#from the shonen jump store

[mangostarjam]

one night (fruit) stand — bnha, todoroki shouto x gn!reader, fluff, "love" as a pet name, fruit puns sorry, pro heroes, aged up, no quirks mentioned for reader, 2.2k words

written for andie's pretty boy summer collab!

"This is for you."

The low, measured tone is a welcome respite from the joyful chaos of the farmer's market, but you balk as you look up from a basket of oranges — straight into the eyes of your one night stand.

"Wait," you say. Your brow wrinkles. The man — tall, ridiculously handsome, way out of your league — merely blinks his dichromatic eyes and lowers his hand slightly. He sets the cold can of milk tea on the table and reaches up to tilt his bucket hat a little further up his head, revealing a shock of red and white hair that looks vaguely familiar. But that's not the only thing — "You have the same bucket hat as one of our regulars. But he said it was exclusive."

"I do have the hat," the hottest guy in the world says. "I'm Todoroki Shouto. Do you remember me?"

You feel the flush burn in your cheeks and up the back of your neck as hazy memories from last night leap unbidden to your mind. There was the warm buzz of alcohol in your veins — the intimate, cozy izakaya — a flash of a charming smile and mesmerizing dichromatic eyes — your quietly giddy giggling as you twined your arms around a smooth neck to stretch up on tiptoes for a kiss — stumbling into a door, tripping over shoes in the genkan, wrapping your legs around a trim waist as your partner groaned into your mouth —

Of course you fucking remember Todoroki Shouto. That was the best night of your entire life, and he was the cause of it. But why is he standing at your farmer's market stall looking like the world's hottest model for bucket hats?

You left his beautifully rumpled bed this morning way before dawn, yanking your clothes back on and mourning the loss of his strong body curled up around your own, positive you'd never see him again. You know for a fact that he doesn't have your number or any contact info.

But now he's here. At your farmer's market stall. Wearing a disconcertingly familiar bucket hat.

Maybe it's one of those new trends? You don't keep up with heroes and wouldn't recognize their branding if it smacked you in the face, but at the very least you know that when a hero starts rising in the rankings, their merch starts popping up more and more often. The hat looks like it could be one of those — it's a solid black with orange on the inside (that clashes terribly with Shouto's hair, except he still looks unfairly good), a thin line of orange along the edge, and an embroidered… grenade… patch centered in the middle.

Why anyone would walk around wearing a grenade bucket hat, you don't know, but if it's hero merch then it makes more sense. So Shouto must be a fan of this rising hero — a huge fan, to get an exclusive hat like this, but — wait, he's staring at you and gosh, his blue and gray eyes are so gorgeous and when his lips quirk in that little lopsided smile your heart feels dangerously like it'll leap out of your chest.

"I take it you remember me," he says, still in that even tone but with an edge of laughter this time.

Your face heats even more and your hands clench around the basket of oranges. "Sorry, sorry," you clear your throat. "I just… wasn't expecting you."

Shouto nudges the can of milk tea closer to you. "I wanted to see you again," he says carefully. You glance at the can and blink. It's your favorite drink to pick up from vending machines. Did that come up last night?

"And you came here to… give me a drink?"

He nods. A light breeze ruffles the collar of his shirt. His smile tugs a little bit higher on his handsome face.

Well, then. That smile is dangerous.

Shouto waits patiently as you get called to deliver the basket of oranges you're clutching for dear life. He hovers at the side of your stall, looking woefully out of place in his bucket hat and crisp, clean clothes. You can feel a streak of dirt along your cheek and your clothes are all dusty, but every time you glance back at him, he's looking at you steadily and completely unabashedly.

It's embarrassing, but you can't deny the little thrill that shoots to your toes every time you meet his gaze. "Todoroki-san, you really don't need to wait here," you say, slipping back to him during another lull in customers. "Thank you for the milk tea, though! It's my favorite."

Shouto blinks slowly as he observes you. The scrutiny does nothing to help your nerves — it takes two tries to pop the can open, and Shouto looks endlessly amused the whole time. "I would like to wait for you," he says. A pause. You bring the can up to your lips for a sip. "And you may call me Shouto. I appreciated the way you said it last night."

You choke on your drink.

The way you said it last night — gasping into his ear, moaning into his steadily fraying kisses — oh, jeez. "Ah, fuck," you blurt out, eyes widening with horror at the stray flecks of tea you've splattered on his shirt.

"It is alright," Shouto says. He pats at the small spots delicately with his sleeve and then seems to deem it unimportant. You blink as he looks up at you from beneath messy bangs. "Are you feeling… well?"

What a question. What a look. Does he know how lethally attractive he is? You take a very careful sip of your drink. "I'm… sore."

Shouto hums in response and carefully begins rolling up the sleeves of his button up. You watch, mesmerized, as the corded muscles of his forearms and biceps flex with the sure movement. You take a slow sip of your drink with wide eyes as he finishes and sets his hands on his hips. "Let me help."

Jeez, the shoulders on this guy. You can't help staring at the breadth of him as he comes around the table and into your space. A breeze of minty cool air washes over you with the movement and suddenly your brain catches what he's said.

"W-wait, Todoroki-san," you yelp, setting your can down and reaching for him. He continues bending for the large crate by your feet, hefting it up with barely any effort at all, and you're caught standing there holding onto the edge of his shirt. "Todoroki-san, you don't need to help!"

"Call me Shouto," he says. You gape up at him uselessly. "I would not want you to injure yourself because I made you sore."

"I — you — Todoroki-san," you huff, tugging even harder on his shirt. Shouto pouts and moves to bring the crate to the small truck parked behind your stall. You're forced to follow him, wary of accidentally messing up his shirt even more, though you feel a little dazed with his pout etching itself into your brain.

"This goes here?" Shouto asks. You nod wordlessly, still processing the cutest fucking pout you've ever seen on a grown man. "Would you like to hold my hand instead, love?"

Whoa, what?

Shouto sets the crate in place and dusts off his hands before reaching down to very gently detach your death grip on his shirt. You should get your hearing checked. You're clearly hearing things, because the hottest man you've seen in your entire life couldn't have possibly just called you 'love'.

"Love?" you repeat.

Shouto's lithe fingers squeeze around yours briefly. "Would you prefer a different pet name? I recall you mentioning that you liked that one."

You snap your jaw shut. "I… did…" you say slowly. But you said that to your regular, the other bucket hat wearer, the guy who always came wearing a face mask for pollen and dark sunglasses and that exact same bucket hat that you've… never seen anywhere else…

Several things fall into place at once. You stare up at Shouto with slowly mounting horror.

"Todoroki-san, are you… Helpless Produce Guy?"

Shouto laughs. Oh. Oh, you're so stupid. That's the laugh that's plagued your dreams every day for months as you've nursed your silly crush on the worst grocery shopper you've known. "So that is what you call me."

"I've never met someone more hopeless about buying fruit and vegetables," you say blankly. "I remember teaching you how to choose carrots the other day. I can't believe this. I've been teaching you how to pick watermelon for ages and I never knew your name or face. Just that bucket hat."

"Oi, Icyhot," a rough voice suddenly speaks up from behind the two of you, and you spin around to find yourself face to face with a spiky blonde guy who is undoubtedly a hero if the huge, bulky muscles are any indication. He's wearing a face mask and sunglasses, but he's got several reusable tote bags stuffed to the brim with leafy greens and potatoes and apples hanging off his arms.

"If you don't finish flirting with your new partner soon, I'm not gonna teach you how to make my famous curry recipe," the newcomer says. Shouto seems unfazed, simply tugging you closer with your intertwined hands. "Didn'tcha say you wanted to impress 'em?"

"I believe they are impressed," Shouto says evenly, glancing down at you with the ghost of a smile flitting across his lips. "I am helping because they are sore."

It's just the slightest emphasis on "sore", but it makes you itch to kiss that stupidly handsome smug smile off his face. "I'm fine," you say.

"Gross," the other man says decisively. You snort as he spins around and stomps off to look at a particularly enticing basket of celery stalks.

"Sorry, Todoroki-san, I promise I don't call you 'Helpless Produce Guy' that often," you say.

Shouto squeezes your hand. Warmth tingles up your arm and melts your heart into giddy mush. "I don't forgive you." You gape at him. He tugs you a little closer. "I will not forgive you until you agree to call me by my name."

Is he serious? The slight wrinkle in his brow makes you think… yes.

"That's… I don't know if I can," you blush.

Shouto hums. "Then you may call me your 'boyfriend' until I can remind you how to say my name."

Holy moly. This guy.

"Alright, boyfriend," you cannot say it without ducking your head. Almost immediately, his long fingers tip your chin back up. "Are you secretly a five star gourmet chef and you've just been acting like you've never seen a basket of strawberries before?"

Shouto cracks a tiny grin that pierces your heart. "I assure you, the produce help was invaluable. However, I frequent your stall the most because I find you… lovely."

Oh, dear.

"I do not wish for our relationship to remain limited to your stall at the farmer's market," he continues, as if he isn't blowing your mind with every word out of his perfect mouth. "Hence, why I could not help but approach you when I realized we were both at that izakaya last night."

"And you… knew it was me. Even though I didn't have my work apron."

"You were telling your friends about Helpless Produce Guy," Shouto says drily. "I had a feeling I knew the subject — but yes, I would recognize you anywhere."

"Jeez, Shouto," you breathe. Those dichromatic eyes widen a fraction before narrowing as you take a step closer to him. "I didn't realize… where are your sunglasses and mask?"

He pats the front pocket of his button down assuredly. "I am prepared."

You cast a quick glance around. Your coworkers are handling the stall well, and fruits are practically flying off the shelves as Shouto's friend gives a lecture to a captive audience about the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy diet. The two of you are tucked out of view, mostly hidden behind the truck.

"And this…" you gesture between the two of you with your free hand. "We're… dating?"

Shouto nods solemnly, but there's a sparkle in his eyes. "Yes, my love. You make my heart beat berry fast."

Your lips twitch before you can help it. "No."

"I think we make a good pear," he says. "I find you very a-peel-ing."

You burst into giggles and Shouto tugs you into his firm chest. The sturdy, steadily increasing heartbeat beneath your ear isn't quite loud enough to drown out your own rapidly leaping pulse.

"If you were a fruit you'd be a fineapple," he says into your ear. You shudder lightly at the low, even tone but snort at his deadpan delivery, soft as it is. "Is this okay? You said once that you liked these puns."

"I do," you nod. "And I'd love to date you. Since you have a peach of my heart."

"Good," he murmurs. You tip your head up to look at him and beam at the gentle blush rising on his cheeks. Shouto leans down to press a careful kiss to your lips, drawing back after a moment with a shaky breath. "I was running out of lines."

