#gothic Lolita ass question | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pinchinschlimbah · 3 days ago

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Hi, something is bugging me today and I need your input on it. You wrote something about Kyo and drag, and I have the same feeling. I've been back to Dir the last 6 months after almost 15 years gap. During this gap, I came to terms with my queerness, took a deeper interest in queer culture and (tried to) educate myself. I have a sweet spot for drag artistry that tends more to the fraeaky side. Because of my taste in general, let's say I'm more a Dragula entouthiast than a Dragrace one. I'm sorry if this is long and twisted, but I like to provide context... I also have to "hide" this interest at home, because my partner is a transwoman, but she's also stopped hormones and tend more and more on the NB side of transition (long hair, not shaving beard, non gendered clothes, going with "any pronouns is fine" but still using the female name she picked). And she's not really a drag fan, in fact, it's a little transphobic for her. And I get that, some dragqueens (gay cis male ones) do have a little problem portraying female figures... I guess you get what I mean.

Back to Kyo. Maybe it's because every Kyo fan I met was a problematic person (lol)? Very, very obsessed with him, almost religious to anything he does, like he's the fucking messiah! So I started to pick on him, making jokes, just to piss off these women I used to hang with. Turns out, 15 years later and even if these women are not in my life anymore, he's still the butt of the jokes, my lolcow, the target of my bullying. In a strict circle of choosen people who get my sense of humour and never online or to his face (like I could harrass him IRL lol). I just don't like the guy and he's doing a perfect job at fuelling my despise. He comes off as arrogant, acting like his shit doesn't smell, gathering a circle of followers who will fistfight you if you dare to criticize or question anyhing coming from him.

With that in mind, when I saw this pic https://www.instagram.com/p/C-XoBeES7Wo/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== my brow raised... I see wig, fake eyelashes, overdrew lips, everyhting is drag coded! And the MFing lolita headpiece??? After the infamous clip of him and Die poking fun at gothic lolitas! It was too much for me. I don't give a rat's ass it was like 20 years ago and they might have change minds about gothic lolitas, cross dressing or whatever! I felt angry, like, I don't know why but I was pissed. And here is why I'm bothering you on Christmas' eve while I should be working.

Is this bloody cultural appropriation or not? I'll die on the hill that drag is for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color or whatever. But, where do you draw the line between hommage and plunder? Inspiration and deadpan lootering of the art of a discrimlnated community? Artists who takes risks when performing, in clubs targeted by gunmen and bigots? I KNOW Japan has a different aproach to male impersonating females on stage, kabukl and everything. I KNOW "it's not that serious, Mary!" I KNOW it's Japan and Dir will never acknowledge any personal infos. But it's twisting my guts he's only showing and not talking. At least, can he say somewhere he's paying hommage to a culture that inspires him. Somewehere everybody can read it, not in a magazine interview that will only reach japanese speaking people. Just share something on IG. It's getting personal, I need Kyo to tell me he's not the arrogant asshole I think he is since 2000. Because everything he does is sending me redflags, from the day I listened to Mazohist of Decadance I question his opinion on abortion, from the way he acted toward fans I dread he hates women, which is rich considering he built his career on the back and the purse of women. And now he's queerbaiting? Because he's not an idiot and saw where the potential was? Yes, I'm getting too emotional. Sorry for the rant, the mispelling and the bad english. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, here and if you feel like it answer to my void shooting. But I'd understand this is an overwhelming message and you don't have time or interest in it.

Have a great day, celebrating or not, I'm going to lie in bed with a book and try not to hyperfocus on the crap in my head.

Hello! First of all, thank you for taking the time to write out all of this. I'm going to try my best to answer all the aspects here but if you think there's anything important I've missed, feel free to follow up. Also necessary disclaimer that all of this is just my opinions garnered from my best understanding of following Kyo's work, at the end of the day Kyo is a stranger on the other side of the world speaking a language that I have to rely on third party translations to understand, and I can't ever truly know exactly what's going on in his head.

So first of all, it seems the main question you're asking is, do I think Kyo's usage of drag imagery and culture is appropriation or queerbaiting? Personally, I do not. Based on everything I've seen and heard from him, it's clear to me that he's got a deep appreciation and understanding for the culture of drag, and has done his homework as someone who is looking to be part of the drag community. I myself am someone who is deeply involved in my local drag and queer community, and every drag person I've shown Kyo's recent work to has recognized his appearance and mannerisms as drag, as one of us rather than an inauthentic imitation for some sort of clout. The couple of friends who I've pulled down the diru/vkei hole with me, have felt the same way I have of resonating with Kyo's work in part because the kinds of drag he does reminds us of ourselves and our friends and the drag artists we look up to, and it's exciting to see someone who looks like that and performs like that also making such good music (drag queen music, as a genre, is unfortunately usually uhhhhh not great hahaha) and being so highly recognized for it.

[As a side note, I'm sorry to hear that your partner has had such a difficult time with drag! I think RuPaul in particular has unfortunately had a heavy hand in trying to separate drag from transness in a very ahistorical way, especially in the earlier seasons of Drag Race which then filtered into the popular opinion about what drag was or should be. But luckily I think most people in the community have since come around to the idea that drag is more about an exploration and celebration of all types of gender expression and identity rather than just "men pretending to be women" and while I think you're much more likely to find people with more in-between expressions in more local communities who aren't concerned with being palatable for television, Dragula has been good about showcasing people all over the spectrum and even Drag Race has come around more recently to featuring openly trans, female, and nonbinary people on the show!]

While I do think it would be really cool to see Kyo give acknowledgement to the specific drag artists who he appears to be directly inspired by, I don't think it's accurate to say he hasn't given any acknowledgement to the drag or queer community as a whole. Of course there are the magazine interviews, which yes they are created for a Japanese audience but translations are available online and digital autotranslate features make it infinitely easier for these interviews to be accessible to wider audiences than in previous decades. In these interviews [here and here], he has expressed support for queer rights (something still very controversial in Japan!), repeatedly brings up queerness and his support for it even when it's not super related to the questions asked, stated that he aims to title and write his songs from a place outside of gender, refers to himself as effeminate, said that he names his songs after drag queens and other queer people, that he modeled Candis (song and video) after Showa era gay icon popstars and that his intended primary audience for the song is gay men, that a show he watched when he was younger about a trans woman had a lasting impact on him, and that he has incorporated queer imagery into his shows with the goal of showing support for the queer community and to display queer love as something beautiful and important.

Even outside of magazine interviews...I think Valentina and the media surrounding it is a perfect example of him being as outright as he can without saying the quiet part out loud. (as I've been yelling about recently, the fact that there are so few officially Out queer Japanese musicians is a whole complicated issue but long story short I don't blame him given the oppressive culture there for not outright identifying himself as queer. I think it would be cool if he did, but I'm not holding my breath even if I do believe him to be someone of queer experience) The song is named after a drag queen. The song is from a feminine perspective. Kyo is in undeniably feminine drag in the video and using feminine/draggy mannerisms. He's holding a "Melty-chan" doll which, thanks to Kyo sharing a post about this on his instagram story when the promo photos first dropped, we know this doll is from an art exhibit specifically about navigating life as a queer person. While not exactly textually related, he also posted on his insta story about Catwoman being his girlfriend AND the Joker being his boyfriend, at the same time he was posting teasers for the shoot.

And also, importantly, the interview where he's wearing lipstick and lingerie begins with the interviewer's shock at Kyo presenting this way, and Kyo responding with "Really? The truth is I wanted to do it earlier, but the timing now ended up being perfect. It's a worldview not possible for DIR EN GREY, but I thought it's fine with sukekiyo." I think a lot of what you're interpreting to be insincere or malicious intent is actually just growth and letting himself be who he always wanted to be but felt he wasn't allowed to explore after a certain point and turned to lashing out at those things instead during that time. It's very very clear looking at Dir en Grey's chronological history that they got caught up in a particularly ugly bout of toxic masculinity/internalized misogyny/queerphobia in the early-mid 2000s, and I don't blame you for being put off by things they said and did during that time- I also bailed around then because I was at best uninterested and at worst actively upset by those versions of themselves. And that's part of why I've found their turnaround so exciting- looking at everything, to me it seems pretty clear it wasn't a sudden pivot as a cash/attention grab now that queerness and drag are trendy to a certain marketable audience. It was a gradual process over the past decade of the whole band learning to love those parts of themselves again that they started with in the early days and then abandoned and admonished, to get to the point of again being as flamboyant and theatrical and feminine as they are now.

I'm curious where you got the impression that present day Kyo is arrogant and full of himself and seeking out mindlessly devoted followers when I've honestly been frustrated with the exact opposite impression reading his interviews. He consistently gives the impression of having incredibly low self-worth, going on repeatedly about how he doesn't think his talents or skills are particularly impressive and he doesn't believe others when they tell him he's amazing or that they're a devoted fan of his and so on. It's made me want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him and tell him to be kinder to himself because his work is, in fact, incredible and he is deserving of love as much as anyone else. I do think he has the tendency to often be intentionally obtuse or annoying in interviews and appearances (such as wearing a bag over his head at the M&Gs on this year's European tour or the infamous film screening appearance from a few months ago where he sat on the floor eating snacks and putting tape on Shinya's shoes instead of answering the questions) which is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and might not be yours! But I personally don't find these actions to be coming from a place of arrogance, I genuinely just think he thinks it's funny and is trying to amuse himself and others when for someone who does those types of appearances often, they can end up feeling redundant and uninspiring after a while just by nature of doing it so many times.

I admittedly have not read many interviews from the toxic masculinity era which may be where your primary impression is coming from, but this one (from a western metal magazine, in I think 2008) stuck out to me as particularly interesting, where the pull quote significantly twists what he actually said and paired with the chosen photo makes him look like a huge dick, but the actual sentiment in the textual quote is that the band is trying to act more tough and "bad" than they actually are because they think they're supposed to, which I feel like really encapsulates what was going on with them at that time and their desperation to be taken seriously as heavy metal musicians outside of the vkei costumes and theatrics.

