#having a moment after seeing that yuuta panel ignore me

[rossithepixie]

How dare Yuuta get so broad, doesn't he know i'm weak for wide shoulders?

I demand compensation

(Kisses accepted)

[alonelystargazer]

favorite and least favorite jjk arc? hope youre well :)

hi rin thanks for the ask! I've been a little tired these past fews but overall I'm okay :)

Hmm, okay I had to give this question some thought because JJK is still in progress, and I don't have set favorites yet, but it is coming to a close some time this year. Once it's over, I'm gonna give the series a complete read-through and I'll have a good idea of which arcs I liked.

For now, I would say that I do like most of the arcs in JJK, but if I had to choose just one as my favorite, I guess it would be Itadori's Extermination Arc. This arc has a little bit of everything that I like about Jujutsu Kaisen.

Incoming yap session under the cut!

Coming right after the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident, it shows just how high the stakes are, now that Gojo has been sealed, Yuuji's execution will be put into place, and Megumi's current whereabouts are unknown. I think it works well as a sort of transitional arc between Shibuya Incident and Perfect Preparation and Culling Game. We get to see my boy Yuuta again (who has another great entrance btw), even though he's been tasked with carrying out Yuuji's execution. When I first read this part, I had no idea what Yuuta actually had planned, so I was worried at first, but it's a clever plan. It is quite sad that Gojo expected something to happen to him, so he entrusted Yuuta to carry out his will: protecting his students. Something something, the strongest carry the heaviest burden by sacrificing themselves for others.

It was also a treat to see both the past MC and current MC fighting, even though it would end with Yuuji getting defeated.

This arc also shows one of my favorite moments in the whole series, where Choso gets to beat the shit out of Naoya and talks about what it means for him to be an older brother. The themes of brotherhood and responsibility were so relatable to me because I'm also an older sibling who carries a lot of responsibility, using myself as an example for my younger brother. Everything Choso said about making mistakes so his younger brothers won't have to make, basically being a role model, them hit me in the soul. This is where I knew Choso was going to be my favorite JJK character, next to Nanami. Just a warning: I will cry and scream when we get to see this in Season 3, like be prepared because I will NOT shut up about it!! Choso supernova... (btw that's the inspiration behind my twt username and my tumblr pfp is a panel from this arc)

and don't mind that Yuuta knocked him out

"Seriously, who are you?" "I'm the oldest of ten siblings."

OOH here's another badass Choso quote:

"Nonetheless, I must walk ahead of my little brothers. That's why I'm strong."

And of course, this arc includes the infamous Chapter 143 (well, according to JJK Wiki, but 143 is part of Vol. 17 so idk), which, as an ItaFushi shipper, I can't ignore. I mean, we do get to see Yuuji's parents, but that wasn't even the most shocking part of this chapter for me. Megumi has returned!

"Why are you doing all this?" "Because you're important to people who are important to me."

I liked the discussion Yuuta and Yuuji had about him being burdened with a power that he didn't ask for (yeah, I know Yuuji ate Sukuna's finger at will, but I don't think he knew what exactly that meant for him moving forward, or how powerful Sukuna turned out to be). Yuuta basically absolved Yuuji of the blame for all the damage caused because of that power, one that isn't his own.

And going back to Megumi's return. Yuuji seems to be surprised at how nonchalant Megumi is about everything, acting as if nothing happened. Regardless of what Yuuta just told him, Yuuji believes he's guilty because of all the people that were killed, but Megumi tells him that they're both to blame, and he shouldn't take on that responsibility alone. Megumi's whole speech in this chapter made me really appreciate him as a character.

"...As long as I'm around, you will suffer!" "So start by saving me, Itadori."

Yuuji is really scared about Sukuna, and by proxy, him, doing something to harm Megumi, so he believes he needs to distance himself from him. It's his belief is that he's solely responsible for everything that Sukuna has done, all because he made the decision to become his vessel. But Megumi has to remind him that they aren't heroes, they are jujutsu sorcerers, and they have to save people. Megumi is begging Yuuji to help him to save his sister from being caught in the Culling Game. I don't think there's anyone who Megumi trusts more than Yuuji, and while Yuuji may only be seeing the 'ugly' side of himself, Megumi doesn't see it that way. He is probably the most vulnerable he has been up until this point in the story, begging Yuuji for his help. UGHHHH okay they make me scream!! Gege please let Yuuji fulfill Megumi's request to save him!

I'm really excited to see this arc announced, even if it ends up being like 2 episodes.

I was so excited when this scene was voiced over at the Jump event last year, and I can't wait to see it in season 3! Also, I was so close to saying Perfect Preparation Arc was my favorite, but honestly I really only liked the chapters where Maki eliminated the Zen'in clan. Second favorite would probably be Vs. Mahito (hehe hi Nanami).

Oh god I've written too much already, so I'll make this next part brief. Like I said in the beginning, I like most of the arcs in JJK, but it wasn't that difficult to choose the Kyoto Goodwill Event Arc as my least favorite. I didn't really like the Kyoto students all that much, if I'm gonna be honest. There really isn't much to say about them because, in my opinion, most of them didn't have significant roles after this arc. The fights were interesting, but I can't really say much else about this arc other than these character were kinda wasted.

Okay well uhhh if you made it to the end, thanks for reading!