"Don't you mean you were running out of limes?" you snicker.

Shouto stares. And then, still with that soft, deadpan tone — "Every day with you will be mangonificent."

[arkus-rhapsode]

Are We Returning To 2000s Era Shonen Anime/Manga (A Discussion)

So this is going to be way more of a thinkpiece than I usually do for this blog, but recent trends in the space and niche that I devote a lot of time to, Anime/Manga, have been showing themselves that got me thinking. This is not meant to be a serious sociology case study taken as fact, it's going to be more a theory based on observations of the community that I, like many others, devote a lot of time into than a full on claim, but I do want to ask, is the anime and manga community is experiencing a resurgence in 2000s era shonen manga?

Background

Now let me get this out of the way, there is bias in these observations as I am a western anime fan, but also a North American anime fan. Meaning my gateway and gauges of pop culture are mostly determined by the history of my area of the world’s relationship with anime. From the OVAs of 80s hyper violent and hyper sexual sci fi that you had to purchase from the backs of video rental stores, to the Toonami era of 90s and early 00s programming block the centred around action anime and cartoons, the 4kids era of mass market japanese animated kids shows that were really just giant commercials with some of the earliest memetics in western sphere, and the explosion of shonen battle series in the western sphere in the mid to late 2000s marked by the rise of the colloquially named “Big 3” of shonen jump. I understand that continents like South America or Europe may have undergone a different exposure to the Japanese medium, but as I am going in with some bias in this observation, I would like to make it clear on where the formula is coming from. I also would like to lay down a certain clarification before making this, when discussing the topic of nostalgia I think a lot of people have forgotten what it actually means. If we go by the Cambridge dictionary definition, Nostalgia is “a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past.” This is often invoked when talking about pop culture because people from say 20 years ago don’t seem to enjoy or relate to the interests of today. The belief is that nostalgia is generational ergo if you grew up in the 80s you’re likely wishing to recapture the feelings of childhood that you associate with those trends from 20 years ago. In fact, most revaluation in media has often been catalyzed by a difference of those who grew up in an era rebuffing the opinions of those who didn’t. 

There is the well known “20 Year Rule” regarding pop culture nostalgia. That every decade it longs for what was popular 20 years ago. Probably no better example than “That 70s show” being popular in the late 90s, the return of many beloved 80s-90s franchises like “Ghostbusters” returning in the 2010s as well as series like “Stranger Things” that wrapped itself up in 80s aesthetics. DC's New 52 relaunch that seemed to bring back trends from 90s era comics.

Now it goes without saying that the 20 year rule isn’t a “real” rule, rather an observation that certain trends make a return to popularity because the ones who grew up with a certain media will be the ones who add to the discourse when they come of age and will be the ones having a chance to create consumable art for the masses and that may just be revivals of once popular IP. This isn’t necessarily wrong in regards to nostalgia, but I do believe that one doesn’t need to have been born in a certain era to be nostalgic for something when we discuss pop culture. Pop culture is really just trends and preferences that become en vogue and people can acquire a taste at any given time. Sometimes it can be due to those who grew up with something now having the chance to create and drawing upon their own childhoods, sometimes it's just due to not being exposed, other times it can be a certain feeling of disillusionment of the now, and seeking something that peaks your interest, and even sometimes it can be major corporations or networks looking for things with existing audiences to draw upon that actually expand the audience. In fact one of the most prominent Netflix adaptations of the 2020s has been live Action Avatar the Last Airbender and One Piece, both shows that got their start on American televisions in 2004 and 2005. One of the biggest animated shows right now is Invincible, based on a comic book from 2003

So I want to stress this is not necessarily about how if you grew up with the original Mobile Suit Gundam show you are being replaced by the kids who were watching GetBackers. And or if you are a fan of shows that came out in the 2000s you yourself were born in the 2000s.

But what was the landscape of the English speaking anime community like back in the 2000s? Well let me paint a portrait for you.

What was the 2000s like for anime fans?

The term I used, “shonen boom period”, is somewhat mythologized in the western anime sphere. There was a glut of high profile shonen anime running around the same time that most people identified with this time period and was arguably when we saw the most influx of people getting into the hobby. One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach served as big series known for their massively large casts, MCs with a level of attitude, some of the most hype centric power supernatural/extraordinary power systems, and certain brand of “Japanese-y” humor. We can’t deny that it wasn’t just these series however, as series like Fullmetal Alchemist became many people’s introduction to more narratively intricate series interspersed with a somewhat gothic action style. The gothic and somewhat edgy Death Note became many fans' first ever “battle series that’s not a battle series” that also incorporated many biblical and gothic horror elements into its presentation. And things like Code Geass also incorporated this combination of hyper stylized cat and mouse with ornate and gothic aesthetics and fighting robots. 

Series like Ouran Highschool Host Club and and Haruhi Suzumiya were basically gateways to the more hyper extraordinary slice of life series that didn’t shy away from fanservice and loud comedy. With ecchi like Rosario + Vampire taking it to an even greater extreme. For people willing to go even deeper, series like Fairy Tail began to pop up and share a distinct similar flavor to series like One Piece and Naruto which arguably started the popular conception of it coming from the same magazine as the latter. That’s not also discounting the amount of holdovers from the 90s like Dragon Ball z, Trigun, and Yu Yu Hakusho, which also had an edge towards fantastical combat and comedic oriented series.

All of this is to generally illustrate the media diet of what an average anime fan was expected to have some level of access to. As this was far before the eras of Funimation or Hulu having online services. Not a homogenized spread by any means, and im certain plenty of readers could name more underground or smaller series like Mushishi or Elphen Lied, but generally the popular mainstream you could tell that there was a consistent theme of long form media with a very loud, very flashy, and very action oriented type of series. Which I think is fair to say had skewed some people’s perception. And while I cannot claim with utter certainty that Japan was the same in this regard, you can look at magazines like Shonen Jump and notice a somewhat synchronistic trend. With series like Hitman Reborn, Gintama, D. Gray Man, Eyeshield 21, Bobobobo, etc.making a clear marcation of what was commercially successful at the time. Even series not inside the magazine but had smaller nicher, Tokyo-pop-esque series like Rave Master, Flame of Recca, Air Gear, History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Soul Eater, etc all had a similarity to the shonen jump magazine. To the point it was not uncommon to see so many jump characters in a collage and one from shonen sunday or shonen magazine in there as if this was all coming from the same place.

Changing Landscape

Now with the advantages of the modern internet, we have the ability to actually keep up with the jump magazine in real time as opposed to the common practice of relying on scanlation site and fansubs that were often devoted to the most popular works. But with simultaneous publication and services like Crunchyroll, being able to access a wider variety of shows and series that we may or may not have access to. I believe that the 2010s in the english speaking fanbase was the decade we saw a somewhat expansionism of what people perceived as anime. Anime could be One Piece and Naruto, but it could also be Erased, it could be the Promised Neverland, Attack on Titan, K-On, Haikuu, and Durarara. With the representatives of the 90s no longer being holdovers in syndication like dragon ball but rather full on revivals of the likes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Hunter x Hunter. 

All of these could be "shonen" but also other genres like Seinin, Josei, and Shojo all had their own varying layers of what they could be in their demographic

The mood of what was popular was also changing, not just in the fact that more flavors of anime and manga were becoming mainstream, but new works from shonen jump showed a rise in almost subversive series like My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer that seemed to consciously deviate or place new spins from traditional tropes of the 2000s characters, and we saw works that were derivative of previous serious like Black Clover drawing upon Naruto the same way it was known that Naruto had drawn upon Dragon Ball before them. Series like The Promised Neverland and Doctor Stone offered up more dramatic series that still infused a certain energy of the shonen genre. 

And of course the series like Attack Titan whose much more darker and gorey storytelling seemed to have become one of if not the biggest hit of the generation with a well regarded adaptation, but something that had felt so removed from what were once contemporaries like the then ending Bleach or Naruto. We can also note that the late 2010s saw the rise of series like Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen that began a trend of popular urban fantasy stories. Where fantastical concepts were now in contemporary Japan and the stories that focused on concepts like self identity and the harshness of maturing were juxtaposed to the real world inhabited by monsters. 

It seemed many tropes of the previous decade were still alive in the rise of Isekai anime. Which was particularly the only popular outlet for fantasy stories with an action orientation. But these almost felt disconnected from the wider world of manga as things like heavy harem action series had actually decreased in mags like shonen jump. There was also new tropes being established in this subgenre that became unique popularizations of tropes all on their own, such as the overpowered protagonist whose power everyone believes is weak. But many of these were based on light novels, a form of media that only in the last few years western readers are having official access to and not simply scans found on the internet.

We in North America truly have gone from anime being a niche that was primarily accessible through dedicated TV blocks like Toonami, to a full blown cultural relevance shift.

We also need to talk about this era in its perception of the past also shifted. The 90s and the early 00s often blend together as classics of the anime community. Somewhat encased in amber. However, there is no denying that “feels like a 2000s series” had become a bit of a shorthand for very goofy, Very horny, very action heavy series. Series like Fire Force and and Undead Unluck had their show what more problematic elements be equated to the problematic trends of the past that people just accepted as “a part of the medium.” But lets keep in mind, this is not really describing a time, more a trend. Superficial elements that invoke similar feelings of the past. 

Speaking of anime fans…

Fan Culture

So while I wanted to paint a picture of creatively the landscape has changed, there’s no denying that in the age of internet accessibility, the anime fan community has also changed. It is much much easier now to get in contact with people who are anime fans now than it was to rely on word of mouth like it was back in the day. I can still distinctly remember my anime club which wasn’t even really a club devoted to anime but rather other geek stuff like D&D and TCGs. Our hobbies just happened to have similar overlap.

Now though, anime fan culture is much more relevant and thriving. Going from just posting weekly reviews, to long retrospectives, comedy videos, abridged series, clickbait articles, fan theories, and podcasts. However, I think a defining feature of fans of the 2000s era of anime that were at their most prominent was hype culture. 

Due to many of the biggest anime series at the time being released weekly and focusing on action, many many many discussion boards and videos were often about staying in this cycle of wanting to see what happens next and the action made people very excited to see just how characters were going to win fights or even if they’d have fights at all. 

I want to make it clear that this type of activity doesn’t belong to a certain era, but you can see it shaped by the 2000s era. Especially when discussing “what is the next big 3.” As if it were a true position and title, rather than a moment in time where there were just three very distinct shonen series in the fanbase.This doesn’t necessarily have a “negative” effect on the discussion of anime/manga but you can see that certain genres lend themselves to hyping fans up more and more. 

Someone isn’t reading the most recent chapter of a romance like Blue Box with the same level of anticipation of who will face who like it was One Piece. But there have certainly been series that try.