I do think it says a lot that no one in the industry has had anything bad to say about any of the members (other than poking fun at them for being too shy offstage) and that they've had no personal scandals that I've seen, that they've been able to remain an active and successful band for nearly 30 years with no lineup changes, and that Kyo has two other active bands who he seems to get along very well with. I don't think any of this would be the case if he was actually as miserable and annoying to deal with as he likes to pretend he is, since artistic talent only gets you so far if you're insufferable as a person. I think there's a good chance that under all his bristling, he is actually just a nice guy haha. I hope some of this has been insightful or helpful for you, and as I said at the start, please feel free to circle back if you have more to say!

#asks #long post #gay yelling

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nicecarito · 2 years ago

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Hello Señorita Carito! :3 I have a question for you: what fetishes do your characters have? Or, for example, what type of guys/girls do they like and dislike?

Probably the word kink is better? Fetishes sounds more nsfw xDD (I'm not english expert but I think kink sounds more friendly?)

Mmmh if we talk about likes and dislikes....

Doppio have a preference in dating dessert people and he usually date gothic girls! He likes the aesthetic and the gothic culture! Oh, and he likes being dominated somehow (kind of Dom sub sometimes)

Dislikes? He finds loud people really annoying.

Lungo is the kind of person who think the world is a big menu and he deserve to taste everything. He also think people with glasses are hot and he has a kink towards lolita dresses.

He dislike BDSM because he's a cry baby when getting slapped.

Café is a nasty Otaku and he loves hot anime chicks snd roleplays. Something he dislikes? People touching his ass, he feel it invasive (only Latte would be allowed)

Pinzell likes to feel in charge. They also like roleplaying but they are grumpy all the time so it's hard to get information about what they like or not. They find Doppio's personality pretty sexy.

And Willy is a romance lover. But if we talk about something more intimate, He finds hot big chest men.

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detectivehole · 2 years ago

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hi i have a goth fashion question

i can't really wear boots for accessibility reasons and i don't like the look of those wednesday-ass soft-goth ankle platforms - what do about shoes?

i usually wear like, black sneakers, but i would really like gothy shoes...

it really depends on what kinda sub-style youre going for, and your own aesthetic preferences, on top of the greater specifics of your accessibility limitations, but you almost certainly do have a lot of options

first, i wanna say there are a lot of fun and easy ways you can customize your own shoes: adding bits of metal and beads to the laces, chains to the body of the shoe, spikes, buttons, patches, etc. i decorate my sneakers and skate shoes like that (there is plenty goth is a classic pair of black canvas shoes or whatever imo plain or decorated)

if you dont wanna risk ruining a shoe i suggest practicing stuff like adding spikes, bars, studs and whatnot to scrap fabric or even canvas shoes from the thrift store, but a lot of other mods like beads and chains or whatever aint permanent mods and can be done and undone easy.

also on the note of thrift shops, just go often and keep an eye out on the shoes, and think outside the box too. goth fashion isnt the absence of any color or individual items style as a rule or anything, so if you see something you like and think you could work into a look go for it

now diy and thrift aside: it sounds like you wanna avoid softer, overly fem fashions? as in not a fan of gothic lolita, pastel, or maybe the poofier side or romatic gothic? regardless id pay attention to the low... rise (is that the right word for shoes?) footwear of the mens side of victorian, romantic, gothabilly, and ig maybe hippy (is that what they still call it?) sub goth fashions, as those aint nearly as boot heavy as things like traditional, cyber, etc.

emo, punk, and metal fashion is worth paying attention too here as well since all of these subcultures overlap in fashion heavily and, again, those guys aint always as boot heavy. well they have their own share of boots but you get the idea

if you wanna get into more specific shoes, im personally a fan of the look of platform sneakers which are unisex in presentation and funny as hell in a very cool way imo. i have some Yosuke brand ones, and i find them to be quality. platform sneakers own, who doesnt want 4 inch tall gym shoes? also a lot come in fun patterns, colors, or with shiny metal bits already added

demonia creeper-600s (as in ones in the 600 line) may also be more your speed than other sets in the same creeper style. i think mens dress shoes are also a good source, particularly Delray, Hancock, and San Marco styles- but theyre all pretty good and im just biased. throwing in a kinda fancy lookin shoe to an otherwise casual goth-y look is always fun, and in my experience you can work them in effectively to basically all of the sub styles with just a little effort

if you really want the sorta... leg-coverage look a boot gives you could also get into legwarmers and i mean that. they come in lots of cool styles and colors or you can make or customize your own. i have some, its fun

i wish i could give better advise or help more, but i hope this is at least a rant full of google prompts that will help you in some way

#man this is incomprehensible sorry #mine #ask #remember to google keywords you want yoru shoes to look like and hit images and just scroll for a bit too. lifechanging

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themusedump · 3 years ago

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emilie autumn + opheliac (2006) sentence memes because I’ve been listening to it a lot since it was put back onto spotify. contains a lot of triggers regarding violence, sexual assault, and other sorts of things. so please read at your own risk

opheliac

“I've been so disillusioned.” “I know you'd take me back but still I feigned confusion.” “I couldn't be your friend, my world was too unstable.” “You know the games I play and the words I say when I want my own way.” “You know the lies I tell.” “You know how hard it can be to keep believing in me when everything and everyone becomes my enemy.” “There's nothing more you can do. I'm gonna blame it on you.” “It's not the way I want to be.” “I'm open to attack.” “But I don't want to hurt you.” “That's no concern of yours now.” “You know how hard it can be to keep believing in me.” “There's nothing more you can do.” “I'm gonna blame it on you.” “Intelligent girls are more depressed because they know what the world is really like.” “A devil or an angel with no in between.”

swallow

“But I'll come back to haunt you if I drown.” “If I had a chance to change my mind, I wouldn't for the world.” “Can I trust you?” “I don't want to be a legend.” “Oh well that's a god-damned lie.” “To say I do this for the people, I admit is hardly true.” “You think this torment is romantic?” “But would that do any good?” “Then what am I so afraid of?” “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” “I've made up my mind.” “Go away“

liar

“I want to be your faithful one.” “I want to show you all the beauty you don't even know you hold.” “I'm hurting you for your own good.” “I'd die for you, you know I would.” “I want to mix our blood and put it in the ground so you can never leave.” “I want to earn your trust.” “You'll never be deceived.” “Liar, liar, liar, liar.” “I want to heal you pretty sweet.” “I'll spend eternity comparing all my poetry to yours.” “I want to see love through your eyes.” “You'll never have to compromise.” “I'd give up all my fame to fight your demons and your bloody wars.” “Are you suffering?“ “I want your suffering.” “I want your beautiful suffering.” “I want to see your pain.”

the art of suicide

“The pain too pure to hide.” “Why live a life that's painted with pity and sadness and strife?” “Why dream a dream that's tainted with trouble and less than it seems?” “Why bother bothering just for a poem or another sad song to sing?” “Why live a life?” “Why bother bothering?” “Well they should be disturbed.” “Because there's a story that ought to be heard.” “The world is full of poets. We don't need anymore.” “The world is full of singers. We don't need anymore.” “The world is full of lovers. We don't need anymore”

i want my innocence back

“I will cut you down.” “I want my innocence back.” “And if you can't pacify me I will break your bones.” “You think I'm bluffing just try me.” “I will never forget the words you used to ensnare me.” “You'll suffer for this I swear.” “And I demand you put my heart back in my hand.”

misery loves company

“I'm just another pretty face.” “You're not the first.” “You're not the last.” “Don't even ask.” “Do I need you? Yes and no.” “Do I want you? Maybe so.” “Did you plan this all along?” “Did you care if it was wrong?” “I'm not for you.” “You're not for me.” “I'll kill you first.” “You wait and see.” “You're one more selfish lover.” “You're so easy to read but the book is boring me.” “Pray for me if you want to.” “Pray for me if you care.” “Pray for me you fucker if you fucking dare.”

god help me

“I don't see how I can live this way.” “Won't you shine in my direction and help me?” “Won't you lend me your protection and help me?” “Believe me, this wasn't what I wanted.” “Am I guilty or am I just waiting around for the tide to come in so the truth can come out?” “And if I had a dollar for every time I repented the sin and commit the same crime, I'd be sitting on top of the world today.” “Just maybe I'll learn to help myself.” “Places, everyone, this is a test.” “Throw you stones, do your damage, your worst.” “But that doesn't compare to what I do to myself when you're not there.” “Don't make me choose, I've got too much to lose.” “I've got to much to fucking lose.”

shallot

“This room's gonna be my grave.” "There is no one who can save me.” “How long can I live this way?” “Is there no one I can pay to let me go?” “'Cause I'm half sick of shadows.” “I wanna see the sky.” “Everyone else can watch as the sun goes down.” “So why can't I?” “I've been waiting for the day I will surely die.” “I've been told that I'll die before I'm old.” “And the wind I know it's cold...” “But still I've got to get out of this place.”

gothic lolita

“How old are you?“ “My life was ended by your hand, the kind of murder where nobody dies.” “The law won't arrest you.” “The world won't detest you.” “You never did anything any man wouldn't do.” “I'm just a dead little girl.” “So it's my fault?“ “You made me what I am today.” “A bundle of broken nerves. A mouthful of words I'm still afraid to say.” “Now that I'm old enough to love I couldn't begin to.”

dead is the new alive

“Despair's the new survival.” “You play the game. You'll never win.” “So take me now or take me never.” “I won't wait.” “You're already late.” “Choose your fate.” “How else can we survive?” “What is day without a blessed night?“ “What is peace without a blessed fight?”

i know where you sleep

“I know, the sickening thoughts that slither around your head.” “Manipulate me if you can, go on and fool me like your biggest fan.” “I know, the arrogant pride that poisons the truth you hear.” “Go on and show them who you really are.” “I know the secrets that you keep.” “I know, the tedious need to turn all your love into hate.” “You poor pathetic paranoid, is it just me or do you secretly enjoy it?“ “You play the victim very well.” “You build your self-indulgent hell.”

let the record show

“Why did I turn to you?“ “I only gave you the chance to prove the rumours true.” “I'm paying with my life.” “Don't think no one understands.” “It happens every day.” “Get them off and they'll let you go.” “You're jealous.” “Why it's a simple excuse for a complex crime.” “So write this on your soul or don't waste my time.” “I've got no evidence to prove my end and so you'll walk away.” “Nope, wrong again!”

