). I was gonna make a joke about how Joshua stopped Minamimoto’s bullets using an AT field but the shot was different and the bullets just looked like they froze midair and not stopped by some kinda force field like in the game.

Neku ends up getting shot by Joshua complete with bleeding unlike in the game. I just have to wonder if I was the one who got it wrong cause in the game, Joshua looks like he’s aiming for Neku’s head and here, Neku gets shot on the chest. Did they change it cause a headshot would be too much or has it always been a shot to the chest?

Neku angrily walks over to Josh and grabs him by the collar. Joshua stops Neku with his powers as he continues to explain about what happened regarding the death scene and Minamimoto. Joshua then materializes two guns out of thin air and places one on Neku’s hand as he tells him the rules of their final duel: just shoot and if Neku wins, he could save his friends and he becomes Composer and do what he wants. What stood out with how he said it is that he didn’t exactly go “If you don’t beat me, Shibuya is destroyed.” and instead went “If you win, these are what you get to be Composer and whatever else you’d like! Sounds good, right?”. As if saying killing him has a lot of perks.

It feels weird seeing Josh physically placing the gun on Neku’s hand cause in the game, the gun was by Neku’s feet and Neku had to pick it up on his own accord. Anyways, I like the effect they used to materialize the gun cause it’s the same effect for the names of the routes when they show them on screen. Like graffiti or something.

At this point Neku’s crying. The shot didn’t feel as dramatic as in the game in my personal opinion. Neku is tearing up here but he looks tired and was about to sob in the game. Joshua meanwhile, counts down from ten.

Before Joshua’s count hits three, Neku hears a somewhat distorted voice (which we know is just Mr. H) saying “Trust your Partner”. This reminded Neku how he got to where he is: by trusting his partners. (I have something to say about this later)

In a very shocking turn of events, instead of just lowering the gun and letting himself be shot like in the game, Neku drops his gun and with a hand outstretched tells Joshua “I’ll trust you”. Oh my god... they really did it. I love this change not gonna lie. I think they might have added this cause they didn’t adapt Neku’s ending monologue where he does say he trusts Joshua. It’s less dramatic than the game though since Neku doesn’t say anything while Joshua is counting down. In the game, he was crying and saying how he thought Joshua was his friend and how all of this really hurt him. Guess we take what we can get and they gave us this.

Joshua smiles as he shoots but as Neku falls, the smile on Joshua’s face disappears.

Mr. H didn’t show up at the end here either so Neku didn’t get to see him.

Neku wakes up in the middle of Scramble Crossing like usual but he bumps into people and so he realizes that he’s alive now. He doesn’t scream after the very stressful crap he went to like in the game. Might not be entirely the same but Joshua still left him lying down in the middle of the street. Nice.

We then see a short timelapse from above Shibuya which is probably supposed to show a week has passed. Neku’s monologue wasn’t added in and no ending music as well. I’m disappointed “A Lullaby for You” wasn’t used. Here I was hoping for a miracle.

By the way, Shooter, Yammer, and I think Makoto all passed him by the scramble. They really didn’t get much screentime but at least they made cameos.

Neku finally meets up with the Bito siblings like at the game’s epilogue! The shot they did was almost the same as with the game, too. They have dialogue here instead of just stills with Neku showing how happy he was to see his friends alive again, too. I’m happy the anime version showed him smiling more at the end cause he needed that after everything. It’s nice to see him smile.

RG! Shiki is here! With the same shot as in the game! They really aren’t gonna show us her face, huh? Also, all of the shots with Shiki on them has her back towards us. Like there are scenes where Neku and the rest are looking forward and she’s in front of them with her back turned on us. Why? They could’ve used the lighting on her glasses to obscure her eyes, too. So her bangs are a secret as well then?

They show Eri later, too enjoying a concert, by the way. I was hoping to see a reunion between her and Shiki as well and them finally talking after the stuff from before. Oh well.

Neku takes off his headphones and he and Shiki do a proper introduction with each other with Shiki being herself this time. (Is Shiki the same height as Neku? It looks like that from this angle.)

Anyways, this was a nice way to adapt Neku taking off his headphones since they can’t do it like in the game.

They adapted the secret ending but expanded it to add stuff from the secret reports to explain other lore stuff which would’ve been missed by the anime-only watchers since those are part of bonus game contents. Mr. Hanekoma and Joshua talk about the events of the long game and Joshua says he knew it was Mr. H whose responsible for Minamimoto.