The Present

Now we reach the 2020s and this decade is still young, so it is hard to say what the future will hold for certainty, but we can look at the last four years and notice some significant waves being made recently in Shonen Jump alone. I already spoke of Undead Unluck, a series that almost wears it would now be considered retro inspirations on its sleeve. With an opening chapter that establishes an MC that seems motivated by a sexual joke, A power system follows a verbal naming gimmick, and a loose enough world that allows for characters of varying aesthetics and to be incorporated into groups. With groups of these powerful characters splitting up to face each other and use their ridiculous power to the extreme. Even in the series' own meta arc about creating manga, the in-universe analogy for Undead Unluck’s manga is commented on as feeling retro. There is no doubt the biggest viral hit of the decade so far has gone to Kagurabachi, a manga about sword fighting and magical crime lords that seems almost indulgent in its stylistic slicing and or dicing of baddies. Its memetic success was primarily due to a somewhat sincere and somewhat ironic belief that it would be the “next big thing” as it promised to be a stylized action series. Another surprise viral success has been the manga Nue’s Exorcist which sees another supernatural swordfighter boy harness the powers of his sexy spirit lady while getting into harem shenanigans that echo a particular form of ecchi of anime’s past that had actually been somewhat absent in the past decade in jump. Both of these series have a somewhat noticeable similarities to Bleach, a long running shonen action series that has seen its own revival in the last few years of writing this with the long awaited adaptation of the final arc of the bleach anime. 

While the other members of the “big 3” never truly went away and became almost inter-generational, Bleach truly did feel like a “come back” as it was absent for so long. And unlike Hunter x Hunter and Jojo which were never really popular in the west and even their older anime are more regarded as anime deep lore. Bleach was one of the most popular series in the west at the time to never receive a conclusion animated. 

Speaking of anime of the 2000s Trigun Stampede was a reimagining of the original late 90s show. This errs a bit similar to Hunter x Hunter’s style of revival, but also seems uniquely its own in actually trying to find a balance between the original series but adding in things cut from its original late 90s early 2000s counterpart. 

And now we must examine other shonen magazines. Series like Gachiakuta created by a former assistant of Okubo, the creator of Soul Eater, carries with it much of the similar energies of that series. Its also noticeable as being a truly dark fantasy series. Not an urban fantasy, but rather a completely new world that had a very grunge and dirty world building. And then there is Daemons of the Shadow Realm, a series by Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa. This series is also set in modern day japan with supernatural elements, however Arakawa’s style of writing is practically unchanged from her time on FMA. With an emphasis on action, intricate mysteries, and character building comedy with her trademark over exaggerated blocky style. There is of course Hiro Mashima who has started another new series, Dead Rock, and his style has also not changed that much. Then there is just flat out sequels to 2000s series like Gamaran Shura.

This to me shows that we are  seeing a bit of a combination of people who are now entering the workforce inspired by creators of the past, but also that creators of the past still exist 20 years later and are still making content that hasn’t really undergone significant change. 

Of course, we can’t also forget the implementation of the Manga Plus/J plus service which has opened up a very interesting ground for creators to have some of the most creatively out there series than what you may have expected from the shonen jump brand. I genuinely don’t think series like Make the Exorcist Fall in Love or Fire Punch would’ve ever been acceptable in the pages of a weekly shonen series. However one series in particular does feel like it could've and boy its been quite the success. Kaiju no 8.

Kaiju no 8 almost feels as though it is the AoT of a new generation with the amount of anticipation this one series has as well as the similarities between the series superficial elements. However, I'd say the key distinction between the two has been the tone. AoT took a dark and practically dour tone on its titan infested world. With an MC declaring war on all of his enemies. The pain was realistic, with human bodies being brittle and vulnerable. And the belief that just because you were a good person you weren't going to make it out alive. Kaiju no 8 instead opts for a more action oriented tone. Down playing the bleak realism for more "Hell yeah!" moments. With super science weapons that feel more akin to a tokusatsu show and fights and battles between humans an kanji the feel like the Dragon Ball style wrestling matches of old.

And of course, that’s not to say Jump hasn’t continued with series that feel more modern like the realistic and mellow romance of Blue Box or the dramatic coming of age story of Akane-Banashi. 

But the presence of these series has caused somewhat of a friction with the popular conception of the magazine. Its safe to say that while “shonen” tends to think of action male oriented series, it can really just mean works aimed more at adolescents. But I think many tend to associate this familiar feeling of “what is shonen” with their popular introduction of the magazine. With a saturation of action and brash comedy series. This is further complicated by the fact many action series in jump are actually ending over the last decade. With new ones not popping up to replace them as frequently and series like One Piece and MHA and Black Clover basically stretching out across an entire decade or longer. In fact, I don’t think it's unreasonable to believe that the hype for something like Kagurabachi was in part a belief that it signaled a return of a type of familiar series and genre that had been missing. Or at the very least, looked to fill an inevitable gap the magazine was obviously going to be facing. Followed by the other commercial success of Nue’s Exorcist, we are likely to see these series last for a long time. At the time of this writing, Tokyo Revenger’s author Ken Wakui has released Astro Royale, a series that feels very similar to his previous work yet infused with this almost GetBackers flavor.

So that leaves us with the question at the start, are we seeing a rise in 2000s nostalgia in anime and manga?

Conclusion

So I'm sorry if I disappoint, but the best I can say is, I’m not certain. I do believe that from my observation I think it is reasonable to say that we are seeing a rise in creators in the shonen space being ones inspired by series from 20 years ago. However, I think we are also seeing creators who are from that time period also returning to write how they have always written. 

On the consumer side, I think we can see that fans of anime and manga have changed in the sense their tastes can now be shaped by a much larger catalog of series at their disposal. But in the case of shonen, I think we are simply seeing those who likely got their start in anime at around the 2000s resonating with newer series drawing upon those series, but also with younger fans now likely to grow up with the tail end of what was popular in the 2010s now being influenced by the 2020s. I also believe that one of the defining features of the anime community in the last decade is hype culture. And currently we are seeing a rise in series that actually feel more catered to hype, be it a revival of a series they liked or predicting what will be the next success. 

All and all, this piece was trying to tunnel on the shonen demographic in general, which is more likely than not going to have similar traits relative to itself. I do see us as a community endorsing trends of the past and there’s an excitement for these things to “come back” even if they may or may not have left. If you liked this please drop a like or reblog because I may do more of these think pieces in the future.

[nanaslutt]

1. he is a pretty laid back dry goofy guy in cannon, i just cannot for the life of me see him as a full on dom but i don’t think he’s super subby either, he’s def in between imo

2. kisses fs!! im not a huge physical touch person but i like smoochin

3. he’s cool!! i wish we coulda seen his interactions more with panda yk? that scene of them bonding during the exchange even made my heart melt :( also really sad abt him bcs of miwa…. poor girl

4. probably!! i get fixated on doing certain things like that so ill try to do those again sometime :3

5. i like both but hair up gives early 2000’s and i live for it so i think i have a slight preference for that look

6. yes!! u can read the online copies weekly on shonen jump, and i buy the physical copies of any manga from anime stores :3

[tangytiramisu]

You Are The Stardust Crusaders’ Favorite Anime Character

Warnings: None!

Jotaro Kujo

He’s apparently canonically a fan of Shonen Jump, so he’s quite a nerd even if he doesn’t look like it.

He’d most likely know you if you were from a Shonen Jump series or a popular series from another publisher. If you aren’t from Shonen Jump, it would take him a while to consider reading your series or watching your show until he finally decides to give them a shot and ends up really liking them.

Being reserved, he doesn’t openly gush about you, but he recommends the series to close people like Kakyoin (if the latter doesn’t know about it already).

While he isn’t really the type who collects large merchandise, such as posters or t-shirts, he will silently support you by buying a couple of small things like buttons or bookmarks.

While he browses anime stores, Star Platinum immediately rushes over to the stall for your series, much to Joot’s embarrassment.

He will stay up all night reading a chapter or watching an episode when the plot gets juicy. Who needs sleep anyway?

He will shed tears if anything really bad happens to you but only in the confines of his room where nobody can witness it.

Even if he has never told Holly she knows of his love for you and your series and will buy him merch of you on his birthday 🥹❤️

Regardless of how interesting the story may be to him, the main reason he invests in it is you. He just wants his husbando/waifu fictional bestie to succeed.

Noriaki Kakyoin

He’s a big nerd, so he’d have read and watched your series regardless of its popularity.

Before he met the rest of the SDC he didn’t have people to gush to aside from Hierophant and his family, but after having met his friends he would occasionally bring your series up in conversation, especially to Jotaro.

While he doesn’t openly rave about it, his eyes light up and he’s more animated that usual which makes the others interested in your show too and it’s just so cute— 🥹❤️

He most likely brought one of the mangas with him on the trip too and showed the others some cool panels.

He also recommends that they check the series out for themselves and tells them that they would love it.

I could totally see him having a blog where he talks about his interests and comes up with detailed theories. There are endless posts about the symbolism behind your series, which have garnered him a pretty large following. He has a picture of you as his icon.

Would write fanfics of you and they’re really well written too. He gets your character just right. 😤👌🏻

He’s got lots of merch, including posters, shirts, keychains, and even cosplay of you (yes, even if you’re a girl, and yes, he rocks the fit).

He puts his art skills to good use by making gorgeous fanart of you and sells some at conventions.

He sometimes thinks about what you’d be like in real life, how you’d look, and what it would be like to meet you.

Like Jotaro, he will stay up all night watching your show. You can’t tell me he hasn’t finished a whole season in just one night.

He has memorized all of your most iconic quotes and has integrated them into his daily vocabulary.

If we’re talking modern AU, he 100% makes tiktok edits, icons, and memes of you and follows fellow fans on social media.

Jean Pierre Polnareff

He had most likely never even heard of anime until meeting Jotaro and Kakyoin. The latter introduced him to your series and he was already hooked. Mostly because of you.

While he’s more into the classic super hero genre of fiction, if your series is something different it doesn’t really matter to him because you’re the MC and he loves you.

Unlike the tamer Jotaro and Kakyoin, Polnareff has no filter when gushing over you. He will endlessly rant about how amazing, attractive, and incredibly cool you are. The others roll their eyes albeit fondly.

He’s extremely excited when he finds out that he can buy merch of you. Expect him to start saving up for a lot of stuff.

Imagine seeing a large, muscular man walking down the street with chibi (Name) earrings. We’re living for it.

While he may not be the best artist, he does try to redraw some cool panels of you from the manga.

He updates the others about where he is in the series and what his opinions are of new content.

While watching the show, he loudly cheers you on when you do something cool.

Like Jotaro, he will totally cry if something bad happens to you in the show but he will fearlessly do it in front of the others. They all comfort him in their respective ways because they’re good friends.