306

“If it was a game why couldn't I play?” “Like the story I heard a lifetime ago.” “My reasons to live were my reasons to die. But at least they were mine.”

thank god i’m pretty

“Every skill I ever have will be in question.” “Every ill that I must suffer merely brought on by myself.” “t's lucky I hate to be taken seriously.” “I think my ego would fall right through the cracks in the floor if I couldn't count on men to slap my ass anymore.” “Thank God I'm pretty.”

marry me

“I'll hide my behavior with wine as my savior.” “But, oh, what beautiful things I'll wear!” “So I'll fuck who I choose for I've nothing to lose.” “We're coupled together through hell, hurt, and hunger.” “So why do I wish I was...“

#sentence meme #lyrics meme #roleplay meme

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insomniac-jay · 4 years ago

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Redesigning the Trigger Happy Havoc Girls

Kyoko Kirigiri

I gave her a mix of a trenchcoat and her canon jacket with the symbol of her agency on it. It still has some of the things of her original jacket such as the zippers. The belt has slots that hold her tools such as a magnifying glass, flashlight, powder, etc. She keeps her weird zipper shirt because I think we deserve to see it. Don’t question why but I turned her tie into a scarf. She wears dark purple dress pants because I say so. I also love her boots and gloves so I kept those but made the gloves longer.

Sayaka Maizono

Don’t question me but I made Sayaka’s redesign Y2k inspired. I gave her a fluffy light blue coat, white long sleeved shirt, light pink top with “Sweetheart” in hot pink cursive, holographic pleated skirt, and some cute baby blue and pink Hello Kitty sneakers. I took the pink bow from her canon uniform and put it in her hair because that’s cute.

Aoi Asahina

I want Aoi to look like an actual swimmer, thanks for coming to my TEDTalk. I decided to give her a more sporty looking ponytail and I made her chubby. I decided to keep her red jacket since I like it a lot. Her redesigned outfit now consists of a swimsuit with donuts on it, and and a red pair of boy shorts. I gave her some Nikes because her canon sneakers are ugly.

Sakura Oogami

Can someone, anyone, PLEASE give Sakura some CUTE clothes?

I decided to give her a cute pink cropped hoodie with bunnies on it, floral sports bra, and lavender sweatpants. I gave her a pair of grappling gloves and a pair of white Adidas. She has dreads because I say she’s Blasian.

Chihiro Fujisaki

I think she deserves to look cute. I gave her a light green hoodie with different pins that represent her special interest, a yellow dress shirt, green sweater vest, and a pleated brown high waisted skirt and a pair of brown slip on shoes on her feet. She also wears cute light green headphones because I love her.

Celestia Ludenberg

Good lord this is gonna be a tricky one. My two primary fashion headcanons for her are gothic lolita and Y2k so I’m gonna try and combine the two. For her outfit, I decided to give her a burgundy fur coat (faux fur obviously), a dress inspired by her beta design but longer and decorated with card suites but also sleeveless. The hem of the top and the skirt is lined with dark red faux fur. I kept her canon shoes because I like them. I also gave her a little crown bc she’s the queen of liars and split dyed hair (it’s red and black btw).

Toko Fukawa

First of all, I’m getting rid of those ugly ass braids because I don’t like them. I decided to tie up Toko’s hair into a high ponytail and made it curly. Her redesign is inspired by both her beta one and the dark academia style. They wear a brown trenchcoat over a dark purple blazer, black blouse with frills, plaid pleated skirt with sexc socks and garters bc it’s Toko, and Mary Jane shoes.

Mukuro Ikusaba

Mukuro deserves to look like an actual soldier so I gave him a black tank top, camo bulletproof vest, black gloves, camo pants, and combat boots. He wears his sniper rifle on his back. He also wears a dog tag with his birth name (bc I hc his name to be a codename).

Junko Enoshima

Time to go down the full Y2k road with this girl. First of all, I made her Black bc I said so and fuck Spike Chunsoft for not giving us Black Junko. She wears a big fancy cheetah print fur jacket, red tube top with an angel and demon wing on it, a black miniskirt, fishnet stockings, and red pumps. She also wears angel and demon Monokuma earrings and giant red heart shaped sunglasses.

And that is all my redesigns!

Reblogs > Likes

Please use She/Her for Chihiro and He/Him for Mukuro as I headcanon Chihiro as a trans girl and Mukuro as a he/him lesbian.

#danganronpa #kyoko kirigiri #sayaka maizono #celestia ludenberg #chihiro fujisaki #sakura oogami #aoi asahina #mukuro ikusaba #junko enoshima #toko fukawa #danganronpa redesign #i might do the boys who knows

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queenofallimagines · 5 years ago

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can i get uhhhh,, headcanons for the main boys sassy alt/emo gf *she a dumbass tho* with an admittedly overpowered quirk beating bakugou in a fight or like winning the sports comp. pretty pls

Hell yeah!! This was really fun to write hope you enjoy!

Song rec: dirty car- studio killers

Bakugou:

- ard lets do punk for this one BC we all know he is Emo goth kid as well

- When he meets you he’s like????

- The resting bitchface makes him want to fight you

- He doesn’t know how to handle attraction so he wants to fight

- Doesn’t pay attention to you in the sports festival BC he’s gunna win anyway

- When you fight it’s O V E R

- He looses almost immediately

- You have a fire dragon slayer quirk(katsu from fairy tail) it lets you breathe,eat, and absorb fire Into your skin

- You have scales on your cheeks and it’s cute

- He’s so hot and bothered but also angry

- Class 1a is shook

- Like??? Is his pride ever gunna recover

- When he meets you after the festival is over he expected you go gloat on your win

- When you just give him a smoke and say good job he’s confused

- Then he learns your a dumbass

- When he sees you and denki doing stupid shit he already knew he was a goner

- Flirts with you but you don’t pick it up at all

- “You look better than usual.”

- “So I look bad every other day?”

- Like he’s struggling

- When he kisses you it clicks

- “Oohhhhh you like me!”

- Facepalm

Deku:

- this boy gets goth

- he was the first to meet you

- Kinda intrigued by your look

- All black everything around your uniform

- Wears the boys uniform with a twist

- He’s like 👀👀

- When he sees you fight he’s like oh that’s a cool quirk

- When he sees you beat kachan he’s blown away

- You have a water manipulation quirk(think katara from atla) you used it to control his blood and make him walk out of the ring

- He’s watching you with wide eyes

- Woah

- He comes up to you and stars talking a million miles a minute

- Asking every question about your quirk

- A single “calm down cutie I can’t understand you.” Shuts his ass right up

- He learns your dumb as hell when you and Mina prank iida like taking his glasses

- Calling him mr run man

- Even getting todoroki involved

- He’s in love

- Asks you out via training and learning about your quirk

- Can and will make out with you on the first date

- Makes you start it tho but he hints at it heavily

Todoroki:

- since this is earlyroki he ain’t too focused on anyone right now

- But after the deku fight he can do nothing but sit back and watch you fight bakugou after him

- When you win he’s like 👀👀

- He almost intentionally loses the fight with you BC he wants to spite his dad

- And see you go all out

- Got a nice view of your ass tho like the school uniform is👌🏿👌🏿

- Okay maybe my classmates aren’t all that bad

- Notices your cool clothes

- A Kinda gothic Lolita esque fashion if you will

- He thinks it’s adorable and kinda hot

- Lace gloves

- Black dangly cross earrings

- Black thigh highs

- You look amazing

- Will ask to watch you do your eyeliner when you get together

- You have an ice quirk you can melt and boil water and form ice

- Your the cold to his hot

- Will ask to train with you after hours to get to know you

- Asks you out at lunch

- Like he’s bold as hell so no cutting corners when he asks if you want to be with him

- When you guys are together it’s just wild

- He will enable you to do stupid shit

- Bothering bakugou? He’s right there with you

- Freezing someone BC they were rude

- He will record it

- Watching dark humor meme comps

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sporkandpringles · 4 years ago

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Tag Game: 17 Questions and 17 People

I was tagged by @stvrtrck

Nickname: T’Mina

Zodiac: Astrology is fake, but also I’m a Sagittarius ♐

Height: 5′5″

Hogwarts house: Slytherin 🐍

Last thing I googled: ABBA because I love their music and needed to know when their albums were released for science.

Song stuck in my head: Lay All Your Love on Me, by ABBA

Number of followers: 1,748 which is insane, but I love you all 💕

Hours of sleep: it varies wildly between 4-12 at the moment, someone help me

Lucky number: 27 because it’s 3 cubed😎

Dream job: lesbian-sarek was right with “I DoN’t DrEaM oF LaBoR” but I’m currently looking into getting a data analytics certificate and/or higher degree because I actually like math (*gasp*) and I LOVE charts and think it’d be a good use of my skills in our current hellscape of an economy.

Currently wearing: sweatpants and my “It’s Pon Farr Night at the Vulcan nightclub” T-Shirt. Best purchase I ever made, tbh. You can cop your own here.

Favorite author: Bold of you to assume I’ve read an actual book since high school.

Favorite instrument: I LOVE synthesizers, but if we’re picking from traditional instruments, uh, I gotta say piano.

Aesthetic: I’m either a casual goth or Gothic Lolita most of the time. Although lately I’m just pandemic chic (sweatpants and t-shirts because I’m lazy and not leaving the house).

Favorite song: Y’all are going to drag me for this, but I unironically love Gangnam Style. I started listening to it in 2012 and never stopped, lol.

Favorite animal noise: cats purring. It’s so cute.

Random: GLUTEN FREE OREOS JUST DROPPED and my gluten-intolerant-ass is LIVING!!!!

Tagging: lol I’m too lazy to tag anyone right now, but if you want to do it, just say I tagged you. This is your invitation right here. :)

#tag games #not trek #t'mina is being a dork

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precuredaily · 5 years ago

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Precure Day 187

Film: Yes! Precure 5 The Movie: Miracle Adventure in the Mirror Kingdom! Date watched: 16 May 2020 Original release date: 10 November 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/OLloFxz (500 pics for you to enjoy!) Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

these butterflies will kick your ass

This continues our trend of absolutely excellent Precure movies, and stands strong with themes of love, compassion, and bettering yourself. It also introduces Dark Precures for the first time, who will go on to be a recurring idea for a few years. As always it has excellent animation and a moving plot to keep you invested so let’s explore and then I’ll tell you what I thought.

