#hajime city

[ruurat]

can they STOP looking at each other homoerotically for a moment...

spoiler art under the cut!

[sugawara--san]

"when the trope is childhood best friends who end up on different sides of a war" this is why we love final haikyuu quest !! trope not once but twice fulfilled

[rinsoap]

suna n iwaizumi have frequent kendrick lamar listening seshs no i don’t make the rules 🧘🏽‍♀️

[ahb-writes]

(from Slayers Collector's Edition #3 by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi, Elizabeth Ellis)

[mars-ipan]

some small setting things about priest au:

hajime is from a small, unnamed village. while unnamed, most locals referred to the area as “The Reservoir” in reference to the aquifer nearby. his family owned a farm, and he grew up regularly going to the only church in the village— a small catholic church that did not preach acceptance. he always felt alienated from the church for reasons he didn’t understand, which only got worse once he got old enough to start having fantasies. i’ll get more into what made hajime leave his church and his village in a different post some other time

the small town (still not urban by any means, but larger than his village) he lives in now is called Jabberwock. once he settled in, hajime began to attend the Hope’s Peak Catholic Church, where Father Komaeda preaches. similar to his village, this is the only church in town, although it is a bit larger, with a sunday school (the woh attend here ^-^) and regular volunteers/staff that help keep the church running. (i’ve yet to decide on who else works/volunteers at the church but i’ll figure it out eventually.) that said, Father Komaeda is the only priest, and is considered to be “in charge” of the church.

i’ve said it before but this au takes place in the american midwest. why? because churches love to get oppressive in rural america and if i made them southern it would have felt Too Real for me as a southerner myself. also southern christianity and midwestern christianity have a Different Vibe and i’d rather hajime’s dingy little town smell like cigarettes and corn than gasoline and rain. also also the Hell Is Real billboard which is in ohio.

this is the vibe yeah. THAT SAID if i were to place this au in any particular state i think i would go for illinois. just bc My Mommy’s From Illinois :) so it’s The Midwestern State to me. yippee :D

i haven’t decided on exactly When this au takes place but in my mind it’s sometime between the late 90s and early 2010s— perfect timing for a very specific brand of homophobia to be culturally popular, and definitely before gay marriage was legalized federally. also i like where technology is in this era— when i envision this hajime on the phone he is using a blackberry. he gets very little service and almost never actually uses his phone but he keeps it on him for phone calls/in case of emergencies. most of his technology-based entertainment comes from his shitty cable box TV

i need to give hajime a job that will pay him money so he can. Live An Adult Life. but i’ve yet to decide on what he does. whatever it is it keeps him afloat but he’s not exactly rich— the whole town is on the poorer side actually, though the Reservoir was even less wealthy. maybe his experience with farm equipment lands him a job at the local auto shop, where he meets the son of the owner, an excitable mechanic? maybe he works at Jabberwock’s only shitty little gas station for minimum wage. i dunno. we’ll figure it out

[spontaneousglitterbees]

as someone who likes both things a lot of you guys assume this'd be adversarial and like. nah.

[berrisweet]

selose ba ang ating hajime padilla 🎤

oh 100% 🤭

pero i think he wouldn't be aggressive about it

"love, bakit mo siya kinakausap? i swear hindi siya good for you. mag-ingat ka lang, ha?"

[maybe-a-dinosaur]

BABY IWA WITH ONE OF THESE

mud caked under fingernails four (4) bandaids on his person shorts on backwards he carries it around with him Everywhere won’t leave the house without it he’s like a little buisness man with a brief case but he swings his arms like a madman when he walks so if there’s anything alive in there it won’t be for long. he takes his job very seriously anytime he sees a Critter he bolts after it to catch it, contain it, and study it for science. he’s very adamantly a catch and release kinda guy, but sometimes the Critter is just Too cool and he carries around for a little while to show other people (his mom and oikawa).

tooru absolutely REFUSES to go within five feet of the Critter Cage after an unfortunate incident involving a loose door and a flying beetle and lots of screaming. if iwa is carrying it tooru has no choice but to walk an uncomfortable distance away no matter how much he’s cajoled and reassured that it is in fact empty. hajime chases him around with it and tooru YELLS “IWA-CHAAAANNN” it’s like magnets repelling each other they Can’t Get Close. oikawa finds it years later snooping around in iwaizumi’s house and trips over himself trying to get away he shrieks and hajime comes running and fucking loses it when he finds out he’s still scared of it.

anyway the Critter Catcher™️ is an extension of baby iwa’s arm for an entire year of his young life he covers it in stickers and mud and the paint is almost completely chipped off the wire is dented irreparably from the time he caught a squirrel and put it in there even when he goes to restaurants it sits on the table next to him.

[animeweeb115]

[precurememes]

Its been two years...two years since the coof and I was glad to be back at an Anime Con for so long.  Now to make up grounds for next year.

[commander-erwin-smith]

Isayama should not have apologized for the ending. Nobody deserves an apology.