He doesn’t care if the story is fictional. He holds grudges against characters who hurt you and absolutely loves your friends.

Like Kakyoin he imagines meeting you in real life, but his daydreams are more romantic in nature.

Since your series is his first ever anime/manga, he’s enthusiastic about trying out other series, though yours will always be his fave ❤️

Muhammad Avdol

He’s a very well read person who has traveled the world, so he would know what anime is.

While he may not be a “fan”, he appreciates the art and can be found occasionally browsing through manga to pass time. However at some point he finds your series and eventually grows attached to you.

He’s a calm person, so you won’t hear him openly gush about you, but anyone who catches him reading or watching your series will see a smile on his face.

He will openly praise the creator of the story for how well they had written you and recommended this series to anyone who may ask.

He will occasionally discuss the story with Kakyoin and they’d theorize about it.

While he isn’t an avid merch collector, he does have a few trinkets here and there consisting of keychains, stamps, buttons, and the like. Most of them are (Name) themed.

He prefers reading to watching the series, but won’t hesitate to pop in a cassette if he doesn’t have the manga with him.

Ok hear me out about this one,,, he will probably read a couple of fanfics about you. Nothing weird, but he likes seeing other peoples interpretations of your character. He leaves really sweet comments too ❤️

Lmao there’s a high chance that he read one of Kakyoin’s fanfics without knowing who wrote it—

Overall a very chill and wholesome fan 💕

Joseph Joestar

He likes reading comics, so he’d most likely stumble upon your series in a comic store during his time in Japan.

He remembers Jotaro mentioning manga in passing, so he’d decide to grab whatever was displayed on one of the stalls at the very front of the store.

What he wasn’t expecting was to get absolutely hooked.

This series is so good??? And the main character is absolutely amazing???

It would be so hard to get his head out of the book. You’d pretty much have to snatch it out of his hands.

He’d totally gush about you to Jotaro, who’d mumble his catchphrase and fiddle with his hat, but he’s secretly somewhat happy that his grandpa likes the series.

He would also gush to the others and pretty much everyone about how awesomely written you are and how your series got him into manga, which is very wholesome 💖

Will get into an argument with anyone who dares insult you because you’re his favorite anime character.

He’s a huge fan of the merch and would by anything under the sun as long as you’re on it. Yes, he even has (Name) themed socks that he wears with pride.

He will haggle for expensive stuff.

He has a little keychain of you dangling from his rear view mirror.

He doesn't mind reading the manga or watching the anime, he loves it.

He has cassettes that consist of your most iconic moments; basically retro versions of "(Series Title): (Name) Moments!" Youtube videos.

[melonteee]

I am going to Japan next year, and I remember you have been there recently. Do you have any recs of places I should visit? Did you go to any cool one piece/anime store?

When it comes to things like the Kirby and Pokemon cafes you have to book those a month or two in advance! So get on that if you want to see them! I think they're very cute and fun.

There are One Piece stores aaaall over Japan, in Tokyo alone there's a big one in Ikebukuro, a small one in Shibuya, and a medium sized one in Odaiba! They're all fun to go to for the statues alone! The biggest store is in Osaka to my knowledge, and Shonen Jump stores have a lot of One Piece too!

I loooove the Mocha cat cafe chains so much I would go to all of them in Tokyo and spend hours in them at a time lmao. My favourite one is the Ikebukuro East cafe!

Ikebukuro in general is a gorgeous area, it has Sunshine City and things like Animate. Also...if you want...heh....doujinshi....K-BOOKS Doujinkan is an awesome place. Mandarake also has doujinshis, both of these places are in Ikebukuro.

Tokyo Skytree Mall is a banger place, lots of funs little shops in there and a gorgeous outside area to walk around.

Overall I'm a big foodie and history buff, I love to travel for old architecture and food. I was eating parfaits every day in Japan because I can't get them anywhere else lol, and Kyoto is a lovely and amazing city for nature and temples. Overall my holidays in Japan are just spent walking around the cities to see what I can find! Sorry, I don't really have a master list.

Don't forget to be respectful upon travelling as well, ie don't talk on trains during rush hour and, if you go to Kyoto, don't take photos of or bother the Geishas! Those poor girls have had it rough lately with very rude tourists 😭

But have fun on your trip! I hope it goes well! I 100% suggest you get a suica card for travel from the airport when you land, they're super easy to obtain and the best thing to use for train travel!

[andythelemon]

✨ PRE-ORDERS NOW OPEN ✨

JUMP FOR THE STARS! A Shonen Poster Collection

40pg | A5 | saddle stitch

A cinematic-style tribute to 32 of our most beloved epic, hot-blooded and friendship filled shonen manga. From old classics to new faves, there's something for everyone. All physical book orders come with a cursed protagonist sticker pack!

Artists: Andy - Roll - Lisa Kogawa - Jade - Vi - Jacqueline Li - Tetsai - Koi Carreon - Jununy - Amy Matsushita-Beal - Yukinnn - Corina - Erin - Sam C. - Tia - Roxy - Jimmy Martinez - Nice Day, Bucky! - Leario - Myst-A - Kevinmacross - CJ - Cam Estela - Poxei - Meruz - Deads - Yun - Six - Prince - DICEShimi - April - Vanna

Pre-orders close Nov 27th. Please contact the store if you have any questions not answered by the listings/FAQ. Thank you for the support!

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

How to Subscribe to Shonen Jump+

Someone asked me for a tutorial on how you can subscribe to the Japanese digital releases of Weekly Shonen Jump even from outside Japan, so, here we go!

THINGS TO KNOW:

A subscription to Weekly Shonen Jump costs 980 yen per month, and it is always charged on the first of the month every month until you cancel. If you purchase your subscription during the middle of the month, you simply have less time before the next charge.

Depending on your credit card, you may also be charged a small foreign transaction fee on top of the 980 yen.

Your first subscription includes the most current issue of WSJ, so if you subscribed on a Saturday, you could still read the issue that was released the prior Monday.

Back issues are not included. You will only have access to the newest issue of WSJ and Jump GIGA when you subscribed and every subsequent issue released after that. To have access to past issues, you have to purchase them individually.

This tutorial is for the desktop web browser version of SJ+. The SJ+ app is different; I have heard you can create a Japanese Google Play or Apple account and purchase giftcards through their respective stores, then download the SJ+ app and buy a subscription with that, but I have no experience with this method.

Shueisha's payment processor can be finicky. It does not accept debit cards, only credit cards. Please note which kinds of credit cards they accept as shown in Step Five.

Because the charge comes from another country, initial attempts may get flagged as fraudulent by your credit card company, so be sure to contact them to confirm the purchase is from you. The site rejected my card a couple times before I was able to clear it with my card issuer and try again.

The SJ+ website is in Japanese; my tutorial includes side-by-side screenshots of the original pages and a machine translation.

Machine translation sites can't access pages you need to log in to see, so if you have any problems and don't understand what you're seeing, take a screenshot and translate the image before continuing.

STEP ONE: Go to the Shonen Jump+ website

They are legally obligated to tell you about cookies. shrug?

STEP TWO: Find the new subscription button and click it

This will take you here! Look at Izuku, beaming at noncommittal passersby, encouraging them to shell out the big bucks just to see his sweet face every week. Click the yellow button to continue.

STEP THREE: Account registration

This initiates account registration. Fill out the information, accept the terms, and usher on. You will have to check your email and click the link they send you to verify your account.

I already had an account, so I don't know if they let you jump right back into your subscription attempt after verifying. If not, go back to to the main page, log in (click ログイン, in the top righthand corner near the new subscription button), and then start the subscription process.

STEP FOUR: Initiate subscription process

STEP FIVE: Enter payment details

Scroll and click the blue button to continue.

STEP SIX: Confirm purchase

It'll look like this. Click the blue button to confirm.

Now you've got a subscription to Weekly Shonen Jump! Wahoooo~!

If you click the blue button to continue, they take you back to their main page with a notice up front.

My Page is where you can see everything you've bought, rented, and the newest issues of your subscribed magazines.

When you are logged in, the main page will look like this:

Notice that you can also access the newest WSJ on the right there.

You can also look at or edit your account information by clicking My Page and going to Customer Information.

Notice that if you need to update your account details or payment information, or cancel your subscription, this is where you will do it.

After you click the red link for canceling, you will be shown a page asking you to confirm. Once you cancel, your subscription will still be valid until the last day of the month in which you cancelled.

And that's how you do it! Have fun! <3

[yggdraseed]

Reflecting on Ichigo vs. Grimmjow

This past week, we lost electricity and internet for a few days. In addition to engendering a much deeper appreciation for modern amenities in me, it led me to dust off a bunch of old Shonen Jump issues I bought at Kroger when I was a kid! Someday I'd like to collect a copy of every English monthly and weekly Shonen Jump anthology, but that's not the point of this post.

No, the point is that while thumbing through them, I encountered the last chapter of Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow, and I was struck by how much of the subtext and emotion I missed as a dumb teenager. That's not to say all teenagers are dumb, I don't think they are and I think the way that adults in general look down on and bully adolescents is stupid and wrong; I'm just saying I, myself, was a teenager once, and back then, I was dumb as hell.

Anywho, I remember really, really being struck by that flashback to when Grimmjow was still an Adjuchas and running with his pack that all eventually became his Numeros. When I was a teen, I don't think I had the mental framework to understand why, but now I do. The whole concept of the Arrancar is a hell of a lot more fascinating with all the things I've learned and opened myself up to since then, and looking with fresh eyes at this one chapter of Grimmjow and his interactions with his underlings and Ichigo was a real thrill.

It's interesting how, while Shinigami get stronger by cloaking themselves in Hollow powers, Hollows get stronger by becoming more like Shinigami. They tear off their masks, assume more-or-less human forms, and store their full Hollow form as zanpakuto for the renewal and empowerment of Resurrección. And I've started to reflect a lot on what monsters taking on humanoid form means for the story's themes.

When I look at the Espada, I see these once animalistic phantoms who exist only to consume and perpetuate their own existence who have now taken on human form and the very human search for meaning in some form. Yammy's a bad example of this like he is for fucking everything, but maybe the point is that he's such a big lug with so much power to throw around that he doesn't need to try to give his life meaning? But that's a reach.

Starting from Number 9 instead, we have Aaroniero, the only Gillian in the Espada. The Gillian are the first stage of Menos Granda, resulting from the hunger that defines all Hollows becoming so great that human souls no longer can satiate them, and so they cannibalize each other in a huge feeding frenzy that eventually produces a Gillian. As a result of smashing all these Hollow personalities together, they lose their individual identity, as seen with how Gillian all have the same appearance until they metamorphose into the next phase, an Adjuchas. When this happens, an individual identity asserts itself.