But first, a note! Throughout this review, I will refer to the villain Shadow using the singular "they” pronoun because their gender is never specified in the film. They have a mostly androgynous appearance, with some traditionally masculine features but a distinctly feminine voice provided by veteran seiyuu Park Romi, and they speak using the feminine pronoun “atashi.” Perhaps the animators were designing a gender-neutral character, or perhaps I’m reading too much into it and the character was meant to be an effeminate man. There is a long and complicated history of queer-coding villains in media that I don’t want to get into, so I’m just going to stick with “they”. However, the translation I use in my screenshots opted for he/him, that is out of my control.

The Plot

Before the actual movie begins, there’s a short sketch with Coco, Nuts, and Milk explaining what Miracle Lights are and how and when to use them. (more on that here) When they explain why you shouldn’t throw them, the audience is gifted with this nightmare-inducing image of Coco being cut.

you know, for kids

After they get the do’s, don’ts, whens, and whys out of the way, the movie starts for real.

In the throne room of the Mirror Kingdom, which is an ominous land filled with reflective surfaces, a blue-haired Jojo villain named Shadow bosses around two bears named Migirin and Hidarin and has them conjure up an image of Nozomi. Shadow takes Nozomi’s image and reflects it into one of the five color-coordinated crystals that decorate the throne room. Nozomi’s image quickly turns into a full figure within the crystal, and as Shadow channels power into it, the crystal shatters and a dark version of Cure Dream is born. The camera leaves the castle and shows a desert filled with mirror slabs with sleeping anthropomorphic animals trapped inside of them.

Via a very clever set of establishing shots through a series of mirror reflections, we transition to Natts House where the five girls and Milk are hanging out. Nozomi is bored and looking for something to do, and each of her friends suggests an activity (futsal, watching TV, playing cards, or doing homework) but she rejects them all. Coco pulls out a flier for a place called Princess Land and suggests they go there. All the girls are entranced by the idea and they agree to go.

The opening theme plays over a montage of them traveling, arriving, picking dresses, leaving to change, showing off to Coco and Nuts, and then walking down a path with a huge crowd of people, including some costumed characters of bear princes. And then a mysterious gothic lolita girl appears on a nearby rooftop, looking out at everything...

The girls wander around Princess Land, acting like princesses while being silly with each other, Urara brags about a Pinky that she caught earlier, Nozomi tries to sneak up on Coco but he comments that he can tell when she’s nearby, and occasionally the mysterious girl from the roof walks by and steals glances at them. The girls enter a house of mirrors, and at one point, the mysterious lolita appears behind Nozomi’s reflection in the mirror, along with Migirin and Hidarin.

all of these are perfectly normal events

In the next room, Nozomi and Coco have a heart-to-heart, reiterating their feelings for each other and that they will find each other if they ever get separated. Afterwards, Nuts stays to talk with Coco, cautioning him about making that sort of promise since they’ll have to go back to the Palmier Kingdom soon. While they’re talking, Migirin and Hidarin sneak up from inside the mirror, take control of Coco and Nuts’s reflections, and then pull the real Coco and Nuts into the mirror world. The girls make their way to the exit, followed by Coco and Nuts. Nozomi notices Nuts is smiling, which is uncharacteristic for him.

Next, all the girls partake in a game where they run around a field as boys try to place flower crowns on their heads. Karen and Komachi are already out by the time we see them, Nozomi and Urara don’t last long, but Rin dodges and outruns all the boys, because she is too good for them. She receives a bouquet for her trouble, which she goes to offer to Nuts. However, Nozomi has noticed that Coco and Nuts aren’t acting themselves, and when Coco brushes Rin aside and asks Milk for the Dream Collet (side note: why does she have it? Nuts is its caretaker), Nozomi steps in and exposes the princes as imposters. While this is happening, the mysterious lolita watches from a distance.

The fake Coco and Nuts pull out a pair of Kowaina masks and morph into a large two-headed creature, so the girls all transform into Precure as well. The monster is very blobby and absorbs their attacks. Nozomi fires off a Dream Attack into one of the masks but when the smoke clears, the face recovers. While the girls fight, the lolita girl holds up a mirror that captures their images, and Shadow reflects Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, and Aqua into the remaining four crystals. With her work done, the lolita disappears back to the Mirror Kingdom. The Precures continue to fight, unaware of the malicious plans afoot. Aqua concludes that if they attack both masks at once, they should be able to defeat the Kowaina, so after Dream, Lemonade, and Mint gain the upper hand, Rouge and Aqua swoop in with their special attacks. As the monster disappears, what’s left are.... Migirin and Hidarin! They try to flee but Rouge captures them and takes them back to Natts House. There, the girls interrogate them about the location of the real Coco and Nuts. They’re reluctant to talk until Milk slaps the shit out of them.

They explain how Shadow took over the Mirror Kingdom, imprisoning all the residents and stealing the kingdom’s crystals, the source of its energy. Shadow then promised to return everything if Migirin and Hidarin were able to get the Dream Collet. Coco and Nuts are being held captive in the Mirror Kingdom, and there are specific conditions to get there that involve the Miracle Lights which Migirin and Hidarin have. So the girls get ready, and at 2 AM they depart. But they barely have time to take in the sight of the desolate kingdom before Shadow appears in the flesh, claiming that they can get whatever they desire with the Dream Collet! The girls transform into Precure, but Shadow smugly says the Precures won’t be fighting them, and then they teleport the red, yellow, green, and blue crystals behind themself. The mysterious lolita girl also appears behind Shadow, and Nozomi is shocked at this girl who looks so much like her. The lolita is encompassed in flame as she transforms, revealing herself as Dark Dream.

At the same time, the other four crystals burst and Dark Rouge, Dark Lemonade, Dark Mint, and Dark Aqua emerge.

Color-coded mirrors appear behind the heroine Precures as their dark counterparts quickly lunge at them and pull each of them into a mirror, where they each arrive in a new dimension. The Dark Precures speak to their originals about their twisted ideals, which all share the common theme that the Dark Cures believe friends are worthless and the clones are better because they don’t have that reliance on others. Each girl engages in battle with her doppelganger and the Dark Cures waste no time demonstrating their superiority.

Milk, Migirin, and Hidarin can do nothing but watch the mirrors. Shadow, however, isn’t interested in waiting to see the outcome of the fights, so they forcefully take the Dream Collet from Milk and teleport back to the castle. There, Coco and Nuts are shown trapped in mirrors, and Shadow taunts them before explaining that they came to the Mirror Kingdom so they could quickly collect all 55 Pinkies. They hold the Dream Collet up and the mirrors scattered around the room change to show all the Pinkies scattered around the world (very convenient that they’re all by reflective surfaces). They get sucked into the mirror, into the Mirror Kingdom, and then into the Dream Collet! Coco is sad because he’s helpless to stop this and thinks he may never see Nozomi’s smile again.

The Dark Precure fights resume, and they’re getting brutal, but the tide is starting to turn in favor of our heroines. Dark Dream says she’s an exact copy of Nozomi, but without her weaknesses. However, Nozomi turns it around and says Dark Dream is a clone of a past version of her, she continues to improve herself and she’s stronger than she was yesterday, an hour ago, a minute or even a second ago. It’s a damn good line.

The other girls also question the motivations of their counterparts and explain that having friends is what motivates them and makes them strong. We cut back to Milk and the bears. Milk wants to follow Shadow to save Coco and Nuts and recover the Dream Collet, but Migirin and Hidarin are too scared to go with her, feeling too weak and pointing out even Precure couldn’t do it. Milk scolds them for not wanting to save their own kingdom and sets off on her own. She makes it to Shadow’s castle, and Migirin and Hidarin show up after all to help her.

Nozomi and Dark Dream continue to fight, and Dark Dream’s confidence gives way to anger, confusion, and grief that she doesn’t have anyone she cares about like Nozomi does. Rin, Urara, Komachi, and Karen all manage to defeat their dark counterparts with the strength brought on by their friendship and confidence, recovering the crystals used to create them in the process. Dark Dream attacks Nozomi out of desperation but her heart isn’t in it, and Nozomi effortlessly swats the attack away. Dark Dream falls to her knees, crying about not understanding human feelings like love and friendship, and instead of fighting her, Nozomi offers her a hand and says she can learn, that Nozomi can teach her, and then invites her to return to fight Shadow with them. In the desert, all five mirrors break and the girls emerge from them. Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, and Aqua are surprised to see Dark Dream come out with Dream, and Dark Dream is clearly uncomfortable, but Nozomi says she’s a friend and that’s the end of that. The six girls run off to Shadow’s castle, and arrive just in time to save the mascots from a destructive attack by Shadow. However, Shadow boasts that it’s too late because they’ve already collected all the Pinkies, and they make their wish to become the ruler of the world. Power courses into the Dream Collet, the cures brace themselves, and then.... nothing happens.

Lemonade remembers the Pinky that she caught earlier which is still in her Pinky Catch, so Shadow can’t have all 55 of them and therefore their wish didn’t come true. Undeterred, Shadow lashes out at the team, lunging straight at Dark Dream and brutally punching her in the stomach, but quickly separates the other girls, and paralyzes Dream. Shadow moves to destroy Dream but Dark Dream moves in front of her and takes the blow instead, cracking the jewel in her chest. Nozomi is freed from the restraint and holds her copy in her arms, begging to know why she saved her. Dark Dream responds that it’s because she likes Nozomi, and after all, she’s just a copy. Nozomi says she’s not a copy, she’s her friend, but it’s too late, and Dark Dream starts to glow and fade away, leaving behind only her crystal. Shadow remarks that Dark Dream was a traitor who had it coming, but Nozomi will not take this slander against one of her friends, and through her tears she fights Shadow, delivering a good kick to their stomach before performing Crystal Shoot, seemingly defeating the villain.

Dream turns to Migirin and Hidarin and asks them to use the Miracle Lights to free Coco and Nuts, which they do. She embraces Coco and reminds him that she said she’d find him, no matter where or how. Their reunion is short lived, though, as Shadow stands up, cursing the Precures, and transforms into their true form: giant, buffer, and now with long red hair for some reason. They attack the Precures, and then launch a huge energy ball, but Migirin and Hidarin step in to block it with the Miracle Lights, proclaiming that they’re no longer afraid of Shadow. Then they turn their miracle lights on the Precure, wishing to grant them the strength to defeat Shadow. Migirin and HIdarin aren’t strong enough, so they ask for help. Coco, Nuts, and Milk help to! So does the audience! You! Yes you reading this right now, wave your miracle light and give the Precure power!