[sashabrawesome89]

Sasha eating chicken tempura

Toriten (chicken tempura) is the local cuisine of Hajime Isayama’s birthplace, Hita City. I honestly don’t blame Sasha here because that looks DELISH. I think Isayama’s drawing of food is really underappreciated (remember those pies from the Annie/Hitch scene? YUM).

PS. Here’s what toriten actually looks like:

Sauce

[thedome-rp]

HAJIME UMEMIYA FROM WIND BREAKER HAS WOKEN UP IN THE DOME.

we're so happy to have you here! ... enjoy your stay.

What about you? Are you going to join them in The Dome too?

How about taking a trip to the VISITOR CENTER today and check out our HISTORY and LAWS. Maybe we can entice you to join our RESIDENTS too...

We'll see you in THE DOME...

[ahb-writes]

Book Review: ‘Slayers’ Collector’s Edition #3

Slayers Volumes 7-9 Collector's Edition (Slayers, 3) by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi, Elizabeth Ellis

adventure

fantasy

magecraft

magic

swords and sorcery

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The fascinating. The powerful. The corrupt.

Each shadowy entity wreaking havoc on this mortal plane has manufactured an array of ignoble philosophies to justify its dark deeds. Some of these philosophies are brutish and rudimentary (e.g., demons are creatures of ill omen, who feed off the ill intentions of others), and some philosophies are dangerously, monstrously complex (e.g., demons vying to reduce all existence to nothingness, for only in nothingness is there true calm). And yet, through it all, a tiny sorceress with a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, might be the only person capable of keeping everyone in check.

SLAYERS Omnibus v3 includes the bookend chapters to the novel series' first major arc. This collection delivers all of the good stuff: strange and incredible spellcasting; clever but not over-the-top magecraft lore; villains who get their comeuppance; and new characters with plenty of issues all their own.

In book seven, Gaav's Challenge, readers are treated to a plethora of entertaining narrative elements, some of which regrettably snare very little time on the page. Lina and the gang trudge toward Dragon's Peak, at the edge of the Kaltaart Mountains, to access a remnant of the Claire Bible. The mythos surrounding the Claire Bible is immense, but filters into readers' purview with somewhat less flair than in the anime, but the reasoning is valid (e.g., there are other access points).

Conceptually, the Claire Bible is remarkable. In execution, however, it's wildly underused. The notion of a body of knowledge stored on a blithely accessible plane of reality, hoarded by those who have no use for it? The Claire Bible is a great example of how fantasy storytelling is both parallel to, and a paradox of, the real world's social, cultural, and political machinations. Lina, of course, is a genius, and she's keen to use it to figure out the universe's darkest magic ("I'm afraid I'm not an enlightened enough being to just roll over and die for something I don't yet understand," page 76).

This book is stuffed with a lot of action and a lot of lore. The fight at Dragon's Peak includes several full-demons, a revelation or two concerning Xellos's true nature, and a deliberate broadening of the novel series' narrative scope. Of the last of these, stepping onto the stage are Hellmaster (Fibrizo) and Chaos Dragon (Gaav), two of Ruby-Eye's five high-ranking demon servants. These are two seriously bad dudes with massive power at their disposal. For readers, the orientation and allegiance of each high-ranking demon is muddled (but assiduous note-taking might resolve this in due time). The good news at this point is that Kanzaka, the author, is dead serious about narrative continuity. Of less good news, this book has plenty of character dynamics that are easy for readers to lose track of (e.g., Amelia almost dies; Gaav isn't an egotistical villain on the lam, he's a sympathetic anti-hero).

In book eight, King of the Phantom City, it's back to Sairaag. Fibrizo artificially resurrects the City of Magic and craters Flagoon (ancient tree) in the process. His baiting of Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, and also Sylphiel to tread into his so-called Hellpalace, of the City of the Dead, is typical villain stuff. And Fibrizo's snatching up of Gourry, as a hostage, makes the story's climax intuitively time-contingent. But as fans of the franchise likely already know, Fibrizo's ambitions are much, much darker.

The balance between books seven and eight is okay in the moment, but upon reflection, feels slightly off. Book seven is packed with information and intrigue; book eight, essentially, is the open-ended struggle to apply that knowledge. One imagines these volumes were slightly more difficult to consume, on their own, during their original printing.

In any case, book eight is a treat, insofar as spellcasting goes. Lina intuits the limitations of the powers of the higher-ranking demons, she discerns the network of power-sharing that enables her to cast certain dark magic, and lastly and most importantly, she learns the truth about the Lord of Nightmares. Lina does, in fact, "cast the perfected giga slave" (page 204). Controlling it, of course, is another matter entirely. Fibrizo's end is not to be missed.

Altogether, the book's conclusion is excellent, and lacks the fun but romanticized version the anime pulled together. Lina is a pragmatic character, but she's not so stubborn as to ignore what she learned from the matron of chaos firsthand.