[ultimatemegax]

KyoAni re-watch: Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions Heart Throb

As I was preparing for my “History of KyoAni” panel at Otakon in 2015, I started to rediscover why I started to love the Kyoto Animation works in the first place. To that end, I decided to go through a re-viewing of each work that’s on Japanese Blu-ray in chronological order to see how productions evolved. It’s time to restart this process again as we head away from the Kadokawa/TBS-ordered titles and move towards the ones chosen by Kyoto Animation. This post will finish the first title adapted from the KA Esuma Bunko: Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions! Heart Throb

After creating multiple popular anime titles in the 2000s, the big-wigs at Kyoto Animation began looking at creating their own content and gaining more of the share of the proceeds compared to simply adapting content given to them by Kadokawa Shoten and TBS. To do this, they started the first contest for these in 2009, awarding multiple “honorable mentions” in the first Kyoto Animation Awards. The first title that was chosen to be published and later adapted was a romantic comedy by the name of Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions by Torako. Torako then wrote a sequel to the novel which coincided with the announcement that the series would be adapted into an anime.

Time passed and Fall 2012 featured the first season of L, C, & OD to much popularity. People both domestically and internationally enjoyed the tale of falling in love with a chuunbyo character and the hilarious antics of the first half of the season. It was a simple decision to ask director Tatsuya Ishihara to adapt the second novel into a second season and capitalize on its success.

However, there was a problem. Ishihara, along with series composer Jukki Hanada, used the spirit of the novel characters to tell a new story. Ishihara wanted to add a normal person to bounce the comedy off of and so Kumin Tsuyuri was born. Hanada wanted another joking character and so Sanae Dekomori was created. This showed a lack of consideration for a sequel: Sanae Dekomori was a very similar character to that of Satone Shichimiya in tone and as such her presence would simply be adding another Dekomori to offset the balance.

That’s one example of the many issues that Ishihara and Hanada had while creating this sequel; they tried to do way too much in one season without thinking of the flow of the series. While the first half of season 1 had a lot of random tales, they all progressed evenly and developed the characters. Season 2 tried to replicate that, but essentially brought the characters back to the same starting position each week at the end of the episode. The best example of this is episode 4, where Nibutani is the POV character. It has Nibutani run for student council president and Dekomori discovering that Nibutani was the person she admired all along. In a normal series, this would change how things would go the rest of the season, but for Ishihara, he reset the setting to be exactly the same at the end of the episode. Nibutani loses and Dekomori still doesn’t believe her to be the person she admires.

Similarly, Ishihara wanted more relationship progression, similar to how the novel went, but lacked the ability to show said progression without feeling incredibly incremental or appropriate. He plays how slow the relationship is progressing for jokes throughout the season, but his decision to more-or-less childify Rikka during the comedic moments prevents much of the romantic mood from setting in. This also held true for the big conflict revolving for the second half: how can someone be so delusional and be in love at the same time? Rikka’s answer: you just can. It’s not a satisfying conclusion and likely shows how rushed this season was.

I’ll be the first to comment that the novels aren’t the best pieces of literature, but I enjoyed the tale of the second novel. Introducing Satone Shichimiya was a good way to get backstory from when Yuuta was chuuni and helped diversify the cast. She was the character who knew she was making things up and just wanted to have fun. She was forced to move away, but finally made her way back and found the boy she crushed on, only to discover he had just entered a serious relationship one month prior. Instead of trying to come between him and his girlfriend, she makes a decision to prove to said girlfriend that Yuuta loves her and not Shichimiya by pulling a kidnapping/battle plot.

Ishihara kept the “suffering” bit and showed that later in the season (episodes 9-11), but had no other development in her character. He worried that people would instantly think “love triangle” that he kept her out of the ending animation/song group, opening credits, and any focus for the first half. Barring her introduction episode, she had maybe 5 minutes of screentime for the first 6 episodes! Some “new character” indeed. There was no reason why she was needed for this season given that Dekomori shared a lot of her attributes (chuuni who knows it’s fake, past history with a main character/Nibutani, even similar hairstyles), but Ishihara wanted something “new” and so her character suffers because he wanted so much else.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the lackluster season-long plot. Rikka finds an old notebook of Yuuta’s that mentions how to reawaken the Dark Flame Dragon in episode 1. This gets ignored until episode 7 where Shichimiya randomly hands over another of the three medals. That then gets ignored again in episode 8 and then highlighted in the background of episodes 9-11, culminating in episode 11’s “battle” with it and Shichimiya to resolve her tale. And then episode 12 feels tacked-on and advances nothing story-wise.

As you can guess, the composition for this season was lacking to say the least.

Visually, Love, Chuuibyo, & Other Delusions Heart Throb improves on the first season color-wise. It feels richer in color than the first season did and is enhanced by a variety of chuuni battle settings in contrast to the black backgrounds in season 1. A lot of the comedy animation returns, but very little highlights since the studio had just finished the new portions of the recap film, Free!, and Beyond the Boundary, which was heavy in animation.

Soundtrack-wise, Nijine tried to replicate the success of his soundtrack for season 1, but fell a bit short. No real notable tracks to highlight this time. Both the opening and ending songs were serviceable, but offered nothing new or different in contrast to the first season or even the movie’s songs.

This season has always been rough for me to view knowing the story of the novel and vastly preferring it. The composition is weak, the jokes aren’t as funny, the characters reset at the end of nearly every episode (except for Shichimiya’s three episodes of 12), and it feels like things were being done to fill time. Instead of a sequel to something enjoyable, this proved you could have too much of a good thing and have it ruined.