Well everyone’s wishes come together to grant the Precure new power, and they metamorphose into Super Precure. (I’m serious, they literally cocoon up and then emerge with new outfits and sprout butterfly wings.) Then they perform Precure Five Explosion, against Shadow’s protests of overwhelming power. They explain it isn’t just their power, but the power everyone gave them, the power of everyone’s hearts and courage becoming one! Shadow is no match for the combined strength of everybody, and disintegrates.

Afterwards, the cures use their butterfly wings to carry the five crystals back to their pedestal mounts in the throne room. The pink crystal notably has a large fracture in it, a lasting reminder of Dark Dream’s short and tragic existence. With all the crystals restored, the Kingdom of Mirrors returns to its natural beautiful state, a land of greenery and crystals poking up from the ground, and the inhabitants are freed from their prisons. Urara, Komachi, and Karen comment on how beautiful it is. Inside the throne room, Nozomi stares wistfully at the pink crystal, recalling her short-lived friendship with Dark Dream. Rin and Urara call her to go to the celebration party, and as she runs out of the room, the camera does a slow zoom in on the cracked crystal while the ending theme begins to play.

The ending itself is Ganbalance de Dance again, but the girls are in their princess gowns, while the fairies are wearing their corresponding garb, and Migirin and Hidarin make a few appearances.

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The Analysis

The three movies from the “Futari wa” shows in 2005-2006 were all about the girls overcoming internal conflict to become better friends with each other, and each of them did it in a somewhat different way. You could certainly explore that dynamic with a larger team, and in fact the show did just that in episodes 23-24, but instead this movie derives its conflict from the girls’ own personalities. They’re not fighting each other, they’re fighting themselves, and recognizing their supposed weaknesses as strengths. In this way, they achieve growth. It’s a great character exploration and shows what teamwork means in a larger group setting. Additionally, the story is well-paced and flows naturally from one event to the next without ever lagging, but it also gives you some necessary breathing room in between dramatic moments. As we’ve come to expect, the animation is generally much better than the television series, and the fights look phenomenal. The aspects I find less enjoyable are mostly to do with the fairies and the merchandising, and a bit of a rushed finale.

The major themes of this movie are friendship, trust, redemption, and growth. Friendship is the most obvious one, because it’s at the core of this entire franchise. The bond that each member of the team has with the others is their greatest strength and what allows them to push past their own limits. It’s what clues Nozomi in that Coco and Nuts are missing. It’s what the Dark Precures are missing which leads to their defeat, and it’s also what allows Nozomi to befriend Dark Dream rather than defeating her. We are shown time and again that having people to support you is the most wonderful thing imaginable. Trust is perhaps both the most broad and the most limited theme in this film. It’s closely connected to friendship and you can see it overlap with that a lot. Because of their friendship, each girl trusts that the others are winning their battles against their counterparts as well. However, a small place where it heavily applies that’s easy to overlook is during Nozomi and Coco’s moment alone in the hall of mirrors. They promise they’ll always find each other no matter what they look like or where they go. True to her word, as soon as Nozomi realizes Coco has been replaced with an imposter, her only goal is finding the real deal, and Coco has unwavering trust in her to do it. It’s a powerful moment that gets lost in the commotion of the movie, but I love it.

The Dark Precures are easily the most famous aspect of this film, with good reason. The idea of an evil twin is an ancient storytelling technique, and it remains very effective, because it can simplify character design by allowing you to base your evil character on an existing protagonist while letting you deviate in small or large ways from their design as needed. It's also be a convenient way to explore and develop a character’s personality by having them face off against someone of a similar, but twisted, ideology. A case could be made that the Kiryuus in Splash Star were a form of villain counterpart Precures without being explicit copies of the heroines, but these are the first to be directly and transparently copies of the heroines, and of the three full dark teams as of this writing (Yes 5, Heartcatch, and Smile) they’re the best fleshed out. Each of them represents a quirk of their doppelganger, but turned selfish.

Dark Dream is devoid of aspirations and joy

Dark Rouge believes friends prevent you from being your true self

Dark Lemonade feels that trying to entertain others is a waste of effort.

Dark Mint believes the best defense is a good offense, and protection is a weak ability

Dark Aqua thinks that friends keep you from growing stronger

They gloat about being better because they don’t have the dependency on friends, but most of them go down precisely because the heroines feel empowered by being in a team, even when fighting alone. Each of the heroines recognizes that their strength comes from having friends to protect and fight alongside, that friends help you grow and improve yourself. The hubris of the Dark Cures is ultimately their undoing and it ties back into the film’s central themes of friendship. This is explored clearly across all five fights by careful editing, which involves giving each battle a little bit of time in focus before changing perspectives. We hear short exchanges between the original and dark cures, and sometimes conversations are continued between battles, as their debates are very similar. Ultimately, the Cures’ confidence in their friends is what allows them to succeed over their counterparts, as just having faith is enough of a motivator and a power boost to keep them going, and each fight concludes with the girls accepting and explaining how the flaw the Dark Cures see in them is actually their greatest strength. It’s beautiful. I was particularly moved by Komachi and Karen’s statements to their doppelgangers. Komachi said “I wanted to protect you, too,” as Dark Mint disappeared in her arms, which is a powerful rebuttal to an opponent who criticized her for only protecting herself, and you could feel Komachi’s regret. Meanwhile, Karen told Dark Aqua that her dark version reminded her of herself before she made friends, and therefore she wants to surpass that version of herself, which speaks to Karen’s growth both on and off the screen.

Nozomi and Dark Dream’s battle, however, is on a different level from the others. Dark Dream was actually a reflection of Nozomi herself rather than Cure Dream, she was around for longer than the others and got to see Nozomi just hanging out with her friends being happy, so she has the most fleshed out personality and perspective while the rest of the Dark Precures were created and immediately thrown into battle. Consequently, Dark Dream starts out cynical about Nozomi’s friendships, but when Nozomi begins to show how her friends help her grow and improve herself constantly, Dark Dream begins to falter. Her confidence turns to anguish as she bemoans her lack of understanding about friendship, happiness, laughter, sadness, sorrow, or any other emotions. She was created to fight and that’s all she knows how to do. But instead of destroying her, Nozomi offers to help her learn these things, and this act of kindness shakes Dark Dream to her core. Her reason to exist has been stripped away, but Nozomi has given her a chance to be more than just a clone made for destruction. More amazingly, the other Precures accept her as well. As soon as Nozomi declares her a friend, they all accept her as one of their rank and proceed to fight Shadow. For the first time in her life, she’s not just needed, she’s wanted, and this shows off the depths of Nozomi’s compassion and her power to unite people. Unfortunately, just when Dark Dream has found someplace she belongs and people who care about her, she makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Nozomi, and that breaks my heart. Her story mirrors that of Kiriya, someone else who was created for evil, but through the compassion and kindness of the heroines, tried to forge a different path, only to die before he could truly make a new life for himself. It’s the same kind of tragedy, that of unfulfilled potential, and it’s a mature plot direction for this series. It hurts but I applaud the writers for it. I also love that Nozomi doesn’t forget this at the end. Nozomi made a new friend, that friend died so she could survive, and the ending where she stares at the pink crystal with only the bottom of her face visible really gets to me. I’m not sure if it’s symbolic that she’s lost a part of herself or if it’s because eyes are major sources of expression and hiding them enforces that she’s not her usual happy self, but it’s excellent framing and it contrasts well with the happy face she puts on when Rin and Urara summon her for the party.

Additionally, this scene of Dark Dream’s desperate attack is beautiful, primarily in how the audio cuts out from the moment she throws it until it hits the ferris wheel. It’s an excellent use of silence.

vimeo

Beyond having ideals that clash with those of the Precure 5, the Dark Precure also have their own spin on special attacks. The butterfly motifs are gone entirely, Dark Dream simply lobs a ball of energy around, Dark Rouge shoots fireballs and can use a phoenix attack, Dark Lemonade creates blades by kicking her feet and can decimate with her singing, Dark Mint launches orbs that can pierce barriers, and Dark Aqua uses an energy staff, and later a sword. In some respects they resemble the Cures’ attacks and in others they’re completely opposite. It’s a clever and imaginative use of each girl’s powers.

The combat sequences are some of the best I’ve seen in any movie so far, with the characters alternating between rapid-fire punching and kicking and their energy attacks. Each battle takes place in a unique environment, which lets the perspective switch rapidly between fights without confusing the audience, and the director keeps an excellent balance between them, only staying a few minutes at each before changing perspective. Dream fights in a carnival, primarily by a ferris wheel (which could be the one seen at the Princess Land), Rouge fights in space on a bunch of floating orbs, Lemonade and Mint both fight in cities surrounded by buildings and parks, and Aqua fights in a flowery meadow.

The other villain of the movie, Shadow, offers very little to discuss. They’re a power-hungry tyrant with no motivation other than to rule over everything. They’re super over-the-top in their mannerisms, very sadistic, mocking, and uncaring about anybody else. They view the Dark Precures as nothing but tools and they feel no remorse for their defeat. We know nothing about their history or what led them to become this way, and since most of the movie is them pushing other people around or letting the Dark Cures fight on their behalf, we don’t get the chance to explore their motivations deeper than the surface level. Shadow is a decent fighter, at least, when they go toe-to-toe with the Precure they demonstrate immense speed and of course their glyphs are able to both restrain opponents and teleport small objects. It’s good to have a five-on-one fight against a human-sized opponent after spending half the movie in solo fights, it shows how strong Shadow is, but ultimately of course the Precure overpower them, driven on by the death of Dark Dream. I enjoy seeing them gloat and ham it up but they’re less compelling than their predecessors Sirloin, Freezen and Frozen, and maybe even the Dark Witch. This of course is due to Shadow’s lesser screentime, since the Dark Precures are the main attraction of this film, but I still wish they’d gotten a little more time in the limelight.

The other new characters of this film are the denizens of the Mirror Kingdom, Migirin and Hidarin. They are annoying and I do not like them. I take pleasure in seeing Milk slap the shit out of them.

They are voiced by a comedy duo called “The Touch” who are real-life twins named Takuya and Kazuya. Their line delivery is very bland and, frankly, they’re boring characters. Their main gimmicks are speaking in sync or finishing each other’s sentences, and their only character trait is cowardice that they have to learn to overcome. Beyond that they’re only in the movie to have an in-universe explanation for the Miracle Lights.