They also talk about the Red Skull Pins and how Mr. H made it for Kitaniji. Mr. H says the pins imprints Kitaniji’s will on people and that he himself (Mr. H) doesn’t need that cause he could do so with all the graffiti he left all over town.

Which brings me to earlier in the duel: Neku hears a voice, clearly (to us) is Mr. Hanekoma’s and it’s in a place filled to the brim with CAT graffiti. Did he imprint the words “Trust your partner” to Neku?

Meanwhile, Beat wonders how they were able to pull off the final attack. Neku says it was probably the pin Hanekoma gave them (the keypin looking thing). I guess they needed an explanation for the last attack but they didn’t have the fusion pin so they used this keypin instead. It’s why the attack looked different in the beginning when the attack was powering up.

There’s apparently a new CAT graffiti at Udagawa and of course, CAT-fanboy Neku has to see it. On the way, they meet Sota and Nao who are now alive! I’m so happy!! Joshua brought them back, too! I always felt bad about what happened to them in the game. I’m glad they got a happy ending in the anime.

Def March, 777′s band, are back as well and look... they got their winged mic back! It makes me wonder if they found it later on or if Joshua gave that to them back the same time when he brought them back lol. I’m just really happy for all of them.

Joshua’s wings!! This is, unfortunately, the best shot I could get since they never really zoom in on this. In the game he is in his Composer form in the secret ending and turns into a ball of light when he leaves. Here, we see his wings. It’s smaller than the one he has in KH:DDD. At least we canonically see it here.

I can now use the term “Joshua Maji Tenshi” and be accurate!

Mr. H points out that Joshua looks lonely and is in denial and Josh just leaves. Mr. H also shows his wings and leaves afterwards, too. I didn’t take a pic of it since we see it in the game’s secret ending anyways. His wings also seem smaller than in the game.

Final shot of the new CAT graffiti. I was so close to crying the entire ending and this nearly tipped me over but it didn’t. If “A Lullaby for You” was playing, I’d have probably bawled my eyes out. This graffiti is beautiful. I want a sticker of it.

Also, I just noticed but CAT’s old graffiti at Udagawa had mostly darker colors. This new one is brighter and is more colorful.

First of all, I wanted to thank tumblr for not giving me an error for posting more than 15 images like I usually did. I was bracing myself for the error pop up and was gonna make a part 2 instead but there was some kind of miracle and I got more than 20 pictures on here.

I have a lot of melodramatic things to say about the anime but I’ll save it all for later. For now, I’ll say something else. I’m sad they didn’t adapt Neku’s monologue. Those words from Neku still hits me in the feels to this day. Him saying that the entire ordeal really affected him in more ways than one and it wasn’t all good even though he’s happy about changing and what he learned from the experience. His line about how he can’t forgive Joshua but trusts him was cut along with it and it would’ve been nice to have to know what he thought of Joshua.

The thing I missed the most was the “I have friends now. We’re meeting each other for the first time in a week. See you there?” lines. It shows how happy Neku is that he now has people to call his friends which is super heartwarming and the line implies that he counts Joshua as one of those friends, too (which is properly confirmed in KH: DDD which I’d probably make a post about later if I get the motivation to do so). That would’ve also made the last scene with Josh hit harder. In the game, knowing Josh wanted to be with them and is sad he couldn’t already makes me sad but also knowing Neku is waiting for him makes it much worse (and I still feel pain thinking about it even after all these years).

Maybe we’d see them get reunited in NTWEWY. Hopefully. I really do hope so.

The anime isn’t perfect but it did what it could with the limited amount of time it had. The show would’ve been better if they had more episodes but we don’t know why it ended up with just 12 so we can’t really say anything else. They did it and it wasn’t as bad as I was fearing in a way. Would I recommend it? I’d probably rec the game first, to be honest. I was only okay with watching cause I have played the game and could fill in the missing stuff but the anime-only fans couldn’t and the thought that they won’t be able to fully appreciate the entire story of twewy is kinda sad. It was a nice watch though and I’d miss waiting for it every week.

I wonder if they’d make “A New Day” OVA since the anime is supposed to help the ones who haven’t/couldn’t play the first game but would go play NTWEWY and that scenario has story stuff that’s connected to the sequel.

Anyways, thanks for reading this far if you did! I’ll be watching gameplays of NTWEWY when it comes out in full (since I don’t have the money nor the console for it).

#Subarashiki Kono Sekai #the world ends with you #twewy #subaseka #sana_post #joshneku #nekujosh

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