I don't believe that Adjuchas are actually representative of any one living human's former identity like non-Menos Hollow are. Rather, I think that an Adjuchas is a whole new identity that originates from that congealed mess of interfeeding and assimilation that produces a Gillian. Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I don't think any of the Arrancar were once living humans, in that I think their experience as individuals begins at their emergence as Adjuchas.

Getting back to Aaroniero, he (they? it?) was probably just on the borderline between Gilian and Adjuchas. So you have this sort of very broad strokes, half-animal consciousness that's only starting to become self-aware again. Aaroniero only has a little more going on in his/their inner life than the primal desire all Hollows have to feed, and I think that bears out in how Aaroniero takes the identity of what's eaten and lives to eat. Aaroniero only has a little more than hunger, but is using that hunger as a basis for meaning and trying to create an identity by eating otthers and integrating them. Perhaps unfortunately, Aaroniero dies before completing self-actualization.

Szayel Aporro, the next rung on the ladder, is also defined by desire in a more broad sense. It's not only hunger, but also lust and more complicated forms of greed that drive him. He's a scientist, but in the sense that he's possessed of avarice for knowledge. And his Resurrección reflects a desire for power over others - over their bodies and over their fates. In that way, following his desires leads to meaning for him, to some sort of goal: acquiring knowledge and more complex, effective means to then acquire more knowledge and satisfy other desires.

Zommari is marked by fanatical love. Love is interesting in that it's simultaneously a desire and a virtue: to love someone or something is to desire them, but also to desire their wellbeing. It's a need to meet the needs of someone or something besides yourself. And yet, Zommari has this very immature, incomplete love: he makes all of these adulations towards love, but in the end, his Resurreción forces others to love him and serve him. He's unable to go outside of himself at this stage, but while he's beginning to see the big picture, it all still comes down to his own primal desire to have, to possess, even if not necessarily to consume.

I could keep going up the list, but I'm going to stop at Grimmjow for now because he's the one on my mind the most due to recency bias. He and his pack of Adjuchas ended up settling on a very different desire from any of the foregoing Arrancar: power. Not consumption, not possession, but growth and evolution. Obviously the latter is attained by and makes it easier to attain more of the former, but the point is that it's a very different relationship to the world and the self from what Aaroniero, Szayel Aporro, and Zommari have going on.

Grimmjow and his underlings have as their primary, guiding objective not to fill their stomachs or secure possessions, but to evolve further and realize their latent potential. This is no longer in the realm of meeting some primal need like hunger, security, or some other form of tangible, useful abundance. Self-improvement for its own sake is something very abstract and symbolic, something downright esoteric if you're only looking at biological utility. It's something almost unspeakably human, to do something not for the benefit of survival, but because you've decided it's meaningful.

That's Grimmjow and his pack. They've declared that strength has meaning even if it doesn't meet your needs and desires, and so they make sacrifices on the altar of strength. And it's why his subordinate Adjuchas are so distraught when they realize they can't go further. Strength is their meaning, their tether guiding them through the dark desert of existence, and now they've obtained all of it that they can. Not for lack of trying, but because they had a built-in limit. I think you could argue that wanting Grimmjow to eat them is partly a suicidal response to realizing they're at the end point of their chosen meaning and can't proceed further with it.

However, it's also fascinating that rather than just ending it themselves in some way, they all choose to offer themselves up to Grimmjow. They see him as the embodiment of strength and of the law of the jungle, the might makes right philosophy that gave their existence meaning and let them continue to try and live. And so they want to sacrifice themselves so that he can reach his full potential and go further beyond, to the frontiers of strength they know they can never reach. It's visceral, animalistic, and short-sighted, but you can't call it anything else than compassion. They choose to give up their needs and desires for the needs and desires of someone else.

And so when Grimmjow's always pushing himself to assert his pride and to get as strong as possible, to defeat anyone and everyone that he can, sure, it's his ego motivating him. However, it's also the fact that now, he's the one carrying the symbolic meaning of strength on his back for his Numeros. Getting stronger is no longer just his own meaning, but it's a responsibility he owes to his comrades who weren't able to get stronger with him. And that meaning keeps him moving forward on a collision force with greater challenges.

Like one Ichigo Kurosaki. When you look back at Ichigo's characterization in early Bleach, it starts to click why he makes this connection with Grimmjow. He sees himself in him - or maybe just a person he could have become if things went differently. Ichigo's kind of a punk who likes to fight and flex his muscles, but he became that way because his natural orange hair he inherited from his mom made him look like a delinquent and turned him into a lightning rod for conflict. Some people see a nail that sticks out and can't rest until they hammer it down, and Ichigo had to learn to fight and to enjoy fighting in order to protect himself and his self-respect. He could just do something as simple as dye his hair black, but then, that would be hiding something he inherited from his dead mother just to make life go a little smoother. It would be stepping on something important to himself just so he could take the easy way out.

Grimmjow is someone who finds meaning in conflict and strength for its own sake. Ichigo finds meaning in conflict and strength only to assert his own self-worth and, with time, to protect the friends who have gradually gathered around him. He's not just some punk slugging people for getting on his case over something as stupid as hair color, his strength represents a responsibility to the people he loves. And that element of strength as meaning, strength as a responsibility to others, ties him and Grimmjow to each other.

It's why Ichigo frustrates Grimmjow so much. He sees himself in Ichigo, but he also sees something not-himself. He sees someone who has pushed himself to get stronger, but someone who doesn't worship at the altar of strength like he does. Instead, he sees someone with this over-abundance of strength who doesn't assert it, doesn't make more sacrifices than necessary for it, but just uses it as a means to an end: that end being the safety of people he cares for.

This creates friction inside of Grimmjow because strength is his rock, his one singular meaning in a dark, barren, stupid world. For strength to just be the means to an end is hard to process. Yet in Ichigo, he starts to see what lies beyond strength for its own sake: a way that strength can form bonds and maintain them, act as the seedbed for new meanings without losing its meaning in itself.

When Ichigo pleads with Grimmjow, "We don't need to fight to the death. Isn't it enough for us to fight each other again and again?" It's him extending an olive branch. He doesn't want to see more death and destruction than necessary anymore, but he knows now that the world of Arrancar like Grimmjow is defined by those things. If he wants to end this conflict without killing an opponent he respects, then he has to meet Grimmjow in the middle. He has to make a commitment to get stronger and fight Grimmjow again, as many times as he wants, if it means Grimmjow will lay down his arms and stop trying to get to him through his friends.

Of course, Nnoitra has to show up and fuck it all up like he does most things he involves himself with. I've come to find Nnoitra an interesting character in his own right and might have more to say about him in the future, but for now, I'll say that I think the fact that Grimmjow ends up helping Ichigo and Co. during the final arc indicates he's accepted Ichigo's terms and is expanding his horizons beyond fighting and killing to grow and assert his strength and nothing else besides that.

He's definitely evolved his fashion sense. Did you see those boots? Faboo! To die for! Or, perhaps, to live for?

[robbie-verse]

picked up shonen jump from the convenience store and made a bkg and luffy collage !!!

[bluelocksource]

Gagamaru Gin’s trivia (source: twt & Egoist Bible).

"Let’s score one more goal and turn things around."

☆ Character's colour: Silver white.

☆ Weapons: 肉弾戦 (nikudansen) [Meaning: (figuratively) activity involving large amounts of physical contact, especially in sports.]

☆ Birthday: 2nd January.

☆ Current age: 18 17 (3rd year of high school)

☆ Zodiac: Capricorn.

☆ Hometown: Wakayama prefecture.

☆ Visual acuity: 6.0

☆ Current height: 191 cm.

☆ Foot size: 30 cm.

☆ Dominant foot: ? (not aware)

☆ Blood type: O.

☆ Motto: "Natural form." (In his own theory, it means "accept the way you are and live according to your heart")

☆ Team before joining BLUE LOCK: Yasei High School football club.

☆ Starts playing football: At age 12.

☆ Favorite food: Meat. "Especially raw meat."

☆ Disliked food: Bento from the convenience store. "Because it contains preservatives and chemical seasoning."

☆ Favorite animal: Bear. ”I’m acquainted with the local mountain bears. Do you want me to introduce you to them?”

☆ Favorite season: “I like all of them because you could see the mountains and forests’ natural beauty in each season.”

☆ Favorite football player: Gareth Bale.

☆ Favorite song: He likes listening to a band called ‘Southern All Stars’.

☆ Favorite anime: Higanjima, NARUTO, BASTARD!! – Destructive God of Darkness, Tenshi na Konamaiki (Cheeky Angel), Fire Punch, KarakuriCircus, Tekkonkinkreet, Yamikin Ushijima-kun, Gin to Kin, Dorohedoro, Dandadan, and many more.

☆ Hobby: Reading manga.

☆ Mushroom shoots vs Bamboo shoots: Bamboo. "If you don’t pluck out the bamboo shoots right away, it’ll grow quickly. And I grow mushrooms at home…. Eh.. You didn’t mean the actual thing?" (he didn’t know the question was referring to the chocolates.

☆ What goes best with rice : "Wild boar meat. The one I hunted. Let’s give it a try, everyone!”

☆ Magazine he often reads: Young Magazine, Jump, Young Jump, Big Comic Spirits, and Weekly Shonen Magazine

☆ Ideal type: Cameron Diaz.

☆ What makes him upset: Animal cruelty. "I will become your opponent."

☆ What he think his strength is: His own physical ability, eyesight and hearing.

☆ What he thinks his weakness is: Machine illiterate, and doesn’t understand people’s feelings.

☆ Best subject: P.E. (been liking it since his 5th year of elementary school).

☆ Dislike/weak subject: Other than P.E.

☆ Usual sleeping time: 8 hours. "I’m embodying the proverb: ‘A well-slept child is a well-kept child.’"

(meaning: A child who sleeps well is a sign of good health and grows up strong.)

☆ What he usually ends up buying from convenience store: Young and Jump magazines.

☆ Place he washes first when taking a bath: Hair roots. ”Because that is where wild animals’ odour lingers.”

☆ Fixation: Physical beauty (both humans and animals).

☆ What will he do if received 100 million yen: He’ll return the money.

☆ How he spent his holiday: Meditating in a bamboo grove and conversing with mountain animals.

☆ What will he do during his last day on Earth: Dazed in the mountains.

* The crossed words are the changes made from twitter’s answer to the answer from Egoist Bible.

note: i want to apologize if there is any mistake!

[mangostarjam]

someone tell me i don't need the hoshina soshiro look up figure

[muichirosboba]

YALL WE GOT JUJU JUICE

This is from Shonen Jump's new installments in their official store for their 20th anniversary!

More anime series's merch and new official art from mangaka is being showcased, as well as inspired food items in their "Jump Cafe".