Let’s address the elephant in the room here. This is the very first Precure movie to have Miracle Lights. Almost every movie after this will also include a new Miracle Light, so get used to them. I wrote a long explanation on PCD Status that you can read, but the short version is that kids in the audience receive a real Miracle Light with their ticket purchase, and at key points in the movie they’re supposed to light it up and wave it in the air, giving the Precure power in a simple form of audience participation. In this film they mask the fourth wall breaks pretty well by having Nozomi turn towards the fairies when she asks for help, even if she’s facing the camera. It’s just enough plausible deniability to not break the immersion.

The plot of the film is really good until about the last fifth, and then as I alluded to earlier it gets rushed and kind of muddy. The entire prologue and the sequence at the Princess Land is the kind of wonderful fun, comedy, and antics I’ve grown to expect from this show. It highlights all their characters wonderfully and you get some small, tender moments as well. Karen and Milk’s close friendship is on full display, Komachi pushes Nuts away from a mirror that makes the viewer look fat because she doesn’t want to see him that way, and of course there’s Nozomi and Coco’s comments about detecting and finding each other. My two personal favorite shots are the bit with Urara, Komachi, Karen, and Milk performing a hime laugh because it’s just so wonderfully absurd.

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And then my other is personal bias, but during the princess crowning, Rin manages to outrun all the boys. If you’ve been in the fandom you may have heard the joke “Nobody loves Rin,” which relates to the other four girls each having an official or widely accepted shipping partner (Nozomi and Coco, Urara and Syrup, Komachi and Nuts, Karen and Kurumi). Well my rebuttal to this, based on this scene, is that Rin has no partner because there’s nobody good enough for her yet. We stan best girl!

The interrogation at Natts House is good, and of course when they arrive in the Mirror Kingdom they’re almost immediately confronted with Shadow and the Dark Cures, who I gushed about above. The part where I believe the film starts to crack just a bit and the pacing hurts is after the defeat of Dark Dream. Shadow goes down really quickly, and then once the team turns into Super Precure, they almost immediately perform Five Explosion. From the time the six girls confront Shadow in the castle to Shadow’s defeat is about 10 minutes of a 70 minute movie, and 5 minutes in the middle of that is Miracle Light shenanigans and Shadow transforming. Most of the rest of the fight is the Five Explosion stock sequence, and whereas normally the Cures would deliver some epic speech before they land the final blow, this time their righteous lecture is rather short, saying that the power is everyone’s power. It’s effective but it feels truncated.

I found the soundtrack to this movie to be.... largely uninspiring. It wasn’t bad or anything, but it just seems to be remixed or rerecorded tracks from the show’s BGM., but listening to the OST there was only one track that really hit that sweet spot in my brain. It’s “Surpassing my Past Self”, track 18, and I like how everything in it builds up. You’ve got strings for the melody backed by rhythm guitar, joined later by brass, and then the guitar starts to take a more active role in the tune as it ramps up in intensity. This is the song that plays when Nozomi is winning against Dark Dream and starting to persuade her, when she makes her epic speech about being stronger than she was before. This song sticks out to me in a way that nothing else does.

Visually the movie is gorgeous, with some occasional hiccups into TV quality, but of course the movie budget overall means they get to do more than they can with a weekly TV show. Check out the opening sequence and all the little details in it!

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I especially love this bit from just before the title card where the girls’ portraits flip around to show the dark cures.

you can find a higher resolution version of this gif in the gallery

Curiously, there are still some animation shortcuts taken, like during this shot where the camera zooms in on the double doors and you can clearly see the transition between the low-detail wide shot and the high-detail close-up. I know why they did it but I wish it was smoother.

Something I find really clever is that when Shadow first creates Dark Dream in the pink crystal, the silhouette that is generated is just Nozomi in her school uniform, she doesn’t take on her new appearance until she’s fully formed.

The designs of the Dark 5 are really good and I could probably gush about them for another week, but in a nutshell they manage to effectively invert the aesthetics of the Precures, replacing cream with black, and their outfits are different from each other’s in a lot of the same ways that the main team are. Dark Dream has a two-piece outfit, Dark Lemonade’s skirt is a bit different, Dark Mint and Aqua have a band of color around their waist that the others lack, things of that nature. They’re distinct from their counterparts and from each other, which is more than can be said about their dark successors.

Dark Dream, in her civilian guise, is also an incredible design. Gothic lolita is a great look and I think it’d be cool if the franchise would utilize it a little more often.

The lace-front maroon dress with a flower petal skirt is very nice, and the black petticoat accentuates it. The headdress with roses compliments the purple bow and also reflects Nozomi’s small pigtails, and her purple lipstick and eyeshadow bring it all together. It’s almost a shame she loses the makeup when she transforms.

The Super Precure designs are nice. Not as elaborate as the Phoenix Forms from the second Max Heart film, but I appreciate the subtle redesigns.

Obviously the butterfly wings are the most prominent element, but their sleeves are longer and frillier than on their normal outfits, which means the stock sequence for Five Explosion had to be largely reanimated..... and this means the coloring error with the Lemonade Castanet is fixed!

And my last art/animation comment is to point out that there sure are a lot of stomach attacks in this film!

Some other bookkeeping: the Dark Precures are voiced by different actresses than those who play the protagonists, and this is the only time that happens, because future Dark Cures will share an actor with their counterpart. Some of them have had supporting voice parts in previous Precure seasons, and all five of them will have roles in future seasons, though again some are small parts. The most notable ones are Nishimura Chinami as Dark Dream, she would later play Aoki Reika/Cure Beauty in Smile Precure (and therefore Bad End Beauty as well); and Kugimiya Rie as Dark Lemonade, who later portrays Madoka Aguri/Cure Ace in Dokidoki Precure. The others are: Minaguchi Yuko as Dark Mint, who plays Flora in Precure 5 GoGo; Kiuchi Reiko as Dark Aqua, who previously played Kiriya in Futari wa Precure, and Nagasawa Miki as Dark Rouge, both of whom will play characters-of-the-week in Heartcatch Precure.

By the way, according to the Precure Wiki, there was a scene after the credits in the theatrical version that showed the Dark Precures being revived, however I cannot find any legitimate citation for this, and it’s also not mentioned in the Japanese wikipedia article for the film, so I’m considering that claim false unless more reliable information surfaces.

Overall this movie is excellent and once again it raises the bar for what you can achieve in a Precure movie. It features fun hijinks and high-stakes emotional drama! It tackles the doppelganger idea better than any subsequent series due to the possibilities of film and the artwork is great. If you haven’t seen it, go check it out!

Next time, in Precure Daily, we return to the main plot as Despariah appears before the girls! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC5 movie #PCD187

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faketextsfromlastmight · 6 years ago

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Best of tags (#3)

A compilation of my favorite reactions to this blog.

@comicgeekscomicgeek on Iida being the Alpha Nerd: (Link)

In spite of having the coolest costume by a considerable margin, Tenya is so uptight SCOTT FREAKING SUMMERS would tell him to relax.

The Scott Summers comparison is so apt it’s scary. I do hope Iida gets better luck in his romantic relationships, though.

@ijustrebloganandpostshit on the human centipede of love: (Link)

“I wish uraraka looked at me” “I wish Midoriya looked at me” BROKE MAH KACCHAKO HEART WKSKSKHD

Also applicable:

@my-minds-cabinet on Aoyama being the Dekusquad’s Team Mom: (Link)

#idk why but i just heard aoyama shouting in a sassy french mom voice#dont question it#bnha#lol

French moms seem to live in a constant state of “Had It Not Been For the Laws of This Land, I Would Have Slaughtered You". I don’t make the rules.

@tired-of-yall on Mineta kissing Deku: (Link)

ewww! That'd be like kissing the bathroom floor 😱😱😱

Don’t be unfair. At least the bathroom gets cleaned after an unfortunate accident.

@very-bored-anon on Bakugou crying nitroglycerin: (Link)

Considering how aggressive Bakugou is, he could try to cry nitroglycerin out of spite.

People headcanon Deku as having a tears-related quirk, but honestly they’re all sleeping on Bakugou weaponizing sadness. Nothing good ever happens when Bakugou cries.

@kiriligma on Iida being the Alpha Nerd: (Link)

#i will never get over alpha nerd iida

Ah, but consider the luck guy/girl who will get UNDER him.

@loghini-marini on Bakugou watching porn with Mineta: (Link)

#ok first of all in what world is bakugou willing to hang out with mineta in any context#this is improbable to me but it's funny so whatever#nasty bitch ass minet

Bakugou is so aloof that by the time of the Sports Festival he hadn’t yet memorized the name and quirk of his classmates. So this is happening very early on when he hasn’t realized the full extent of Mineta’s horribleness. Basically he’s a poor asexual baby who doesn’t understand why everyone's obsessed and he looks for guidance in the worst person imaginable.

@mha-vines on the wiener kazoo (you had to be there) : (Link)

Wait he would have bought the wiener kazoo? Lol ik what you meant but that’s what first came to mind

If I ever sell merch for this blog, be assured that “Deku’s wiener kazoo” will be the first item available.

@neon-crayons on Tokoyami’s preemptive funeral: (Link)

Is this quote from ‘camp camp’?

No, as a rule this blog only publishes original material. Readers may submit incorrect quotes from other works, however. That being said, I’m basic as all get-out so similarities between my posts and existing material are inevitable in the long run.

@zerounitrgb on Class A-1 debating which boy is the cutest: (Link)

#The ones that don't want to get involved get dragged in anyway #Ashido out here creating more drama by saying shit like: #'Todo is a prince Toko is a cute birb Koda is adorable Shouji is hot af'

Mina Ashido is a chaotic trickster goddess. An alliance with Monoma would be too terrifying to behold.

@zerounitrgb on Tokoyami hosting his own fake funeral: (Link)

#Whoever you ship him with is out here in full widow attire with black veil and dress#They're fake sobbing their heart out and delivering the most elegant eulogy#Then at night Toko is making a list of everyone's reaction#So he knows what to leave them in his will#His S/O is getting the best stuff#If it's Shouji though who doesn't want shit and doesn't want to live a day without him#then Toko decides they should start a family#'I know you're only saying that so you can leave your hoard with a kid but yes

The person in full mourning regalia (pseudo-victorian gothic lolita style) is Aoyama throwing himself on the coffin, begging the audience to bury him alongside Tokoyami because, and I quote, “no star may shine without the darkness of the night”. They planned the entire thing together with Tokoyami wearing a golden sequined tux just to mess with people’s expectations. Meanwhile in the corner Midoriya is crying because Tokoyami didn’t leave him his swords in the will.