Book nine, The Mystic Sword of Bezeld, begins a new story arc. Notably, the novel series pivots in a direction one might have wondered about for years considering the apparent fate of Gorun Nova, the Sword of Light. In the previous book, Fibrizo zapped the magical blade back to the astral plane.

The challenge this time around? Lina is blunt: "Gourry and I were presently on a quest to find him a new magical monster-carver," because, as she notes to the man himself, "I'm not getting a half-decent night's sleep until I find you a half-decent magical sword" (pages 218, 220).

Here, the story shifts onto a lighter beat and reduces the core cast down to Lina and Gourry. The slower pace feels good. And the stripped-down emphasis on characters fighting for one another, rather than fighting to save the whole planet, roots the novel in familiar territory. Sure, there are assassins clad in black. Sure, there are mysterious swords-for-hire hunting for the same treasure as Lina and Gourry. But the scope and scale are manageable.

And when the story is manageable, the worldbuilding can finally breathe again. Losing the Sword of Light gives Lina, as narrator, permission to chat about all of the other fantasy blades that populate the world (and possible swipe for Gourry): the Blast Sword, the Bless Blade, the Red Dragon Sword, the Elemekia Blade, the Dark Lord's Hungry Bone Staff, Ceifeed's Flare Dragon Sword (pages 209, 217). The idea that readers could spend the next few volumes sword-hunting with these two idiots, getting into trouble and feuding all of the way, sounds like an absolute blessing.

But as fate would have it, Lina gets in the way of someone else's carefully laid plans (again). For the umpteenth time, Lina barges in on a high-level demon's plan-in-action, decides she can't quite let things be, and resolves to fight her way through. Granted, the young woman has zero interest in fighting off a "hyperdemon" smothered with the curse of Raugnut Rushavna, but what's a woman to do? When an assassin is transformed by a demonic curse, and is then simultaneously possessed by a demon, the end result is a constantly regenerating creature of death and destruction.

SLAYERS Omnibus v3 is solidly entertaining. The author's increased focus on continuity gives the story a genuine sense of fated consequences (e.g., when a high-ranking demon dies, spellcasters can no longer call upon their power). Further, the book's higher emphasis on character mythology really shows, and portends greater revelations down the line (e.g., if Xellos is a creation of Greater Beast (Zellas Metallium), then who are the priests and generals to the other five servants of Ruby-Eye?). And some facets of the story are just too fun to ignore. Like how Lina's super-powerful big sister is known as "Knight of Ceifeed," but is stuck waiting tables back home. Or how Gourry, apparently, has a sixth sense for sniffing out demons. (Except, he's just too simple-minded to actually do anything about it. Twice in this collection, the guy just goes with the flow.)

The balance between what the narrative reaps and sows isn't perfect, but in reading these three books all at once, one finds the disparity is minimal. Reading about the wicked intensity Lina feels when weighing the ragna blade in her hands never fails to send a chill down one's spine, and the absolute shock of a double-Dragon-Slave still makes one giddy, but alas, there's always more story to tell.

❯ ❯ Light-Novel Reviews || ahb writes on Good Reads

[sugawara--san]

iwaoi as the badminton couple who got engaged after she won gold. oikawa's super happy finally winning and getting the gold and iwaizumi is smiling at oikawa's joy and success and seeing all of his hard work pay off. iwaizumi is the one to give oikawa his flowers and then he goes to propose. he kisses his hand while he's down on one knee.

kagehina as the pole vaulter who won gold and ran to his girlfriend as soon as he landed. hinata hits the winning ball. they know they've won and as soon as hinata's feet hit the floor they are running to each other and hug tightly.

sakuatsu as the exes playing doubles in tennis who won gold and shared a kiss. i think they had some fight right before that led to a break up but you know neither of them would let that get in the way of their career. but playing together they remember the trust and chemistry between them that leads them to win and share a kiss in the heat of victory.

ushiten (tendou lives in paris cuz waittt) where ushiwaka is the guy who lost his wedding ring in the seine and wrote a poem to his wife about throwing hers in too so the rings will be together for eternity and they have the opportunity to renew their vows. i just feel that ushiwaka is actually romantic even though he's stoic so he would really sound that poetic.

sunaosa as the rugby player who ran to her boyfriend sitting up in the bleachers and just jumped and he caught her, pulled her up, and held her there in a hug. suna would need to go to osamu first and just trusts that he'll catch him and i just think osamu has the arms to do it LMAO he's very proud and gives him an excited lil kiss.

bokuaka as the runner who literally pulled the ring out of the paper thing on her chest and proposed to her boyfriend after the final. i know bokuto is just hiding that ring in his sock or compression sleeve or something and is READY to whip it out and propose when he gets to akaashi.

me seeing all the romantic things happening at the paris olympics: what if that was [insert haikyuu ship]

[seasonally-inappropriate-sleeves]

hapiele is terribly cruel to make free-spirited city nazuna so incredibly cute and not let me set it as my home screen