Their pop-up store's location for this is Ikeburo, Tokyo.

FEATURED:

Jujutsu Kaisen

Demon Slayer

My Hero Academia

Bleach

DragonBall Z

Haikyuu!

One Piece

AND POSSIBLY MORE!

I found this out from this article:

Like it says: life-size Satoru Gojo 😏

Now bask in the information pookies!!

[bunni-v1]

(Twenty) Nine Lives for Love

Chapter 4: Right. Prev Chapter\\Next Chapter m.list

Tw: Feelings; Crumbling relationships with parents (dw it'll be fineeeee)

Info: Kenma x Reader ; Kuroo and Reader; Kuroo is a wingman (bad at his job); Maki is still fat

Word Count: 5.3k 🍓Soooo, I finally had time to edit this (yay!) I was supposed to work on Curee but uhm... no! Kenma Kozume you will never ever want me the way I want you, but you take precedence!

Tag List: @angel-academia @bi-bi-papillon

By the time practice is out on Thursday, you have fully relaxed into your new routine at Nekoma. Walk to school with Kuroo and Kenma, attend class, eat lunch with Kenma (now featuring both Yamamoto and Fukunaga), head to practice, and then grab snacks from the convenience store after it's all done. It’s easy and much like your old one at Karasuno, so you get comfortable quickly, especially with how friendly and receptive the team has been to you. 

As you approach your neighborhood today, Kuroo offers to let you come over for some of his gran's delicious sweetbread, but you decline. His disappointment makes you feel like you kicked a kitten, but you have prior commitments. So, you promise you’ll have the time another day, and he and Kenma wave you off.

As usual, your old man isn’t home when you get back. Never early, never late. Your school bag thumps to the floor as Maki greets you with excited chirps. You take the time to make sure she has food, sweep the floors, and do some other chores before heading up to your room for your final task of the day: Calling Noya and Tanaka. (Calling it a “task” was an exaggeration, you were excited to talk to them again.) It was an odd time to do so, but you promised them so you couldn’t back out now. You pull the laptop you’ve had since middle school out from your desk that you’ve had just as long, and nestle yourself into your pillows. Your Dad and your Mom (and your Stepdad) offered to get you a new one, but you can’t bring yourself to do it just yet. You’re too damn sappy. It whirrs to life, fans a bit too loud to be a good sign, and you’re greeted with a picture of yourself and Noya covered in mud and bruises.

It’s your favorite picture of you two together. Back when life was good and easy and all you were worried about was when the next volume of Shonen Jump was coming out and making sure you got the first spot in line for recess. Your mom took this picture, and you know it was her because she was the one who scolded the two of you for making such a mess of yourselves right before dinner. You briefly think about going through the other pictures on the clunky thing, but Skype pops up and starts chiming to remind you that had better things to do. You accept the call, immediately greeted by Tanaka’s awful posters of half-naked women behind his bald head and Noya squinting way too close to the camera to get a good look at said posters.

“Don’t look too hard, you’ll pop a blood vessel,” you say dryly.

“He’s popping something, that's for sure,” Tanaka responds smoothly – ironic coming from him.

“I am not!” He defends, then slowly adds, “...yet…”

You roll your eyes, “Both of you are nasty.”

“I didn’t even do anything!” Tanaka argues.

“It’s your poster you perv!” You shout back.

“Hey! Admiring beauty does not make me a pervert! In fact, you’re the perverted one for thinking like that.” He shoots back.

You scoff, crossing your arms haughtily, “Do your legs hurt from making that leap? If not, I can come back to Miyagi and break ‘em for ya.”

“Guys c’mon, we can try and kill each other later,” Noya says, somehow the voice of reason despite being the cause of the problem, and points accusingly at you (you think, because he’s just pointing at his computer screen), “You owe us a catch-up, Miss too-busy-to-text-my-best-friends.”

You sigh at Tanaka’s childish ‘yeah!’ holding your hands up in defeat. You had been busy with the team and adjusting, but in your defense, you were texting them! Just not as much as normal, not enough to give them a real run-down of your daily life – which was enough for their complaining to be reasonable. “Yeah, yeah, I got it. It’s not all that exciting like you’re thinking – not like that little redhead Tanaka’s been talking about, at least.”

Tanaka groans, whining about getting up early every day. He was just such a good senpai, helping his little freshmen train. Both you and Noya call him an idiot, which derails the conversation for a little while until Noya suddenly gains consciousness again and bitches at you to get on with it.

You proceed to tell them almost everything that’s happened in the past week so far. Kuroo and Kenma, managing the volleyball team, your classes, and of course giving them a much-needed Maki update after she trods herself up to your room. (Noya insists she got fatter, Tanaka thinks she’s slimmer, and you think you need to have a serious chat about the amount of treats your Dad is giving her). They’re very interested in the volleyball club, which was expected of them. You swear they have a volleyball instead of brains sometimes.

“So… you’re pretty much their manager,” Tanaka drawls, chewing loudly on some chips Saeko gave him earlier.

“It's not official yet.” You correct. You can feel Shimizu-Senpai’s ire from Miyagi already. You hope she can find someone to replace you this year. “Offical sign-ups for clubs start tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Noya hums, also munching on something bready that you can’t make out on his pixelated screen, “you’re gonna say yes, so why be so dodgy about it?”

You frown, evading your eyes, which tips both of your friends off that something is up. It’s not as if you didn’t want to say yes. Saying no to the position felt like a sin against every god you could name. There was just a little, tiny, itty bitty anxious part of you that was filled with what-ifs. What if you’re not good at it long term? What if the team was only tolerating you? What if it’s overstepping boundaries? What if you don’t have the time with classes?

“Oi!” Noya shouts, getting close to the camera again. If he were here he would probably grab you by the face and force you to look him in the eyes. That alone makes you slide your eyes back to the screen to look at his glare.

“Quit overthinking things,” Tanaka scolds – which feels wrong, considering he’s normally the one being yelled at. This whole friendship thing works both ways, you suppose.

“I know–” You try, but they aren’t having it this time.

“No! You’re gonna go to the sign-ups tomorrow,” Noya starts.

Tanaka continues, “You’re gonna… fill out those forms, or whatever!”

“Then you’re gonna give them to the coach right away. No ifs ands or buts.” Noya finishes, poking his camera for emphasis.

“Okay! Okay, I’m gonna say yes, I promise,” Shimizu-Senpai is out there somewhere, planning her revenge on you.

There's a nice lull in the conversation, and you think you almost got away with not talking about Kenma. You did try not to make a big deal out of him or Kuroo, but alas, Nishinoya Yuu and Tanaka Ryunosuke are not your best friends for no reason.

“Sooo,” Noya drawls, and you know what's coming, “tell us more about that Kenma guy~”

“Ugh, god, I knew you were gonna make a deal out of him.” You complain, visibly flustered.

“There is something up with him!” Tanaka declares, “Told’ja she was hiding something from us.”

“Nothing is up with him, okay? He’s just…” You struggle to put it into words. What is he? Nice was too mild. Amazing was too much. 

“A total hottie?” (Tanaka.)

“The love of your life?” (Noya.)

Your idiots say at the same time, forcing a sigh past your lips, “No. He’s just… he’s right. You know? He’s right.”

“Right?” They say in sync, then nod as if they understand and repeat, “He’s right.”

“Yeah,” you sigh, a little weight lifted off your shoulders, “It’s like we were meant to meet. Everything is easy and comfortable. It’s… right.”

Then, when you feel like you have solved the puzzle, the dreaded question comes, from Tanaka of course, “Do you think he’s your soulmate?”

The weight is back, and your friends can tell from how quickly they try to backtrack, but you’d rather talk to them a little about it than shove it down.

“He doesn’t believe in soulmates. I think he thinks they’re silly,” you laugh dryly, chest aching, “besides, just because I click well with him doesn’t mean he’s my soulmate. I get along great with Kuroo too!”

“But it’s different with that Kenma guy,” Noya says simply, ripping apart any rationalization you’ve been able to do the past few days, “like you said, it feels right. He’s right.”

You think about it for a long moment, trying to find a good way around what he said. As usual, though, you just can’t beat Noya’s simple, straightforward logic. You can’t complicate something so incredibly uncomplicated.

“Even if he is my soulmate, which he probably isn’t, I won’t push it on him,” you respond, voice thoughtful and quiet, “He’s a friend first, and if he happens to be my soulmate, I don’t want to push him away with daydreams.”

That gets them to back off long enough that you can masterfully change subjects back to the new freshmen on Karasuno’s team. You take a stab at trying to convince Noya to rejoin, but as usual, he’s too stubborn to reason with. Talking with them, as always, is easy. It almost feels like you’re right there in the room with them, if it weren’t for the way Noya’s audio glitches every once in a while. You get so lost talking to them that, before you know it, it’s 8:30 and your Dad is shouting for you to come down to eat. You didn’t even hear him come home. He didn’t even bother saying hello.

With promises that you would text them more consistently, and that you’d definitely plan a trip to Miyagi over a break, you hang up the call and join your father for another tense dinner. Ever since you had accidentally ignored him on Tuesday, he’d been a bit distant. He was still warm and loving, but you could tell it seriously hurt him when you broke the routine. So, you’d been doing your best to keep everything as balanced as always. You chat about classes, practice, and the latest movies coming out. Nothing that could rock the boat, because it already had enough water in it, and you couldn’t afford it sinking.

Speaking of sunken ships, he mentions that your Mother and Stepdad wanted to come visit sometime. Which was fine with you, but you knew things were tense between the three of them, so you left the decision up to him. By the time you make it back up to your room, you want nothing more than to collapse and sleep for a million years so you don’t have to deal with the weirdness surrounding you and your dad. 

It lingered around the house. In each dark corner where light doesn’t quite reach, each creak of its old bones, each awkward silence left in the still kind of strange-smelling air there is a discomforting reminder that things are not right with him. There is an ache in your muscles that you must fix it, and a stab to your stomach when you realize you don’t know how to. It makes you want to sleep forever; let your muscles relax for just a little bit.

Sleeping Beauty had it pretty good, you think. At least she had a prince waiting for her. All you had was a cat the size of a medium dog and two of the dumbest people you’d ever met a few hundred miles away. In a last-ditch effort to feel better, you slide the box labeled ‘textbooks’ out from under your bed and dig out the object of your desire. The studies of soulmates.

You’d managed to masterfully (sloppily) hide them from your dad. Thank god you have (had?) a good relationship, or else he might’ve gone through your room and found them already. With greedy fingers, you tug the only bookmarked one out from the bottom of the box, flipping it open with a big grin on your face. Reading about soulmates always made you feel better. Always. 