#boku no hero academia #bnha #mha #my hero academia #iida tenya #bakugou katsuki #mineta minoru #ashido mina #tokoyami fukimage #monoma neito #aoyama yuuga #midoriya izuku #uraraka ochako #kacchako #scott summers #best of tags

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callmearcturus · 2 years ago

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are those...... are those opposites, fuuka????? fuuka i have questions but also i'm just glad junpei's not fucking dead, so I can hold them til after class.

this is so fucking sad, come tf on. they were so cute together, the girl in perfect white lolita drag making paintings in her own blood and the dude dumb enough to think that's pretty cool.

Beat his ass, Junpei, I got your flower. Take jackass coachella jesus to kickass city. Fuck him up.

EEEEEEEXCUSE ME

Junpei and Chidori's personas fucking MERGED? fucking Magician + Hanged Man = ?????? holy shit.

fellas is it gay to merge with your gothic lolita princess girlfriend until your souls literally become a single entity???? junpei you're gonna have to learn how to do your hair and put on some eyeliner, buddy.

IF TRASHY BITCH JESUS KILLS JUNPEI I FOR REAL AM DONE, I WILL TURN THIS OFF

also Chidori is the Hanged Man arcana which is just fucking brutal. A willful sacrifice, turning your own world upside down for a chance at new clarity, an epiphany... while also risking going mad.

it's not FAIR, chidori and junpei were perfect "super cool bisexual girl and her loveable loser gamer boi" energy. they filled a vital role in our ecosystem!!!!!

#persona liveblog

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putschki1969 · 6 years ago

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Hi! I totally agree with you. Sometimes I miss goth-Lolita Kalafina, but then I remember that was the image they were told to project. As the girls took more creative control upon themselves, they started to change things. I see so much criticism of Wakana's outfits and style, but that's how she wants it! Same with Hikaru wearing pants and Keiko's short skirts that some love to Photoshop. Creative industries can be so stifling to those who work in them. I want the girls to have control over 1/4

Hi there!

First of all, thank you for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to write all of this. Also, thank you for checking my blog so frequently, I truly appreciate it and I will continue to work as hard as I can to provide good content.

Now let’s get to your message: I 100% agree with everything you are saying here. For me personally, it was their “gothic” image that originally made me fall in love with them and like you I would lie if I said I didn’t sometimes miss that time. But after an intitial period of just being awed by the fancy image being presented to me I got more and more invested and started to care about the people behind the personas that were created. They weren’t just pretty nameless faces with lovely voices in gorgeous dresses singing Yuki Kajiura’s music. No, I realised that they were three amazing women with extraordinary talents, with a passion for music and an unparalleled dedication to their work. I mean, for more than ten years they worked their asses off for someone else’s vision without ever asking for anything. That’s no easy task. For me personally, they elevated YK’s music to something truly outstanding. That is why I always focus on them and not so much on YK. I would never deny that YK is a huge part of Kalafina’s success but saying that these three amazing women with three beautiful and unique voices are nothing without YK’s support is absolutely outrageous. I have seen so many people abandoning the fandom because they have no interest in following any sort of solo activities. That is truly shocking to me because it basically tells me that you didn’t care for Kalafina at all, you merely saw them as YK’s puppets, a means to bring her music to life, nothing else. I am so glad there are fans like you who have a personal investment in their happiness and success. It is not silly at all to feel that way. On the contrary, I cannot wrap my head around the fact that people could have followed Kalafina for such a long span of time and NOT feel that sort of investment. How can you not care about them as individuals after watching them perform live with so much passion, after seeing them talk about music with so much love? It’s unfathomable to me ..

I was so happy to see them get a tiny fraction of creative control in the last few years. I am not naive of course, I know that it is very hard to have control over everything when you are part of the music industry. But for almost 10 years, the members of Kalafina did not have control over anything at all because of YK’s very controlling nature. Don’t get me wrong, I am not bashing on her or anything, that’s just how she is and she can honestly afford to be that way because she is great at what she does and people usually want her to take full control anyways. But really, working under YK for SUCH A LONG TIME, I think it was a blessing and a curse alike. For example, hearing Wakana say that she had never expected she would be able to write lyrics one day is quite astonishing. It tells me that YK hadn’t even once considered involving the girls in that process. I mean, YK has openly admitted to not really having cared about what they wanted. If you think about it, that’s pretty much the life of an idol. But unlike most idols, they didn’t “graduate” after a couple of years. They continued to be under YK’s wing way into their 30s which is very much beyond the typical lifespan of an idol. I do believe the girls feel nothing but gratitude for this opportunity, I am sure there are no regrets or anything. After all, they did achieve so much together with YK. But at the same time, so many chances and maybe some parts of their individuality got abandoned along the way.

And the worst thing is, the moment they started to insert parts of themselves, the moment they gave us glimpses of their personal visions people started to hate. I guess because they were so used to YK’s vision or the image that was created by the agency. To think that something so mundane as an outfit could cause so much negative feedback… How can you claim to love Wakana and at the same time continuously shit on her outfit choices? I mean, you don’t have to love it, you don’t have to wear it but you DO have to show some freaking respect. We all have our preferences and it’s okay to like some outfits more than others but it would never cross my mind to talk shit about Wakana’s dresses (or anyone else’s outfits for that matter…that’s just how I was raised). The same applies to the outfit choices of the other two members of course. Or how about all those times so called fans hated on the fact that Hikaru started to sing ARIA in a different key. Like, why does it even bother you so much?? Hikaru is the lead singer of this song, it is basically HER song, if for whatever reason she wants to change the style of singing she is entitled to do that. It may not sound like the original version YK had envisioned but who cares? It has long ago become something so much bigger. Hikaru has made that song her own. It’s about HER vision and for me, that makes ARIA so much more powerful and special. For the same reason I also do not understand why so many people always complain about Keiko using her “cutesy” voice during lives. You don’t have to love it of course but at least show some respect. In that moment, Keiko chooses to express herself in such a way so why not support her decision? She is the artist and it should be up to her to sing lines in whatever way she wants to. I mean, if you can’t deal with that then what are you even doing being a fan of Kalafina?

And now that Wakana is doing solo work she has sadly become the main target for so many fans. Every move and decision is questioned. People are unhappy because their expectations weren’t met. Which baffles me because I wonder what kind of expectations they had when it came to Wakana. As you say, Wakana is a romantic at heart, she is very sensitive and slow songs are her forte so of course she would focus mainly on ballads. Yes, this album is quite understated, there is nothing overly flashy or dramatic but that doesn’t mean it’s boring or underwhelming. You just have to dig a little deeper to experience the full range of emotion. The fact alone that Wakana wrote so many of the lyrics herself makes this album extra special for me. This is her vision, this is her baby, this is a reflection of herself. I can’t even describe in words how proud I am of her. Still surprised by the amount of people who suddenly became lyric experts the moment Wakana started to write her own lyrics. “Too cheesy, too repetitive…they are ‘okay’ for a first try but she could improve on this and that…blablabla..” I don’t recall anyone ever saying ANYTHING about YK’s lyrics…it’s a real shame to see fans so critical of everything Wakana is doing…

Anyways, I think I have talked too much about this already. I also cannot wait to see what’s in store for the three of them. I want to see them grow, I want to see them follow their dreams. It’s about time they get to do that. I think it’s going to take a while since they have been pretty dependent on someone else for such a long time but gradually, they will find their way. And yes, eventually, once they have achieved everything they set out to do, they will surely reunite and it will be all the more epic because they will have grown so much as singers and women.

#Anonymous #kalafina #wakana #keiko #hikaru #long text post #reply

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knight-of-the-thorn · 4 years ago

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Hello, dear! You've been visited by the random character question fairy! :D ~☆

How does your character dress? Do they prefer elaborate dress clothes or something more casual? Do they wear makeup? Jewelry? Why do they choose to dress this way?

I'll be answering this for Theitia! Thank you for the ask.

Theitia likes dressing up. Image is something that's very important to her, and how she dresses is a huge part of that. Most of her clothes are very ornate, trying to emulate the idea of nobility.

It's very feminine, it's very showy, you wouldn't realize looking at it that it's actually designed for her to be able to move and cast spells with ease, and that she has at least twenty weapons concealed on her at any given time. It's like how she hides behind 30 layers of pretense, it's too draw attention away from her.

The general formula for her looks are, knee length skirt, long sleeved shirt/jacket, stockings, boots. Depending on the circumstances the style she goes for is different. In the court she tended to go for lookes that were more gothic lolita style, after she left she was into french military style. She cycles through a lot more different styles, currently for her champions look, I don't know what you'd categorize her outfit as but it's badass, it's a lot less fancy than what she'd usually go for, probably because the time for politics and presenting an image was over, it was time to kick ass. The hand wraps she wears she wears quite frequently because she finds them very comfortable, but she only wears them if they go with the outfit.

Despite being a Sylvari she's never been particularly fond of grown armour. She likes the feeling of cloth and leather. She likes jewelry, doesn't wear it if she believes there's a chance she'll be fighting, which is almost always.

#gw2 #theitia #mage rambles

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operationrainfall · 5 years ago

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Title Spirit Hunter: NG Developer Experience, Ghostlight LTD Publisher Aksys Games Release Date October 10th, 2019 Genre Adventure, Horror, VN Platform PC, Nintendo Switch Age Rating Mature 17+ – Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Violence Official Website

I probably wouldn’t have become a fan of the Spirit Hunter series if it weren’t for Aksys Games. After all, they pretty much forced me into the horror adventure genre with the wonderfully twisted Zero Escape series. I’ve also played other compelling horror stories published by Aksys such as Creeping Terror. The point is, I’ve really grown to appreciate a well written horror story, despite being a gigantic wimp when it comes to survival horror series such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. When I heard that Spirit Hunter: NG was the sequel to Death Mark, a horror adventure game I rather enjoyed when I reviewed it last year, I knew I had to be the one to tackle it.