This was volume three of six of the original set – your mother did not have the revised versions the author put out shortly before they had passed. Still, the first edition of the first two volumes was fascinating, if not for minor inaccuracies. Volume one covered entirely what soulmates are; who can be a soulmate; how the lifetimes of soulmates intertwine, and things along that line. Volume two discussed “the in-between”, the place between life and death. This volume you were on, however, discussed the process of discovering your soulmate.

You had read through the more… logistical parts of the book and were now on the part about the feelings. It was a short chapter, as far as you could tell, but it would be enough to maybe make you feel better. Grazing over the parts you’d already read, you quickly ended up back where you had left off. The spark. 

“The ‘spark’ is not a concrete thing, nor is it entirely flexible. It occurs differently for every person and creature that may experience it, and yet there is one thing that is common among all described experiences. Without fail, all people who have experienced this ‘spark’ have a sense of intense familiarity regarding everything related to their soulmate. A sense of belonging within their other half’s social life. Family, friends, hobbies, pets, and everything in between seem to settle into place without any effort.”

You nod along to the words on your page, comprehending them as best as you can. You recalled Tanaka talking about something like that with Kiyoko, though you doubted it a bit at the time. You flipped the page, deciding it was best not to dwell on how ironically familiar this was all sounding. The next section covered several other facts about the connection between two soulmates, but you couldn’t stop your mind from thinking about that short but impactful paragraph. 

You did not want to be dramatic, nor did you want to sound insane, but you had noticed a familiarity with Kenma. About… everything surrounding him. The way you felt like you’d found a missing puzzle piece beneath the foot of a table, one you’d long since given up looking for. Like you waited a whole lifetime to finally click into place with him. You’d only met him four days ago, though. You did not know him. Certainly not enough to be acting this delusional. He was right, though. (Your heart insists it, loud and clanging like church bells in your steeple of a chest).

You try for a little longer to read the text, but it all blurs together with the rampant thoughts of hope singing in your brain. You growl at yourself, slamming the book shut and shoving it back under the bed in the box. (Maki startles, yowling and flying across the room in fear, though you don’t pay her any mind.) You’d only managed to make things worse by thinking about Kenma. He was not your soulmate, and even if he was he didn’t believe they existed. That shuts down any chance of this wild pipe dream coming true – NOT that you had any intention of chasing it in the first place. Hell, you hardly believed it. It would be too easy. Too simple. Too convenient. That is not how the universe was and you knew better than to fool yourself into thinking that.

With nothing but anger and annoyance left in the place of energy, you grumpily toss on your pajamas and decide to call it a night. Maki crawled up into bed – hesitantly like you might throw her next – and curled against your side. Tomorrow would come fast, and you’d be able to forget about your stupid thoughts in the morning. That's what you kept repeating in your head to stop your mind from drifting again.

.·:*˚¨¨ ≈★≈ ¨¨˚*:·.

You do not sleep well, and because of this, you manage to sleep in nearly too late. You miss seeing your Dad off, and you hardly have enough time to get changed, let alone eat before you are flying out the front door. You hope Kenma and Kuroo are waiting for you, though you wouldn’t blame them for ditching. Just because you’re late doesn’t mean they have to be. Lucky you, they are good friends, and they’re awaiting your arrival patiently at your front gate.

“Sorry, I’m late!” You apologize, still hopping into your shoes as you exit the front gate, “Just couldn’t get up this morning!”

Kuroo shrugs your worries off, “Just means we won’t have time to stop at the vending machine.”

Kenma busies himself with straightening out your hair, a habit that he’d started after the head pat incident. It makes your cheeks flush with heat, but neither of you bother to acknowledge it,  and luckily Kuroo doesn’t care either. “Means we don’t have to deal with Yamamoto this morning.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll find a way to be a problem,” You laugh, Kenma sighs, and then you remember something you’d been meaning to ask, “Oh! Wait, before we go! Which houses are yours?”

They both give you odd looks, like you should know by now, but… you don’t. You give them an awkward shrug, and they return the gesture, letting it roll off their shoulders.

“Mine is the kinda misshapen grey one over there, and Kenma’s is–” Kuroo explains.

“It’s that one,” Kenma cuts off, pointing to the one neighboring Kuroo’s. They’re both across the street just three houses down. No wonder they gave you weird looks, you totally should’ve figured that out, especially with their names on them.

Kenma’s is shorter than Kuroo’s, which makes it stick out a little amongst the other houses. It’s an off-white color with brown trimming, simple but inviting. You feel like you’ve seen it before. Like you’ve walked up its cobblestone path and right through its front door. That was impossible, you think as you turn on your heel, you’d never been to Kenma’s house.

“Boy, do I look stupid,” you laugh, leading the way so you can get to class on time.

“You always go in right away,” Kuroo dismisses, “I wouldn’t’ve put it together either.”

“Our names are on the front gates,” Kenma mutters, ending the conversation, still lost in his PS Vita as usual. You wonder what he was playing… you peek over his shoulder, and he leans in closer to let you see. Oh, it was one of those Persona games. You watch him play with interest for a while, maybe you should get into the franchise. It was visually pleasing, and the gameplay looked fun. Despite your best efforts to distract yourself with his game, your mind still wanders back to the houses. That sense of Deja Vu was hard to ignore.

“Y’know,” you announce suddenly, “Your houses are kinda… familiar? When I was looking at Kenma’s, I felt like I’d already gone through the whole place. Isn’t that odd?”

“Yeah,” Kuroo echos, “maybe you have prophetic dreams of house tours.”

You scoff, readying a comeback, but notice Kenma has this kind of quiet look on his face. Like he wants to say something, but he isn’t sure if he should say it. They’re common from him, especially around you. Normally Kuroo would be the one to poke at him, but since you’re already close, you give him a little nudge, “What’s on your mind, Kenma?”

He frowns a little, hesitant as he answers, “I feel the same way about your place.”

“Oh?” Is all you can manage, and you hope you don’t look as stupid as you sound.

His eyes are fixated on the game, though he isn’t doing anything in it anymore, and he nods, “Yeah. When I first came to pick you up, I got this feeling like I’d been there before. For reasons other than visiting the Shirashi’s with my parents, if that makes sense.”

You try to crush the glimmering hope in your chest. You were not thinking about soulmate stuff today. You told yourself today was a no soulmate talk kind of day and you meant it. (If you didn’t want Kenma to know how deeply your adoration for the concept ran, that would be humiliating.)

“Oooo~ Maybe you two are soulmates!” Kuroo purrs, shattering any thought of ‘no soulmates.’

You huff, face heating up. Dammit Kuroo Tetsurou, did he have it out for you or something? You brace yourself for his adamant denial, but it doesn’t come. You realize then his ears are bright red and– oh my god, he’s so cute when he’s embarrassed. Wait. Why was he embarrassed? 

You curse Kuroo out in your head, but just as fast as he brought this curse upon you, he remedied it with smooth words and quick thinking. “Just kidding! I know Kenma doesn’t believe in that kinda thing.”

“It’s not–” Kenma starts, clearly more bothered than he expected himself to be. He takes a deep breath, then tries again, “I don’t not believe in them, I just don’t… It’s too romantic to accept that they’re real. Waiting lifetime after lifetime for one person? Too dramatic for real life.”

You couldn’t argue with that. It was the same idea your Dad had about them, but he was more bitter about it. If you were a different person with a different Mom and a different childhood, you’d probably think the same way. 

“That’s what makes them so nice though, right?” Kuroo argues, “Someone out there that was made just for you? Sign me up!”

“Exactly,” you accidentally say out loud, and the three of you are finally approaching the front gates of Nekoma High. Looks like you’re failing at the no soulmates thing. “I mean… maybe they aren’t real and I’m just being childish, but… someone who just understands me effortlessly sounds nice. Logical or not.”

“Logic is what makes sense of everything,” Kenma counters, “Without it, we wouldn’t understand anything.”

“Yeah, and that's all good and fine, but emotions aren’t logical. The way we feel doesn’t make any sense most of the time, so why would eternal love be any different?” You ask aloud.

“Bingo.” Kuroo punctuated with two finger guns pointed your way. “Not everything has to make sense, and not everything will. Soulmates are just one of those things that you’ve gotta have trust in your feelings for.”

Kenma doesn’t say anything as the three of you make your way up the stairs, the five-minute bell chiming at a higher pitch than the ten-minute overhead. You want to apologize, but Kuroo shoots you a hidden thumbs up to assure you, so you don’t. Kenma is tense for the rest of the day. Quiet and thoughtful, though he still takes the time to talk to you. It leaves you feeling all warm inside that he would account for you, despite what’s happening in his head.

During lunch, he doesn’t pull out his PS Vita like he usually does, which Fukunaga points out as strange. Kenma says the battery is low, but you know it’s not because it was at full charge when you peaked at it this morning. Yamamoto is also late, which you know Kenma is more than happy for, but you can’t help but worry. What if he doesn’t eat? How horrible! He’s an athlete, he needs to eat a lot to stay strong and healthy. (It’s nice to be distracted from your worry over Kenma.)

Your worries are squashed when he bursts through the door of your classroom, scaring several unsuspecting students with his heavy panting. Was he sweating? Did he run here? From where? His aura is intense as he approaches you, face hardened into a determined glare. If you hadn’t taken time to get to know him, you’d think he was trying to kill you. He stops right in front of you, the toes of his shoes almost touching yours. He shoves something in your face, not a knife (thank god), but a flimsy sheet of paper.

The three of you give him an odd look, wordlessly asking what his issue was, but he waggles the paper. You take it, careful to avoid brushing your fingers with him, and read over it. It was… an application for managing sports teams… Most of it was already filled out in messy handwriting. You grin, looking back up at the incredibly red Yamamoto.

Fukunaga grabs for it, and you let him take it with no resistance. He laughs as he reads it, and finally, Kenma grabs it. Instead of amusement, which you didn’t expect in the first place, he’s… annoyed. He glares at the paper like it’s personally offended him. You try and pretend not to see it, though it does make your heart ache a little. (Does he not want you to sign up? He was the first person who asked, so what’s his deal?)

“I realized you hadn’t applied officially to be our manager, and I thought I’d give you a headstart,” Yamamoto admits awkwardly as the paper finally makes its way back into your hands, “Most of it should be filled out.”

You smile at the paper, “This is sweet Yamamoto, thanks. I was planning on signing up at the activities fair, but I guess this saves me the trouble, huh?”

“You can give that to coach at the fair,” Fukunaga explains, “It’s the easiest way to apply and should guarantee your spot. Not that we were expecting any applications outside of you in the first place.”

“Just trying to play it safe,” Yamamoto defends, “don’t wanna lose her right as she settles in.”

“Thanks, guys,” you say with a big grin, “I’ll finish it up, then we can walk together to get it turned in?”