Let me start by saying that Spirit Hunter: NG is at the same time very similar to and very different from Death Mark. To start, whereas Death Mark is pretty much a supernatural roller coaster from the very beginning, NG is a game where the supernatural is lurking in hidden corners, and slowly surrounds you in a vice. The story is a much slower burn, but once it gets going, you’ll be in a constant state of terror. Because unlike in Death Mark, in NG you never know where supernatural creatures will attack you. In the first game, you’d be pretty much safe so long as you weren’t in a haunted location, but here not even your home is a safe harbor. Having said all that, there’s still a lot of similarities between the games. They play almost identically, both feature a mysterious mark that counts down to your death and both include a diverse crew of eclectic personalities. Thankfully the gameplay, though similar, has also been overhauled here, and is much more streamlined. I can’t count the number of times some mechanic frustrated me in Death Mark, nor how often I got lost wandering about. Neither of those were an issue in Spirit Hunter: NG, which was incredibly satisfying. Which isn’t to say I was never annoyed, but it happened far less often.

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Before I get too much farther, I need to talk about the story in Spirit Hunter: NG. Whereas Death Mark started with a big question mark, with your protagonist suffering amnesia from the titular mark, here things begin much calmer. You play Akira Kijima, a rough-and-tumble third year high school student. You’re pretty much a loner, with a dead mother and no father in the picture. Thankfully, your Aunt Natsumi is a kindhearted woman who makes your life better, and her young daughter Ami views you as her big brother. Under their guidance, Akira does his best to be a better person and less of a hooligan than he was in his youth. Which doesn’t mean he’s gonna get student of the year anytime soon, but it does help soften his rough edges. That said, Akira is still a bad ass. His best friend, Seiji Amanome, is the son of a Yakuza boss, and uses his growing influence to manipulate people to his whims. Years back, he was responsible for helping Akira make a quick buck in underground matches, but Akira’s trying to clean up his act. Things are relatively calm and boring, until one day when he finds a black card on his doorstep. Ami solves the card’s riddle for him, and the hidden message reads “let’s play”. Little does Akira realize how completely his normal life is over from that moment onward.

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Soon after receiving the card, Akira is confronted by a strange talking doll named Kakuya. If you played the first game, your radar probably just started pinging off the charts, and rightfully so. Kakuya forces Akira to play the first of many dangerous games, and starts by sending a restless spirit to kill him and Ami. Barely surviving the encounter, Akira thinks things are calming down until Ami somehow disappears from his own residence. Turns out, Kakuya has employed supernatural means to kidnap Ami, and is using her as leverage to force Akira to continue playing her games. Each one will have him face off against a restless spirit, survive their attacks and eventually beat them. Along the way, Akira will discover many hidden truths about the nature of the game, the evil doll Kakuya, and perhaps even his own murky past. Though this structure is very similar to Death Mark, I was totally fine with that. Yes there are parallels, but there were more than enough ways that Spirit Hunter: NG distinguished itself from the first title.

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One way that Spirit Hunter: NG is different from the first game is that there are less characters overall. I can’t confirm that 100 percent, but going from memory it seemed there were a lot more people you interacted with in Death Mark. This would be a problem if they weren’t all distinct and well rounded people, but thankfully each member of the cast serves an important role. In fact, the members of your band of misfits serve such a distinct role that if you allow any of them to get killed, you’ll be locked out of the best ending. Though I was tempted to use a guide to get the best ending here, like I did when I reviewed Death Mark, I’m kind of glad I didn’t. For one thing, the other endings are far more terrifying and disturbing, and do a lot to contextualize the stakes while motivating players to try again. For another, puzzles in this game were far less challenging to figure out, with two large exceptions I’ll discuss later. I really grew to like the characters in NG, so every time I failed a test and someone was the victim of a supernatural hit job, I got even more invested in the story. See, whenever you face off against a spirit, you can either defeat them or purify them. While my default reaction is usually to kill the monster, and the game definitely plays off that instinct, you’ll be well rewarded for finding the harder way to victory. If you destroy the spirit, their curse will transfer to a member of your team, and then they’ll suffer an untimely demise. You’ll never know if you made the right choice til later, and then be treated to a gruesome tableau of their death. This only happened twice to me, and both times I felt utterly wretched and horrified. If you want to avoid losing anyone and don’t like guides, I strongly recommend you don’t save til after you know the result, and make sure to save before every Survival Escape scenario.

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More Horror on Page 2 ->

Like in Death Mark, in NG you have to thoroughly explore your environment, acquire objects, gather clues and escape dangerous situations. You had something called Soul Power in the first game that would count down in tense situations and which could be increased with items. Here it’s called Security, and while you can’t increase it, it does fully replenish after every Crisis Choice. Another way this game is very different is that you don’t have to “combat” the spirits. You would have to use item combinations and partner abilities to progress in Death Mark, and while that was cool in theory, it got really frustrating when I couldn’t find the right combination to proceed (which happened more and more as I played). In Spirit Hunter: NG, your choices are far more linear, and it’s up to you to either make the right choice to escape attack, or pick the right item to use at the right time. No combining things, no partner abilities (other than during exploration), far less headache. As an example, when facing the second spirit, you can either trick them into getting hit by a train using a stuffed animal or repair that teddy bear and give it to the spirit, putting them at peace. This is far less complex and I applaud the developers for keeping the tension here while avoiding the frustration. Besides the core aspects of the game, there’s a new feature called the Judgment system. You’ll occasionally be asked questions by key characters, and can choose your response from a spectrum of visual reactions. Depending on what you do, your relationship may improve with that character, unlocking a more robust biography for them in the extras. I was happy when I learned this had no bearing on which ending you got, since it can be unclear what the right choice is.

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One cool new mechanic that was absent from the first game is Bloodmetry. At one point early on, Akira learns he can get psychic impressions from bloodstains. This is put to clever use all throughout the game, and the farther you get, the more grisly and dark the environments. While you won’t truly learn the reason Akira has this skill ’til the end of the game, I can say it is worth the wait. It was also satisfying playing as a more fearless and powerful character than in Death Mark. Akira is practically an action hero, kicking and punching his way out of harm’s way. While he can’t do much against spirits with his fists, you’ll encounter lots of more mundane threats, such as patrolling security guards. My only complaint regarding Akira is that the story hints at his past, but never directly shows it to you in any meaningful way. I would have loved to see how different he was when he was fighting for money, for example. But thankfully, not seeing that didn’t ruin my immersion. Another new feature is D-Mail. You’ll receive these messages from a mysterious person called D-Man, and he gives obscure clues to find cards with supernatural lore on them. These are totally skippable, but I enjoyed going out of my way to find each and every card. Doing so I was rewarded later with a meeting with the man himself, and it was quite an experience.

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Though the band of characters is a bit smaller, they make up for it by being really quirky. One of the first characters you meet is named Kaoru Hazuki. She dresses like a Gothic lolita and acts like a damsel in distress, but is quite snarky and strange. She’s utterly obsessed with supernatural phenomenon, and she just happens to be a good friend to Ami. Then there’s Maruhashi, a Yakuza thug that gets on the wrong side of Akira early on, only to realize he’s good friends with the Yakuza boss’ son, Seiji. After that, you discover how big of a softy Maruhashi is, and his hidden fanboy tendencies. One of my favorite characters is Rose Mulan, a supposed magician that loves to drink and flirt with young men. There’s a few more I won’t mention, but all of them are integral to the story and the fabric of the game.

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Visually, Spirit Hunter: NG is equal parts scary, unsettling and beautiful. The game uses Abrupt Scares to keep things fresh and spooky, though you can dial them all the way down if you’re afraid. Character designer Fumiya Sumio did wonderful work in the original game, and continues that trend here. You can read the personalities of each person just by their face, and no character looks the same as anybody else. Take the mohawked fat boy Maruhashi, or the lanky police officer Reina Ooe. Not to be outdone, the spirit designer, kera, does a wonderful job of crafting monstrous and twisted visions of these restless ghosts. And the concept art by Kazuhiro Oya is also great. My only minor complaint is that on occasion the characters look pretty different depending on who is drawing them, but that’s a minor issue. Musically, I really enjoyed the game. At first I wasn’t sure about the old-timey noir music in the calm moments, but when contrasted with the tense piano music during dramatic moments, things flowed really well. The sound effects were especially effective for constructing the horror tenor, such as unearthly cackles, shrill screeches and much more. You’ll also grow very accustomed to the yells of pain from Akira every time you are executed just before the Game Over screen flashes. Overall, the visual presentation is a treat.

Earlier I said there were a couple instances I had issue with, and I’ll talk about those now. You get a lot of hints as you play, which are collated in something called the Spirit File. It’s a sort of shorthand account of what happens as you experience each case, and though it’s good in theory, often the information there is more vague than I would like. A good example of the limits of this happened in the second case, with spirit Kubitarou of Kintoki. You come across a padlock around a well, and have to find the right three-digit number from 0-9. Though the game gives you a hint to help solve it, it references information that’s not stored in the Spirit File, but instead is only found a couple times in visions you encounter via your Bloodmetry. I had to actually ask the developers for help on this, since there are so many numerical combinations you literally cannot find it by process of elimination. Another unfortunate example happens in a much later case. You’re told to come up with a word related to a Japanese crane myth, and to spell it only using the letters A, B, S, T and U. Not being fluent in Japanese, this was a bit of a challenge, especially since I wasn’t familiar with the crane myth in question, and the game doesn’t really recount it. Worse, when I found the answer in a guide, it was a word that was purposefully misspelled, which made things even worse. Thankfully, other than those two puzzles, I mostly got through the game’s many brain teasers without too much effort. At worse, I would use the process of elimination to get farther when stuck.

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Ultimately, I spent about 15 hours playing through Spirit Hunter: NG. Though I got the normal ending, I really enjoyed my time with this sequel. It does justice to the first game while still differentiating itself enough to keep things fresh. While it may sound like a short game for $49.99, only having five main chapters, I found myself happily immersed in the experience. I’m glad this one got localized in North America, and feel fans of horror have a lot to enjoy here. If you are hankering for a spooky mystery this October, you can’t go wrong with Spirit Hunter: NG.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Spirit Hunter: NG Title Spirit Hunter: NG

#Aksys Games #Death Mark #Experience #Ghostlight LTD #nintendo switch #Sequel #Spirit Hunter: NG

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