Fukunaga gives you a quiet thumbs up, while Yamamoto yells his acceptance, earning glares from the other students situated around the room. You glance to Kenma for his approval, but he’s too busy thinking again. You shrug it off because if you think too hard about it, you’ll worry.

.·:*˚¨¨ ≈★≈ ¨¨˚*:·.

Practice is canceled for the day thanks to the activities fair. Kuroo, Nobuyuki, and Coach Nekomata are all going to be promoting the volleyball club, so there’s no real reason to go. As promised, you and a still pensive Kenma wait patiently for Fukunaga and Yamamoto in your classroom. You’d been able to avoid how uncomfortable Kenma’s silence had made you all day because you’d had other things to do. Yamamoto even noticed though he had no idea what his deal was. Now that it was just you and him… well, you can’t avoid it.

“Okay,” you announce, pressing your palms flat on his desk, “time to fess up. What’re you thinking about so intensely?”

He blinks at you, surprised, then he shifts his gaze to the chalkboard behind you, “Was it that obvious?”

“You lied about your PS being dead,” you put plainly, “that’s super weird.”

He lets out a breath, and then shrugs in defeat, “I was just thinking about the stuff from this morning.”

Your head tilts a little, “What? The house stuff?”

“The soulmate stuff. Why would I be thinking about the house stuff?” He snarks, pulling back a little when you laugh.

“That makes a lot more sense,” you giggle, and he rolls his eyes in what you think is a playful manner (playful for him, at least), “I’m sorry if what I said bothered you. I get that it can sound… insane… if you don’t believe in them.”

He shrugs, eyes still avoiding yours. You appreciate it a little. You think if he looks at you, you’ll do something stupid.

“I played a game about soulmates once,” he mumbles, leaning back to glare at the ceiling. You lean forward, resting on your arms now. “It was cute, really romantic. You played as each partner and helped them navigate through their lives. There were a bunch of close calls where they almost met, but something always messes up and keeps them apart in every life. Then, at the end of the game, they finally meet, and it ends when they realize.”

“That is cute.” You hum attentively.

His head shoots up looking at you with an unreadable expression, “It was scary.”

You blink at him, and without meaning to, you laugh a little, “What? You just described a romance novel and you found it… scary?”

He huffs, “It’s not the romance stuff, it’s the ending.”

“What’s so scary about soulmates meeting?” You say incredulous.

“It ends,” He states as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, “everyone talks about soulmates like they’re the final destination. The story‘s over once you meet them. It’s awful. Immediate game over.”

You scoff, “Ken,” The nickname is so natural it makes you sick, “Meeting your soulmate isn’t the end, it’s the beginning.”

It’s his turn to blink at you, head tilting curiously. It makes you smile, and without thinking you grab his hands and squeeze them. It’s a comforting gesture your Mom always did when you were confused or upset or anything other than happy. You think he could use it too. He stares at where they connect with wide eyes, and his ears burn red again. 

“Sure, you spent like a gazillion lives trying to find that one person, but when you find them…” you try hard to remember how Noya’s Gramps put it, then try to translate that to something he can understand “It’s like you defeated a final boss, and the huge XP boost it gives you allows your character to level up into a new class type. Does that make sense? I don’t play a lot of RPGs.”

At some point during your explanation he affixed his gaze on you, intense eyes practically drinking in all of your features like it was the first time he’d seen you. It makes your stomach flip, especially when he squeezes your hands back. “Close enough.” That is all he says, and it's the only indication that you might’ve gotten through to him. The two of you sit and stare at each other for a good long moment, unsure of what you should say – if you even should speak.

“Ooo, are we interrupting something?” A playful voice sounds from the doorway. Both of your heads whip around to see who it is, and you grin, thanking the universe for Morisuke’s abrasiveness. You might’ve kissed Kenma if it weren’t for him. (Did you really just admit that to yourself?)

Kenma pulls away first and quickly busies himself with packing away his things. You smile at him, then stand and toss your bag over your shoulder. “We were just talking. What are you doing here Morisuke-Senpai?”

“I heard about Yamamoto’s scheming, so I figured I might as well be a part of it too,” He snickers.

“It wasn’t scheming! It was… tactical coercion.” Yamamoto defends.

“That sounds worse,” Fukunaga comments candidly.

“Really?” Yamamoto squeals.

You huff a laugh out of your nose, walking up to them with Kenma at your side. “You guys are too loud,” He complains.

You ruffle his hair to appease him, which seems to work like a charm. You ignore how shocked his friends seem at it, “Let's go get this turned in. I can’t wait to officially be your manager!”

A chorus of cheers (followed by a groan) comes from the boys around you, and you lead the way through the halls until you realize you don’t know where you’re going, then Morisuke leads the way. With promises of celebratory pork buns, you all pick up the pace, though you let yourself fall back a little to keep Kenma company as the other three glavant forward.

You look at the piece of paper in your hands, a mix of Yamamoto’s handwriting and yours. Then your eyes drift over the three boys and finally land on Kenma. For once, he’s already looking at you. You give him a grin, and he smiles a little back.

[thefortressofscience]

I sent this to you other blog but me and my BF are going to Japan this November! any advice you can offer to a fellow queer Latine for their first visit? (and also me I guess)

There's not much I can say that I didn't already in my first response, but I'll repost it here if anyone else wants travel tips in Japan!

Depends on where you’re headed! Usually for first timers, the typical route is Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nara. You can go from Tokyo to those cities by train pretty easily! The latter three are really close together so you can basically make a lot of day trips that way.

For your first time in Tokyo I recommend mostly sticking to big ticket sights like the Tokyo Sky Tree, Akihabara, Asakusa, etc. But if you want to explore other spots, off the top of my head I can recommend:

Mikado Game Center in Takadanobaba. This is an extremely OG arcade and it is said if you’re serious about fighting games, you have to compete here at least once.

Yanaka Ginza is a neighborhood that maintains old skool Tokyo charm and worth taking a stroll around to get a feel for that early Showa-era atmosphere.

Les Grands Arbres Cafe is a very aesthetic cafe that has a big tree growing through it. It’s very cool and worth going just to take a selfie.

Nakano Broadway predates Akihabara as the nerd paradise. It’s a lot smaller and entirely indoors but it is extremely dense with anime, manga, and retro gaming goodness.

BEEP Akihabara is a basement level store full of retro computing stuff if you’re into that stuff. I really liked that store.

The top floor of the PARCO department store in Shibuya has a Nintendo Center in it but there’s also a ton of other stuff like Capcom and Shonen Jump booths.

The JAXA space center museum in Tsukaba is pretty accessible by train. It’s about an hour out from Tokyo but worth the trip.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building near the Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku has a free observation deck on the top floor if you don’t feel like shelling out for the Tokyo Sky Tree

Other spots I heard good things about but haven’t gone to are the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and Yokohama China Town. You can get to Yokohama pretty easily by train.

For Osaka, you have to go to Dotonbori. It’s kind of like the centerpiece of that city. I also enjoyed Den Den Town which is like Osaka’s answer to Akihabara. In Kyoto, you should hit up all the various shrines and temples. For more information I think most online travel guides will have you covered.

I hope you have fun on your trip!

[gerhearde]

Your First Impression of Hawks

You first saw him when he still associated himself with the name Takami Keigo, back when he was a sweet and innocent child like you.

However, that is not to say that you knew of him personally or that you were his childhood friend.

In fact, you would only see him once by that name in the most uninteresting of places—the convenience store.

Most of your childhood days were spent there, browsing through the catalog of magazines ranging from heroes to villains to your favorite, the Weekly Shonen Jump.

At first, you find your excursions to the convenience store all too magical because it allows you to read the magazines without even paying for them.

However, all those joyful experiences were cut short one day, when the owner decided to put plastic coverings in all of the magazines.

You didn't know at that time that you were the reason behind the owner's precautions.

For you, it just seemed like the gods wanted you to make better use of your time.

Perhaps, cleaning your room or studying is the most preferred choice the gods would have wanted for you to do.

However, you were not one to care about the gods, so you did what you think would annoy them—and that is to dawdle.

You stayed longer than you had before inside the convenience store, doing nothing except staring at the people going in and going out, and studying their every move.

Sometimes your eyes would catch some shoplifters that you did not dare report to the owner, because you think it would anger the gods more.

You didn't know back then, but you served a pretty sweet revenge to the owner that did you wrong.

So far, all the people you've seen inside the store were ordinary people with not the least bit of features in them that piqued your interest.

Well, that is until you saw a mother and son walk into the entrance of the convenience store.

The mother was typical. Nothing about her features is worthy of praise but the kid, who is about your age was something else.

You have seen quite a lot of people with amazing quirks like wind, and ice, but not one that resembled an animal, let alone someone with amazing red wings.

Hence, the only right thing for you to do is to let him be the subject of your eyes.

The red-winged kid, together with his mom, went to the plushie section of the store.

You saw him standing in front of the store's most expensive plushie that resembled the No. 1 Hero All Might.

To you, it looked like he wanted that plushie.

However, his mom decided to settle for the cheaper Endeavor plushie.

You felt bad for the kid, as you see him exit the store, holding the Fire Hero's plushie.

You reached into your pockets to see whether you have enough money for an All Might plushie.

You didn't.

In fact, you knew that you wouldn't have because you were just a kid after all with no means to earn money.

You just tried, hoping that maybe the gods would make a miracle happen.

However, you knew that would be impossible since you just angered them.

You let out a huge breath.

That day, you swore to yourself to be a model citizen so as not to anger the gods, who were the miracle makers.

You also promised yourself to give that kid an All Might plushie when you meet him again.

You pretty much have forgotten about the promise you made, now that you are older.

However, one thing still remained in your memory—that red-winged kid inspired you to be a better person.

[chemos-factories]

Also @relax-and-read-on asked me about high school au Corvus over on discord, but I wanted to put my answer here just to have everything in one place.

Corvus is in that amorphous ‘teen-wearing-all-black’ space where he could be goth, could be emo, could be something else entirely. He’s the kind of quiet that’s learned, the desperate quiet of ‘don’t look at me, don’t bother me’.

The school library, somehow, gets both a Shonen Jump and Shoujo Beat subscription every month. At lunch, Corvus goes to the library and slips that month’s copy of SB behind the copy of SJ to hide that he’s reading it, and goes to the back corner, behind all the bookshelves, where it’s hidden from the door.

The only manga I can remember being syndicated in Shoujo Beat magazine from around that time is Honey & Clover, so I can’t say what Corvus’s favourite would be (H&C was my favourite, though, hence my remembering). The important part, though, is that Shoujo Beat magazine had ads for clothing and accessories stores - often EGL or v-kei in nature - in them, and Corvus stares at these with a profound longing that won’t be understood until mid-college at least.